Now that the loss has soaked in and all things thrown across the room in disgust have been glued back together, I thought we should look ahead to next year. What should this team do? Here are a few options/ideas:
1. Draft a quarterback. No matter what Brett decides, this needs to be a top priority. Recent mock drafts have the top QBs of this draft ( Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford ) going late in the first round. I don't know jack about college football except that McCoy recently cried in a game and Bradford is as durable as Joe Crede.
2. Take a hard look at Adrian Peterson . Show of hands - who holds their breath every time he gets the ball? A fumble has become more common than a big play, nevermind his historically strong handshakes. Whisper his name around the league. See what you can get. It can't hurt. Besides, running backs are a dime a dozen these days. Ray Rice, Shonn Greene , Rashard Mendenhall - just a few of the recent late first round/early second round picks. Plus, the shelf life of an NFL running back is about 5 good years.
3. Think secondary. Our best corner, Antoine Winfield , may be slowing down. The other starter, Cedric Griffin , is now questionable to be ready for next year (man, injured in overtime of the last game of the year). Any free agent dollars should go towards the secondary. An argument could be made for the offensive line here too.
A lot of questions and a lot of worries too. Say the band stays together - how comfortable are we with the Childress-game-management/Favre-pressure-cooker/Peterson-butterfingers combo in big games going forward? And of course if Brett doesn't return we're back to 9-7 (unless Chilly's been texting Donovan).
It's a strange position for a team to be in. Are we young or old? Are we on our way up or down? Was this the "all in" season or will next year be? Ideally the Brett successor will be able to step in and we won't miss a beat, but that's unlikely. And can Childress develop a young quarterback or is the T-Jack experiment a telling sign that he can't?
We've seen this team draft well in recent years, and the Wilfs have spent when necessary. I'm optimistic.
This will be my final post. I've talked it over with my family and decided it's for the best. I leave you with a video of what might be the beginning of The Curse. Pregame for the 1969 Super Bowl. The Vikings are heavy favorites in their first trip to the big show...until a pre-game hot air balloon stunt goes horribly wrong:
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-films-americas-game/09000d5d800241b1/America-s-Game-1969-Chiefs-The-Hot-Air-Balloon
Thanks for reading.