Will Randy Moss end up in Green Bay or some place other than Oakland in 2007? Can Daunte Culpepper recover from his devastating knee injury of 2005 to become a productive quarterback for Miami? I asked Dean Dalton, the former Vikings assistant coach and now a knowledgeable NFL analyst in the media, for his views on Moss and Culpepper, the former Vikings stars who have struggled to find success since leaving Minneapolis.
Moss, 30, hasn’t been as effective in two seasons in Oakland as he was here. His pass receiving numbers with the Raiders include 1,558 yards and 11 touchdowns in two years. His last two seasons here: 2,399 yards, 30 touchdowns.
The big play wide receiver, though, has sustained his reputation as a malcontent. “There’s a chance they (the Raiders) will trade him,” Dalton said. “He’s a premier guy. He won’t bring the premier value he would have even a year ago. They’ll probably look to shop him. . . .”
There was a report last week the Packers were interested in Moss. Will Moss’s reputation preclude other teams from being interested? “Yes, absolutely,” Dalton answered. “In today’s era, especially after seeing what Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith did with two teams that were built with a core of high character players and the success they had, teams are going to tend to get away from the headaches of the prima donna types and focus on players that put the team first.”
Dalton, who was an assistant with the Vikings for seven seasons through 2005, was enthusiastic about Culpepper who had difficulty rehabilitating his right knee last off-season and only played in four games in 2006. His numbers included two touchdown passes, 929 yards.
Can Culpepper recover physically and mentally? “Yes,” Dalton said. “One thing about Daunte Culpepper is he’s one of the most intense competitors I’ve been afforded the chance to work with. I think strongly that if his knee is healthy enough to play and he’s not premature in his rehab like he was last year, he will come back and come back strong. And I feel that he once again can get in that upper echelon of quarterbacks in the NFL.”