What does Cutler’s move mean?

Written by Daniel Gunderson Tuesday, 07 April 2009 08:00

Let’s get one thing straight. I hate the Minnesota Vikings. There is no “strong dislike” for the Vikings. It is pure hate. The one thing in the past few years that has bothered me the most about the Vikings is their front office moves.

I’ll start with the fact that their coaching moves have been highly questionable. Dennis Green wasn’t a bad coach, but his decision to sit on the ball in the ’98 Championship game and go into overtime really hurt the Vikings chance of going to their fifth Super Bowl. It just got ugly after that, with the choice of Mike Tice, or as I like to refer to him as the caveman, to Brad Childress, who looks like that guy you might have picked on in high school gym class. Also, letting a guy like Mike Tomlin just walk and then watch him become the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl Title.

The other move that always baffles me is the fact that they refuse to try and make a move for a legit QB. If owner Zygi Wilf had interviewed the millions of Viking fans that fill out this area, he would have heard from 95 percent of them that the Vikings biggest need is a quarterback. The other 5 percent would have been from Grand Forks and they would have told him that he needs to have Childress get the ball to Jim Kleinsasser more.

With the recent activity by NFC North rival Chicago Bears in trading for Jay Cutler, the Vikings are now no longer the favorites to win the North. The Bears defense may not be as solid as Minnesota’s, nor is their running back in the same category as Adrian Peterson. However, the main reason the Vikings didn’t go far in the playoffs last year was because of their inability to move the ball through the air. The Bears had the same problem. Key word in that sentence is had.

Now, with the Pro Bowl ability of Jay Cutler in the huddle for the Midway Monsters, the Bears will be able to expose a major weakness that the Purple People Eaters posses. The Vikings cannot stop the pass. Granted, Antoine Winfield is one of the best all around defensive backs in the league, but after that it gets pretty weak. That weakness will be something that the Vikings will be addressing come draft day.

It has to be frustrating for Viking fans to know that they will either have to rely on a quarterback that hasn’t done anything for the past two years in Tarvaris Jackson, or a career back-up in Sage Rosenfels. For me, however, it is nice to know that Viking fans will have another year of disappointment ahead of them.