Peter King has decided to grace us with his pre-season power rankings, and almost single-handedly shows why pre-season power rankings are pretty much worthless.
See, this blurb might make sense if Tarvaris Jackson was expected to come in and be the savior for this football team. But he's not.
King completely fails to mention the defense, which was 8th in the league in total yards allowed and 14th in scoring despite
a) being abysmal, yardage-wise, against the pass (we've discussed ad nauseum that they were actually better than anyone wants to give them credit for)
b) completely mailing in the season finale against St. Louis
c) having the offense and special teams allow no fewer than 8 touchdowns that counted against the defense, despite the defensive players sipping Gatorade on the sidelines when they were scored
There's also the matter that the Vikings should have one of the best rushing attacks in the National Football League. See, they have this guy named Chester Taylor. . .1,216 yards rushing last year, threw in another 288 yards receiving. They also drafted this guy named Adrian Peterson. . .you've probably heard of him. . .consensus best back available in the '07 Draft, 4.35 speed, makes a lot of tacklers look foolish. Yeah, that guy. Throw in Mewelde Moore, Ciatrick Fason, and Artose Pinner while we're at it, too.
There's a reason that ESPN said that the Vikings' have the deepest RB corps in the league. . .and it's not just because the next great Vikings' RB has finally arrived in the Twin Cities.
I wonder how many teams in NFL history with a Top 10 rush offense and a Top 10 defense have ever had the second-worst record in the NFL. The answer to that is probably something like "not a whole hell of a lot," and since that's what I expect out of the Vikings this year (the Top 10 D and the Top 10. . .probably Top 3. . .rushing game), I think I'll have to agree to disagree with Peter King on this one.
The humor continues as King has the Detroit Lions ranked at #13. I believe this is the 17th year in a row that King has picked the Lions to be a force in the NFL, including picking them to win the NFC North last year (in a move I'm sure he probably wishes everyone would forget). . .and, with no disrespect intended toward Sean and the boys at Pride of Detroit, he's been wrong every single one of those years.
But you'll have to forgive Mr. King. . .his knowledge of NFL teams not located in or near the Boston metropolitan area is, obviously, severely limited.
The Vikings are still a better football team than the media "experts" want to think that they are. That's really all we know for right now. It's not a question of if they're better than last year. . .it's a question of how much better they are. We'll start finding out for sure in a few weeks.