Essay

[jerthemessiah]

This is an essay I had to write for school, I had to type in on a different program than my computer uses so I wasn't sure if microsoft word would be able to open it after I saved it to my USB drive so I'm posting it here so I can copy paste it and print it if it won't load. I still need to spell check it and double space the damn thing hopefully it won't end up being more than 4 pages long.

It's a rough draft so feel free to knock it or make whatever comments you want. It is a public football forum after all!



The Minnesota Vikings ended their 2004 season with an 8-8 record. During the off-season Red McCombs sold the team to an ownership group led by Ziggy Wilf. Unlike McCombs, Wilf is willing to open up his pocket book to bring in talanted players in order to be a highly competative football team. The offense finished 4th in total yards and the defense finished 28th. Clearly the defense needed improvement so several new players were brought in to shore up a unit that did very little to help the team win ball games and in some cases forced them to lose winable games.

The defensive line play was very sporadic last year. Pat Williams was brought in to replace Chris Hovan, who the team opted not to resign after a disappointing season in which he was benched in favor of an undrafted rookie by the name of Spencer Johnson. Williams, who is considered by many to be one of the best run stuffing nose tackles in the league, should be a big improvement over Hovan who lost his starting job midway through the regular season. Pat Williams will be playing along side returning Pro Bowl tackle Kevin Williams who led all interior linemen in sacks last season. Kevin will be moving to off tackle which is the more disruptive of the tackle positions because it sees less double teams, so we can expect an even better season out of him. At defensive end Erasmus James will take over the spot vacated by Kenny Mixon. During Mixons short career as a Viking he showed an inability to rush the passer and was cut shortly after the team drafted James in the first round. In college Erasmas was awarded with Big Ten defensive player of the year honors despite playing injured with an injured hip the majority of the season. He was well known in college for his ability to rush the passer and has been showing it in preseason.

The Vikings linebackers were considered to be one of the worst units in the league last year, they consistantly made mistakes, this will likely change with two key additions. Nepolean Harris was acquired via the Randy Moss trade and will be filling the spot vacated by Chris Claibourne who is now playing for St. Louis. Harris, a former first round pick, is concidered to be one of the best up and coming young linebackers in the league. In a different trade the Vikings delt a 7th round pick for middle linebacker Sam Cowart who will take the place of E.J. Henderson. Cowart in the middle is a huge addition he knows the defense from playing under Ted Cotrell in Buffolo and knows how to call adjustments at the line, something E.J. Henderson is still learning how to do.

The secondary was also horrendous last season, they finished 29th in the league against the pass. A couple players were signed with the hope of rectifying several instances of blown coverage. Fred Smoot was the first free agent added this offseason, he as widely reguarded as a great cover corner around the league. Just last year he was named as a Pro Bowl alternate and will be replacing Brain Williams. Williams showed flashes of being a good player but lacked consistancy. Smoot will play opposite Antione Winfeild who is widely reguarded by many as one of the better corners in the league. This addition gives them one of the best cornerback tandems in the league. The team opted not to renew the contract of free safety Brian Russell. He was terrible in coverage last year only recording one interception and dropping several others, he also missed several tackles. Two days after the Packers released safety Darrin Sharper, a former two time Pro Bowler, the Vikings signed him. The free safety in football acts as the center fielder in a way against the pass trying to anticipate where the quarterback is going to throw the ball. Then of course he will try to make a play by breaking the pass up or intercepting the ball. Sharper has been one of the leagues best at this for the last 8 years leading all safetys in interceptions since he came into the league.Good coverage by the secondary forces the quarterback to look for his second or possibly third option on a pass play. This in turn causes him to stay in the pocket longer which gives more time for the defensive line and linebackers to get after the quarterback. We should see a significant in increase in the amount of hurries and sacks this year due to good coverage.

The Vikings had the best offseason that I can ever recall. They usually don't bring in this many big named players and often get outbid on big time free agents and in the past have let quality players go, especially on defense. There were several changes that needed to be made to improve a horrendous defense an almost every weak spot was addressed by free agency or the draft. The past few seasons the team has gotten off to a fast start because the offense carries the them. Later in the season the offense will start to struggle and as usual the defense, which has been ranked in the bottom ten in total yards since 1998, doesn't pick up any of the slack and the losses start pouring in. They do have enough talent to be one of the best defenses in the league, the key will be weather or not all the newly acquired players can play well together as a team. Myself being a diehard fan will be watching to see if it happens.