At this date (before the wildcard games) it is much too early to know who will be available via free agency or how the April draft will shape up. The Vikings are sending 7 players to the Pro Bowl and in my opinion, E. J. Henderson deserved to go. Our line-ups still have several positions that need an upgrade. My opinion of the biggest needs are:

1. A stud DE capable of 10 or more sacks per year.

2. A #1 WR capable of 75 or more receptions per year and good Yards-after-Catch.

3. An experienced QB via free-agency or trade.

Area's we need a roster upgrade:

4. Cornerback - someone to match Antoine WInfield.

5. Strong Safety - the vikes haven't had a good run stuffing strong safety since Dennis Griffith left. (#24 from the '98 team if I have messed up his last name.)

6. Outside Linebacker - Ben Leber's eventual replacement.

7. A better right tackle. - Ryan Cook seemed to be getting better through most of this season but took a step back the final two games, including causing a safety against Denver. Marcus Johnson is not the answer either.

8. A better right guard. - Anthony Herrara is okay, not great. Artis Hicks should hope to achieve okay.

9. A better TE. - Visanthe Shiancoe was a waste of cap money. Shockley's current backup with the Giants, Kevin Boss, looks like a better TE than Shiancoe. Fred Davis, USC, would be a good fit for Minnesota in the draft.

The Vikes will have the 17th selection of the first round. Between now and April players will rise and fall and some heralded juniors will declare themselves eligible. Assuming of course Minnesota retains this pick, if the draft were held today there are two players I like at this spot - 1.) Kansas CB Aquib Talib who looked pretty good in the Orange Bowl last night. He is 6-2, 205 and would really be a help against teams like Green Bay and Detroit who spread us out with multiple receiver sets.  2.) USC outside linebacker Keith Rivers, 6-3, 235. He may end up as a Dontarius Thomas linebacker - filling in at all 3 positions. We are thin at linebacker depth and Ben Leber is not getting any younger. Ben is a great run stuffer and spot blitzer and has a nose for the ball, but lacks the speed to get back in coverage.

We should stay away from drafting DEs with our track record of first-round under-achievers Kenechi Udezi, Erasmus James, Derrick Alexander, Dimitrius Underwood, etc. I think Brian Robison will be better next year, and even with the suspension I still like Ray Edwards. Kenechi is okay as long as he's left on the left side.

One free agent I know of is Jared Allen of KC. If the Chiefs don't slap a franchise player tag on him, Minnesota should do whatever it takes to sign him. Jared led the NFL in sacks with 15.5 and missed the first two games of the season due to a league suspension for DUI. Many people will shy away from his questionable character issues but he is  of the same mold as Keith Millard. He is a stud of pure, natural talent. In college he doubled as a long-snapper for the punting unit and was good enough he could be in the NFL as a long-snapper. KC used him as a TE in red zone situations this year and he caught two TD passes (one more than Shiancoe). In our loss to Kansas City, he was a one-man wrecking crew and made Bryant McKinnie look bad. Allen was in our backfield all game.

Last summer the great free-agent DE was Patrick Kerney who had 14.5 sacks for the Seabags. My opinion is Jared Allen would raise our pass defense to a top-15 level immediately and the Vikings should do whatever it takes to sign him. With him at right DE and Robison at left DE we would have a pass rush reminescent of Purple People Eater days. Allen's character is actually pretty good - he loves to play football.

One last note, I will miss Mewelde Moore - who has been my favorite player the past three years. I know he will find a better situation with another football team - I hope not with the Packers or Bears. It is a shame that Childress didn't recognize how good he is. I liked Mewelde ever since the Houston game in 2005. Onterrio Smith had been suspended for failing a drug test (the original Whizzinator?) and the experts wondered "what will the Vikings do without their number 1 running back?" As I recall Mewelde rushed for 119 yards that day and had 3 100-yard games that season. I hope he goes somewhere like Tampa Bay or Arizona - maybe even San Francisco. I want him to have a good career, but not against Minnesota.

