Like everyone else in the business, Sports Headliners doesn’t guarantee its predictions. However, I am willing to offer up a guess on the Vikings’ 2007 season record. So go ahead and read the prediction, with my permission to laugh, cry or kick your foot through the monitor. I even agree to be reminded in December about the prediction.
It will be a small gathering if you pull together a group adamant that the Vikings are headed for a championship season. Advertise for a crowd who believes the results will be mediocre at best, lousy at worst, and you should have no problem filling the Metrodome.
The elusive among us prefer to forecast a range of wins and losses. Safe ground looks like 6-10 to 10-6 for the Vikings. People who think like this wear plain clothes, invest all their money in treasury bonds and never buy an American car.
I drive a Chrysler and perhaps that doesn’t make me a risk taker but I am willing to be more specific than predicting a range of wins and losses. I think the Vikings will finish close to .500. Let’s go with an 8-8 record.
Don’t hold me to the prediction if Adrian Peterson is injured and misses a few games. The rookie running back is that important to the season’s results. Peterson can become one of the NFL’s best running backs and he has three potentially elite linemen working for him, Steve Hutchinson, Matt Birk and BryantMcKinnie. Those four players figure to make or break an offense that is quarterback and receiver challenged.
Peterson and friends must be just good enough point producers to complement a good defense that by season’s end might be great. Defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams, safety Darren Sharper and cornerback Antoine Winfield rate with the best players at their positions in the NFL. Peter King of Sports Illustrated lists Kevin Williams as the top defensive tackle and 14th best player in the NFL. Sporting News assigns players a 1-5 ranking and gives fives to Williams and Hutchinson.
Last season the defense held opponents to 20 points or less in nine games. The Vikings were No. 1 in rushing defense and No. 8 in overall league defense. What’s needed to make the next step is better pass rushing, particularly from the defensive ends. Those ends now are Ray Edwards and Kenechi Udeze but Erasmus James, recovering from a knee injury, may become a starter later in the season. During the pre-season the Vikings looked formidable defensively and playmakers included improving linebackers Chad Greenway and E.J. Henderson.
The 16 game schedule includes at least four teams who are clear choices to be better than the Vikings. Playing Chicago twice and single meetings with Dallas, Philadelphia, San Diego and Denver will allow the Vikings to make comparisons between themselves and the NFL’s better teams. A challenging schedule is not a prediction. It’s a fact.