Finally. The Flea Flicker countdown of the 100 Greatest Minnesota Vikings Players comes to an end with the Top 10 players in franchise history. Well, one person’s view of the best players in franchise history.
100 Greatest Minnesota Vikings Players: 10-1
10. Jim Marshall, DE
9. Steve Hutchinson, OG
8. Carl Eller, DE
7. John Randle, DT
6. Fran Tarkenton, QB
5. Adrian Peterson, RB
4. Randy Moss, WR
3. Cris Carter, WR
2. Randall McDaniel, OG
1. Alan Page, DT
Jim Marshall is the outlier among the Top 10 Greatest Minnesota Vikings Players. He’s the only one of the ten not honored in Canton (Adrian Peterson will be there five years after he retires). I’m not going to discuss whether Marshall’s Canton absence is right or wrong. I flip back and forth on the topic so frequently that it’s pointless to try. Besides, this is about his place in Vikings history. I have Marshall among the top ten mostly for his importance to the franchise. He was a very good football player but he wasn’t even the best football player on the defensive line. Or the second best. He might be the most important football player in team history. Jim Marshall was the leader of the Vikings throughout the team’s first AND second decade. He played defensive end for twenty years. He never missed a game. He played in a 12-game season, 17 14-game seasons, and two 16-game seasons. I guess that he needs to come back at the age of 83 to experience a 17-game season. I wouldn’t put it past him. Marshall was incredible. He was always there for his team. Through four Super Bowls and the team’s “glory” days, he was the heart and the soul of his team. The players looked up to him. The coaches looked to him. If only the Hall of Fame voters could quantify that.
The Vikings offensive line has been a problem for so long that it’s a struggle to remember a time when Steve Hutchinson was a part of the line. It’s worth the struggle. Remembering his blocking for the Vikings is pure joy. In 2006, his first in Minnesota, Hutchinson was probably the team’s MVP, certainly the offensive MVP. He was brilliant. That brilliance became his baseline over the next five seasons. The only issue that I have with Hutchinson’s career is that it started in Seattle. And ended in Tennessee.
When I was discovering football and falling for the Vikings, I was drawn to Alan Page when the defense was on the field. No matter how focused I was on Page I couldn’t ignore the hulking “81” flashing across the screen. Carl Eller looked huge. I was always intrigued by Page. I think that I was scared of Eller.
John Randle was too small for the NFL. He was too small to hold up in the trenches. He still dominated both. I was at a Vikings-Raiders game in 1996. The Vikings won in overtime. Randle took over the game in the fourth quarter. That was nothing new. He often did that. It was fun to see it in person. He was a fun, entertaining, and a great football player. Among Vikings fans of his era, Randle is a universal favorite.
Any player in the final six could take the top spot. Due to the position that he played, Fran Tarkenton might be #1 on many lists. He was the quarterback of my youth. Due to injuries, bad luck, whatever, the Vikings are still looking for a franchise quarterback to replace him. At the time of his retirement after the 1978 season, Tarkenton held every career passing record. He held those records longer than any quarterback ever has. It took Dan Marino until the mid-1990s to finally chase down those numbers. Every quarterback that came after Tarkenton played a game that favored the pass. Heavily favored the pass. Tarkenton’s era was the last that favored the run.
In a passing league, Adrian Peterson made it fun to run again. He had games of 224 yards and an NFL-record 296 yards as a rookie in 2007. He was just getting started. The highlight of his brilliant career was his NFL MVP season of 2012. A knee injury ended his 2011 season. He wasn’t supposed to be ready for the start of the next season. He was. 2097 yards. Eight yards short of Eric Dickerson’s season record. Peterson led the league in rushing three times. He could run through and past defenders like no other back that I’ve ever seen. At 36, he’s still active.
Randy Moss ranks with Adrian Peterson as the most explosive offensive players in Vikings franchise history. Moss is arguably the most physically gifted receiver to ever play. Before his rookie season, he stated that he’d “rip up the NFL.” He sure did. The two-touchdown debut against the Buccaneers. The Monday Night thrashing of the Packers. The three touchdowns against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. Moss ripped up the NFL as a rookie and kept on ripping all the way to Canton. Moss was a fun, brilliant football player.
Hands, body control, route-running. Cris Carter was the best I’ve ever seen at the receiver traits I value most. Maybe I’d sprinkle in a bit more speed. Hands. It all starts with Carter’s hands. Best I’ve ever seen. When I think of Carter I often think of the Vikings-49ers Monday Night game I attended in 1995. The defending champion 49ers jumped all over the Vikings. More specifically, Jerry Rice jumped all over the Vikings. It was 21-0 in a blink. Then, it felt like Carter put the team on his back and hauled them back into the game. It turned into a Cris Carter-Jerry Rice duel. If you’re a fan of receivers, it was pass-catching heaven. When the game ended, it was 37-30 49ers. The stadium experience was a much different thing in 1995. Statistics weren’t readily available. The internet wasn’t an arm-length away. If I had to guess the statistics of Carter and Rice while I made my way out of the stadium, I might’ve guessed:
Carter: 10 catches, 150 yards, and two touchdowns
Rice: 10 catches, 200 yard, and three touchdowns
When I checked the paper the next morning I found something very different:
Carter: 12 catches, 88 yards, two touchdowns
Rice: 14 catches, 289 yards, three touchdowns
I knew that Rice had a stat-filled game but I never would’ve guessed that he’d gained two hundred more yards than Carter. I learned that night that statistics don’t tell the whole story. With the 49ers running away with the game, every catch by Carter meant so much. Every catch moved the sticks or scored a touchdown. The Vikings had to have them. In terms of game impact, a six-yard Carter-catch was as critical to the Vikings as a 60-yard Rice-catch was gravy to the 49ers.
Watching the Warren Moon-Cris Carter vs Steve Young-Jerry Rice duel was a beautiful thing.
As for his place on this list, I loved watching Cris Carter catch a football.
Two guards in the Top 10. It feels odd. It also feels right. Randall McDaniel and Steve Hutchinson are deserving of their place in this Top 10. In my book, McDaniel is right there with John Hannah and Larry Allen as the best guards of my lifetime. I’ve heard many from the analytics community minimize the importance of guards. I guess that they haven’t watched some of Kirk Cousins’ worst games. There’s probably no better way to wreck a quarterback than by allowing immediate pressure up the middle. McDaniel allowed none of that. If I had to pick a former Vikings player to join the current Vikings team, that player would probably be Randall McDaniel. Guard has been the team’s biggest problem since Hutchinson left. The great lack of competent guard play has been devastating. McDaniel would fix the problem as soon as he got into that unique stance.
When I fell for the Vikings in the early 1970s, I was taken by Alan Page. Maybe he was the reason that this little California kid fell for a team from Minnesota. I can’t remember. I do remember I was immediately taken by player and team. I always hoped that the Vikings would open games on defense. I couldn’t wait to see Page. He was a brilliant defensive tackle. He was the Aaron Donald of his day. Page was so quick. He was often in the backfield before the offensive linemen were out of their stance. He was sometimes penalized for that quickness. Then things really got fun. If Page ever felt wronged by the officials, he took his game to an unimagined, unhinged level. Thinking about #88 wrecking offenses always brings a lasting smile. Alan Page is my #1 player in Vikings franchise history.
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