While watching America's Game on the 98 Broncos I started to see some similarities between that championship team and our very own Vikings, especially if Favreseals the deal and plays for us this season. (A little birdie has told me that its pretty much a done deal with the uniform being produced this week)

Let's compare the offenses today and defense later this week.

1998 Broncos

The Broncos were a run first led by an young elite running back by the name of Terrell Davis.  They ran the ball 52% of the time averaging 4.7 ypc. TD ran the ball behind a veteran offensive line whose whole left side went to the Pro Bowl that year.  Behind that All-Pro line TD became only the 4th player in league history to rush for 2000 yards.Their wide recievingcorp consisted of a bunch of unwanted castoffs and low end draft picks.  Rod Smith had a great career in Denver for coming into the league as an undrafted free agent. Ed McCaffrey was a castoff of two previous teams before he ended up in Denver where he became a very good reciever for half a decade. Both recieversposted 1000 yard seasons in a run first offense with McCaffreybeing the deep threat and Smith providing Elway with a go to guy. Shannon Sharpe was a seventh round pick that went on to become the greatest tight end in league history, enough said. Shannon led all tight ends that year in td receptions. Lastly there was the John Elway. Elway was said to be washed up and too old to play, but at the age of 38 he led his team to the Super Bowl while posting 22 touchdowns to 10 interceptions and a 59% completion rate.

2009 Vikings

Our Vikings are a run first team led by an elite running back by the name of Adrian Peterson. Our Vikings ran the ball 53% of the time last year. Behind an All-Pro left side Adrian Peterson ran for 1760 yards last season. I believe he can only improve on that with a decent passing threat. Our wide recieversare no where near the caliber of Smith and McCaffreyback then but with Berrian providing a great deep threat and Rice and Wade being go to posession recievers we have comparable recievers to the Broncos, that is until you add the X-factor Percy Harvin, I believe Harvin will develop into an reciever with a play style somewhere between that of Bernard Berrianand Bobby Wade on our roster.  That is with the speed of Berrian and the route running and hands of Wade. Visanthe Shiancoeis no Shannon Sharpe but with his development last season into a solid tight end and the fact he was tied for third in touchdown receptions among tight ends I have reason to be optimistic for his future. Finally the QB position, when Favre signs on the dotted line, he will be fighting the critics to prove he's not washed up and to end his career on a high note like that of John Elway's. Through last season he looked fantastic up until he hurt his shoulder and I believe he can return to that form especially in an offense that wouldn't require him to make all the plays. We also have two very capable veterans on the depth chart behind him, like Elway had Brister.

Although our offense may not end up as explosive has the 1998 Broncos, you can draw a few parallels as to how these teams are built end replicate each other in seperate eras. The most glaring parallels being that each team had a young stud running back and an offense led by a QB with something to prove.