Everyone has been giving their two cents about how much they hate Brett Favre and his yearly waffling of playing vs. retiring. I hate it just as much as anyone else, but as I’ve been saying on the Scratches for the last couple of days, I think the media can be blamed just as much for allowing Favre to constantly be in the spotlight over the past couple of off-seasons.
However, since I’ll only be one of a million others to write about that, I decided to use the next couple of blogs to break down how the loss of Favre would affect the Vikings offense. Remember, this is a team coming off an NFC championship appearance and is looking to make the next step by being in the Super Bowl this season.
I think it's easy to say that without Brett Favre, you can count on the Vikes being much more of a running team around Adrian Peterson. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the wide receivers in place like Percy Harvin and Bernard Berrian are now “wasted talent” since I’m sure Brad Childress would find another way to use them.
Both of them can still be threats in a short-passing game and Harvin has an extra-added dimension of speed that can be useful in end-arounds and wide-receiver screens. I’ve always thought of Berrian as more of a possession-type receiver anyways, so short slants and quick routes over the middle could still make him a viable target.
Don’t forget as well that Visante Shiancoe has matured enough to become a Top 10 tight end in the NFL and can be a great third option if the quarterback finds himself in trouble and needs to dump it off quickly.
But really, this would become Adrian Peterson’s team again. Last season, he was in the shadows of Brett Favre and because of that, the offense passed much more and Peterson was used less. To me, Peterson seems to be the kind of guy that needs constant touches in order to be at his very best. I wonder if the lack of touches had anything to do with the “fumblitis” that he suffered towards the end of the year.
Something tells me that his fumbling could be blamed more due to the mental side of the game than the physical one. Let’s not forget that Peterson has always been the No. 1 player on the field, even from his time when he was playing football as a child. He’s used to having everything revolve around him and not used to playing on a team that is looking to appease someone else first. That’s what the Vikings did with Favre a year ago and I think it affected Peterson.
Of course, all of this is for not if Favre comes back, but let’s take it one step further and talk about the quarterbacks looking to take over if Favre retires...