Jackson’s the fly in Minnesota’s ointment

By John McMullen  |   Sunday, July 06, 2008  |  Comments( 7 )

Minnesota Vikings
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Football is known as the ultimate team game. It's a sport where 11 parts must act as one to accomplish even the simplest task on every single snap.

While that's a nice thought, it's a bit romanticized.

Football is certainly more of a team-oriented game than the other major sports in North America, but one fact remains: You absolutely can't win without sound quarterback play.

That's not to say you need a Joe Montana or a Tom Brady rearranging record books to reach Super Bowl glory -- Eli Manning proved that last season.

You do need a calm, collected, reasoned signal-caller, however, a leader who will not make mistakes and take what an opposing defense gives him. That definition might remind you of Peyton Manning, but its certainly not going to conjure up images of Eli. That said, if you go back over the Giants' Super Bowl run, that's exactly how the younger Manning played.

Which brings us to Minnesota.

Recently, a well-known national football writer proclaimed that the Vikings have four of the best 20 players in pro football.

It's hard to argue when you see the names. Second-year running Adrian Peterson, the heir apparent to LaDainian Tomlinson as the best pure runner in the game; Kevin Williams, the best two-way defensive tackle in football; Jared Allen, the best outside pass rusher in the sport; and Steve Hutchinson, the most dominant interior lineman in the NFL since Randall McDaniel was gobbling up Pro Bowl berths in Minneapolis.

The talent doesn't exactly dry up from there either. Veteran Pro Bowlers like center Matt Birk, defensive tackle Pat Williams and safety Darren Sharper also call Minnesota home, not to mention upcoming young stars like E.J. Henderson and Chad Greenway at linebacker.

From one through 53, in the fact, the Vikings might be more talented than the reigning Super Bowl champs.

The fly in the ointment? The starting quarterback, Tarvaris Jackson.

Nearly every objective observer knew Jackson was not ready to play in the NFL last season, but head coach Brad Childress ignored the empirical evidence and shoved him down the throat of a team that was one mediocre quarterback away from the top of the pedestrian NFC.

Sure, the third-year Jackson has the arm strength and mobility to be a star, which is why Childress threw out his back reaching for the Alabama State product in the second round of the 2006 draft. But Jackson's mechanics and accuracy reek of his small college background, and two years of NFL coaching haven't helped.

Childress and the Vikings were on the verge of pulling the plug on the Jackson experiment in the offseason and put on a full-court press in hoping to acquire Houston backup Sage Rosenfels.

Rosenfels isn't nearly as physically gifted as Jackson, but he could have been the type of game manager fit to vault Minnesota to the top of the NFC. When trade talks fell through, the Vikings went in a different direction, bringing in capable veteran Gus Frerotte as a tutor for Jackson. Frerotte called Minnesota home when another physically gifted quarterback, Daunte Culpepper, had his best pro season.

Can lightning strike twice?

Childress, who made his bones in the NFL after Donovan McNabb turned into a superstar in Philadelphia, and quarterbacks coach Kevin Rogers, who mentored McNabb in Syracuse, have had little luck coaching up Jackson's faults. Frerotte, who's had his share of pro success, provides Jackson with a third distinctive voice.

If Jackson struggles this season and stops the Vikings from reaching the playoffs, he and Childress could both be looking for work elsewhere.
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About John McMullen

John is the managing editor of The Phanatic Magazine, the assistant managing editor of The Sports Network and the co-host of the highly rated 'Johns on Sports' radio show on WTBQ in New York. Every Saturday from 6:30-9 p.m. (et) you can hear John along with his co-host, John Gottlieb, talk to the ...
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CommentsComments: 7  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
bardley80		09:06 AM
07/07/2008
If there's one player that will hold the Vikings back this year, it will be Jackson. They seem to have everything else you need ...
No.2
nhartman		02:22 PM
07/07/2008
Yeah, but Sidney Rice is tall and fast and was really starting to develop at the end of his rookie year. The kid's legit. ...
No.3
03:12 PM
07/07/2008
With how effective the Vikings run game should be this year with Peterson, and having a veteran WR in Berrian, it's going to make ...
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