According to Forbes the Vikings are the least valuable franchise in the NFL based on revenue and directly related to the Metrodome. The state legislature is not going to build a new stadium anytime soon with more important matters to address such as the I-35 bridge collapse. So, you're stuck with the Metrodome until the lease expires - the public is not going to bail you out, its no wonder that year-after-year you are reluctant to spend anywhere near the salary cap. To spend salary cap money is simply taking money from your bottom line and relying on accountants to figure out if you made any of it back.

If you commit to the fans of Minnesota, the long-term solution is to arrange for your own financing and own the new stadium - ala the Washington Redskins. A real-estate man should see lots of opportunities to make money in locating the stadium outside of Minneapolis at a location with good freeway access that is open and can be the centerpiece of a new business/shopping hub in which you've bought up the land.

As for your football team itself, winning creates value. The country is full of bandwagon-jumpers who like the hot team. Winning means you sell more merchandise. Winning means you make the play-offs and have extra revenue.

If you are not going to spend more in salary than you absolutely have to, approach each season like the Minnesota Twins - draft wisely and develop your players. You have to have people in your personnel office who's background is from smaller colleges who have to recruit from the same areas as the big colleges - i.e. Boise State, Appalaichian State, Central Florida. These people have learned how to find the diamond-in-the-rough, unearth that rare talent - compete with the big boys with the bigger budgets. One of their tasks would be signing undrafted free agents. An example of our past failure: Hank Baskett, a WR from New Mexico who we traded to Philadelphia for crap in return. Greg Blue was a hard-hitting safety released in pre-season and now with the Lions - he was far better than Dwight Smith. Jason Carter, a WR, released and now with Carolina, had a lot of upside potential and was already a better receiver than Robert Ferguson or Troy Williamson, or Aundrea Allison. Davonte Edwards was a promising CB whom we also let get away in the final pre-season cuts.

Your coaches also have to be teachers. Mike Tice was a great teacher of Offensive linemen and its no surprise Jacksonville has a great offensive line.

Brad Childress is not a teacher but comes off as more of a disciplinarian. Tarvaris Jackson is the best example of this. His footwork and mechanics are just as bad now as they were at the beginning of the season. Adrian Peterson still hasn't learned how to pass block?

During the Saturday night game with New England and the Giants, after the Giants had driven the field and scored, the TV showed Bill Belichick down on a knee with a chalkboard, telling his four linebackers what adjustments to make. No other assistants were in the picture.

Childress also lacks imagination. He insists that the players conform to his offensive scheme and cannot tweak his scheme to account for the talent on his roster. As the season wore on and defenses began loading the box with 8, sometimes 9 defenders, he and Bevell were unable to come up with any counter strategy. The Vikes could neither run nor pass against stacked, run-blitzing defenses until the defenses changed schemes in the second half with their team up my two-or-more scores. By then it was too late to be a balanced offense and run the ball.

If Childress has to remain the head coach, and I think he sucks, then he should become more of a game manager and paper pusher. I would fire Darryl Bevell and bring in a new offensive coordinator such as Wade Wilson, the former Viking QB who is the Cowboys QB coach and has done a fine job developing Tony Romo. Wade has no offensive coordinator experience but call it a hunch or wishful thinking, finding former Viking players who can coach will lead this team in the right direction.

Adrian and Brian Robison really had their production fall off at the end of the year. Was this the "rookie wall" where college players wear out in the extended NFL season? Does Childress run too vigorous of a preseaon camp? Are practices on Wednesdays and Thursdays too physical?

Next time, I'll give my thoughts about the roster.

The first quarter of the Denver game saw the Vikings take two drives inside the Bronco 5-yard-line but come away with just 3 points, thanks mainly to a Chester Taylor fumble out of the end zone. The Vikes had 90 yards rushing in the first quarter and this is always a bad omen to have lots of yards early but few points to show for it.

Defenses make adjustments, the Vikes were not on their way to a 360-yard day of rushing.

The offense was putrid in the second and third quarters and must have been watching the score of the Washington-Dallas game instead of focusing on the task at hand.

