Optimism

There's a lot of optimism surrounding the 2015 edition of the Minnesota Vikings football club. The happy return of running back Adrian Peterson is a big reason for that optimism. The addition of young talent from recent productive drafts is another reason. The biggest reason for the rising optimism has been the solidifying presence of a head coach and coaching staff that teaches and a young quarterback that just wants to win. The Vikings haven't had a coach and quarterback combo this promising since the joyous days of Hall of Famers Bud Grant and Fran Tarkenton. That was forty years ago. The feeling in Minnesota is that Mike Zimmer and Teddy Bridgewater have the potential to do what Grant and Tarkenton never could. Win a Super Bowl. Hopefully several.

The most sure path to success in the NFL is to have a terrific quarterback and coach. The Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers have made that look ridiculously easy over the past few decades. At least the quarterback part of the equation. A terrific coach-quarterback combination doesn't make championships automatic. The Packers and Colts, despite the continuous presence of gifted quarterbacks, combined for 3 Super Bowl titles over the last 25 years. It's tough to win it all when the right pieces are in place. It's pretty much impossible when they aren't. Just look at the he New England Patriots. The Bill Belichick-Tom Brady combo is one of the best in NFL history. They've won four Super Bowls in their fifteen years together. They've also lost two. They didn't make it to the big game in the other nine season. The biggest challenge for football teams in today's NFL isn't winning games. It's finding the right coach and quarterback. Some teams find them. Others don't. The teams that do? They win. The teams that don't? They have a tough road ahead of them. The Vikings have wildly inconsistent over the last decade. The reason for that can be easily seen in the quarterbacks under center over that time.

2006 (starts)
Brad Johnson (14)
Tarvaris Jackson (2)

2007
Tarvaris Jackson (12)
Kelly Holcomb (3)
Brooks Bollinger (1)

2008
Gus Frerotte (11)
Tarvaris Jackson (5)

2009
Brett Favre (16)

2010
Brett Favre (13)
Joe Webb (2)
Tarvaris Jackson (1)

2011
Christian Ponder (10)
Donovan McNabb (6)

2012
Christian Ponder (16)

2013
Christian Ponder (9)
Matt Cassel (6)
Josh Freeman (1)

2014
Teddy Bridgewater (12)
Matt Cassel (3)
Christian Ponder (1)

Sad. It doesn't take much effort to see that the 2009 and 2012 seasons were probably the most successful. Those were the only seasons in which a single quarterback started every game. Favre led the Vikings to the NFC Championship game in 2009. It was a magical season that should have ended in the Super Bowl. It's really no surprise that the best Vikings season in recent memory was the one in which they had solid, often spectacular, quarterback play. The playoff appearance at the end of the 2012 season was due more to Adrian Peterson putting the team on his back than their quarterback. Still, Ponder, the Vikings 2011 first-round pick, showed some promise that season. His play was more careful than daring but he did bring some hope for the future. That hope didn't last. The Vikings disastrous revolving door at quarterback has, hopefully, come to an end with Teddy Bridgewater.

The Vikings hired Brad Childress as head coach in 2006. He might have been difficult at times but the team improved 2 wins each year from 2006-09. It looked like he had something but it all fell apart in 2010. The season was a nightmare. From Favre's fun with texting to a roof collapse, each week was a new treat. It was a season that rivals 1984 as the worst in franchise history. Childress didn't make it through the season. He was fired after 10 games. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier finished the season and got the full-time gig when it finally ended. 2011 was the offseason that brought in Christian Ponder as the Vikings quarterback of the future. It was a short future. The Frazier/Ponder pairing lasted three seasons but never gained any traction. The only real success during that time was delivered by Peterson's MVP running in 2012. Ponder's shine faded in 2013 and as a result his and Frazier's time in Minnesota came to an end.

The current hope is that 10 years from now people will look back at the 2014 offseason as the turning point in Minnesota Vikings franchise history. That's the offseason in which Mike Zimmer was hired as head coach and Teddy Bridgewater was selected with the 32nd pick of the first round. That's the offseason in which the Vikings future brightened. The need for a terrific head coach and quarterback is never more apparent when your team doesn't have either. The Vikings have only played one season with Mike Zimmer and Teddy Bridgewater and both were mere rookies at their positions. That's hardly enough to suddenly expect this grand future. But the optimism for a grand future is certainly there. It's mind-numbing to try to understand why no NFL team had given Zimmer a chance at a head coaching shot before the Vikings did so last year. He'd had interviews. No offers. He'd been in the coaching business since 1979. He was considered one of the better defensive coordinators around for nearly all of this young century. Hell, Eric Mangini got two head coaching jobs before Zimmer got his first. It's a mystery. The Vikings were so lucky that no team had hired Mike Zimmer. They were also lucky that no team had selected Bridgewater before the final pick of the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft. They were lucky that the Seattle Seahawks were so stocked with talent that they were willing to trade that pick. It wasn't always beautiful for Zimmer and Bridgewater in their first NFL season in their respective new jobs. There were so many times in which they looked very much like the rookies that they were. The difference between them and so many that came before in Minnesota is that they both seem to have the "it" that no one seems to be able to define. They both seem to get that it isn't just about them no matter how much everyone else makes it about them. They both seem to get that it takes so much work before they can even think about walking or running. Let alone winning. They both seem to get that they'll never really be successful until they've actually won it all.

The Minnesota Vikings are a trendy pick as a surprise team this season because of a young talented roster and the return of Peterson. The Vikings have had talented rosters before. They've had talented rosters that included Peterson. What they haven't had is a talented roster led by a coach and quarterback quite like Mike Zimmer and Teddy Bridgewater. No matter how they say otherwise, the reason for optimism in Minnesota is because of them. Because they are what the Vikings have been missing for a very long time. But the young, talented roster and coaching staff that surrounds certainly helps.