With veteran Brad Johnson long gone since last season and backup-labeled Brooks Bollinger as the main competition, it looks like Tarvaris Jackson is the Vikings starting quarterback in 2007. How that works out for Jackson may have a lot to do with the way he’s coached.
That’s the opinion of former Vikings assistant coach Dean Dalton, now a pro football media analyst. Dalton is an admirer of Jackson, the second year quarterback who played in four late season games in 2007. His numbers looked like this: 81 pass attempts, 47 completions, two touchdown passes and four interceptions.
In fairness to Jackson, not only was he a rookie looking for experience, but he was leading a team ending a disappointing season. He started the last two games, both losses, as the Vikings worked their way to a 6-10 season. He showed a strong arm, quick release and ability to scramble.
“He didn’t really bring a big rally in the last couple of games of the year, but I think what his teammates and coaches respect is his incredible work ethic,” Dalton said. “Not just physically in the weight room and out on the field, but his study habits and all the intensity he puts into the game. He truly is developing himself as a student of the game and he has a fabulous attitude about learning, and kind of a natural innate leadership skill. So he’s unproven and that’s why there’s still skepticism until he goes out on the field and produces and leads the team to success. But he has all the tools and intangibles to do just that.”
Two years ago Jackson was playing for Alabama State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference against teams like Alcorn State and Grambling State. Now he’s in the NFL facing teams like the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. Can he successfully transition from Division I-AA to the graduate level of the NFL? Questions will include whether he has the ability to read defenses correctly and make changes.
“He doesn’t lack the ability to do it (read defenses),” Dalton said. “He lacks the repetition of the experiences of doing it. He hasn’t been out there. … Everything is faster (than college). Everything changes drastically and he’s not prepared for the nuances of pre-snap reads and making adjustments during the course of the four to five seconds of play as it unfolds in front of him. So that can only happen with experience. …”
Dalton thinks Jackson can have a successful year in reading defenses and other decision making. “I think it’s realistic if the coaching staff…make sure they don’t put too much on his plate,” Dalton said. “They have to make sure they simplify their very complex offensive system to the level where he can go out and execute the system. I think if they give him too much or rely on him too much that could be trouble.
“I would like to see the Minnesota Vikings especially (after) adding (first round pick) Adrian Peterson to the stable of running backs… establishing themselves as a running team and simplifying the passing offense to the level where he can go out and execute it successfully, and not relying on him too much and giving him too much, too soon.”
Dalton, who has been excelling at media work nationally and locally including for FSN North, made a point about Ben Roethlisberger’s success as a rookie quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2004 when he won every regular season game he started. “They (the Vikings) need to rely on Tarvaris Jackson to manage the offense and not to carry the offense,” Dalton said. “And that will be incumbent on the coaches to do that. The reason Roethlisberger had so much success as a rookie was that they established a strong running game and relied on play action passing and didn’t force situations and scenarios and, of course, they also had an outstanding defense.”
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