FanPost

The Elephant in the Room

It's time to be honest. There's a big purple elephant in the room and it needs to be addressed, as uncomfortable as it may be for some fans.

The Minnesota Vikings are over-constrained with Adrian Peterson as the focal point of their offense. It is a bit of a Monkey's Paw situation, where wishing for the nation's best running back would never be considered a poor idea initially. In fact, the notion of not desiring the best (at any position) would likely promote public mockery. As time has gone on, it has morphed into a curse, so-to-speak.

It is no coincidence that the best season Minnesota has had since 2007 was with Brett Favre in 2009, during which the team went 12-4 and eventually lost in the NFC Championship game. Favre was able to cap Peterson's stardom, as arbitrary as that may sound. He commanded the offense without question, as he was the leader in the huddle, at the line of scrimmage, and during the play. This was critical and crucial for success. An appropriate analogy would be to liken that team to a machine with one degree-of-freedom, as in a piston-cylinder device. Today, the Vikings are a machine with two degrees-of-freedom, meaning that there are two independent pivot points that must be moving in sync at all times to function properly. Else, the entire mechanism locks up, stalls, and structurally fails at its weakest link. It is a complicated, unstable system.

Unstable systems, although complex, can work and have many uses in the real world. With proper inputs, initial conditions, and monitoring controls, they can be highly effective. However, they can also be easily compromised for the same reasons. Intelligent game planning by an opposing team can break the 2015 Vikings, the latest example coming by way of the Seattle Seahawks.

Obviously, the offensive line needs to play better, but that unit is not the reason for system lockup. Norv Turner is tasked with operating an unstable machine with two degrees-of-freedom and a proven weak leak. When it locks up, as smart opposing teams have forced it to do, Teddy Bridgewater and Adrian Peterson simultaneously begin sputtering and a lock occurs shortly thereafter, causing the offensive line to break. Visually, the fractured line looks like the primary issue. Others argue that Bridgewater and Peterson are being used improperly. Although true, these are the results of a bigger issue - an unstable system.

Ideally, the quaterback should be the only independent pivot point, creating a stable and healthy dynamic. In this case, the team lives and dies by the quality of its quaterback. Due to Peterson's long documented success as a running back in the NFL, the logic has been to make him the driving point of the offense over the years, which many nationally have embraced. It is a flawed approach. Any quarterback that attempts to override it must have more star power than Peterson, which is nearly impossible to come by as a young player. Peterson must be complementary, not pivotal, because a running back cannot provide enough team horsepower to win a championship. Even if it was, it would require a complementary quarterback, or the mechanism would run unstable again.

Something must budge. Early in the season, Turner recognized the predicament his offense was in, attempting to make Peterson a complement in a shotgun-based scheme. It was awkward because it did not suit Peterson's style or abilities. He knows Brigdewater must be a pivot in order to have reliable success, but Peterson will not relinquish his pivotal role. There are essentially two independent inputs in this offensive machine and the issue has become the elephant in the room.

In my opinion. management should not bring in a quaterback like Favre this time around, one that would cap Peterson into a secondary role. Signing Phillip Rivers is an example of such a plan. As much as it would hurt to see Peterson in a different uniform, that is what it will take to allow a young quarterback and the offense to grow. Either that or result-based blame will continue to to circulate about a locking second-order mechanism. Go with the quarterback; Go with Teddy Bridgewater.

This FanPost was created by a registered user of The Daily Norseman, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the site. However, since this is a community, that view is no less important.