Another Chester Taylor fumble led to a Bronco TD. An anemic 3-and-out at the 2-minute warning of the first half and again at the start of the 3rd quarter are typical of this incompetently coached team. A Ryan Cook penalty in the end zone causes a safety and with 13 minutes left in the game, the Vikes trail 19-3.

Somehow, Tarvaris Jackson pulls a miracle out of his hat and brings the Vikings all the way back with 2 touchdowns and two 2-point conversions to tie the game and send in to over-time. Tarvaris is too much of a work in progress to seize the moment and grasp victory from the jaws of defeat in a place where John Elway became legend. Instead T-Jack fumbles on the first possession in OT, inside the Viking 20, and Denver quickly boots the winning field goal.  In the big scheme of things it didn't matter, Washington blew out Dallas 27-6. If the Vikes had won it would have lost them a few draft spots next April.

Since I am afraid the Vikes will trade that first round pick to Philadelphia for Donovan McNabb, I'd rather have had the win.

The T-Jack lovers are going to look at this game and claim it proves he is improving, 2 TDs and no interceptions. He is a horrible QB with Charles Barkley-esque mechanics. He is also the best QB on our roster which is nothing to brag about.

That is totally the fault of Brad Childress and his coaching staff. Childress should be embarrassed that by week 17, his prize QB still hasn't mastered fundamental footwork. A good coaching staff makes adjustments at halftime and the team plays better to begin the third quarter - even Mike Tice's teams came out better for the third quarter. Multiple times this year ( this and the Dallas game specifically), the offense begins the third quarter with a 3-and-out.

Childress sucks, Frazier sucks, Bevell sucks, T-Jack sucks, Troy Williamson sucks. Billy Wade sucks. Shiancoe sucks. By the way, the first two completions were to G. Mills and I wondered, who the hell is G. Mills? I clicked on his name and see he is the TE we signed off the patriot waiver list. Hell, where's he been all year? He's apparently better than the two douchebags we've been using: Shiancoe and Dugan.

Oh yeah, Holcomb sucks. Bollinger sucks. Dwight Smith blows and sucks. Tank Williams sucks. Erasmus James sucks. Darrien Scott sucks. Rick Spielmon sucks.

Next time, I'll write about what I'd do if I was president of this team. Of course, no one cares what I'd do but this is my way of getting some frustration off my chest.

Life is too short to accept mediocrity. Viking fans shouldn't be satisfied with 8-8.

Before the season began most publications and sports media outlets predicted the Vikings to finish last in the NFC North, based on off season moves, our QB situation, and last year's underwhelming results from our head coach Brad Childress.

The MSN Viking site opined "looks like a rebuilding year - prediction 5-11"

I thought along the same lines and when we lost to a beatable Kansas City team and a smoke-and-mirrors Lion's team, I saw a 4-12 record staring the Vikings in the face - and a top-10 draft choice. It is not easy to be a longtime fan of an NFL franchise.

All teams go through cycles of good years, bad years, and mediocre years. If you are a fan of a team with a good front office, the bad years are fewer in duration than the good year cycles. Minnesota has been fortunate in this regard - since 1961 Viking fans have enjoyed several good cycles and no prolonged bad cycles, i.e. Detroit and Arizona.

The Vikings have been in a cycle of mediocrity since getting hammered 41-0 in the 2000 NFC Championship game by the Giants. The team hovered around 8-8, 9-7 each year and were just good enough that fans had hope of a lucky bounce here, a fortunate break there, etc. At least each year there was hope and reason for a positive feeling.

It was after that 9-7 loss to Green Bay on a Thursday night game last year that I lost hope in a Viking future having Brad Childress and Tarvaris Jackson in it. That was one of the ugliest games ever played and if we had gotten anything from the QB position we could have won that game. Our 7 points came on a Fred Smoot interception return.

There have been some ugly games this year: 1.) TJ's 4-interception loss at Detroit, 2.) the 10-6 loss at Kansas City, 3.) the loss to Dallas when we were up 14-7 at the half and receiving the 3rd quarter kick-off, 4.) the loss to Philadelphia, 5.) the ass-kicking we received at Green Bay where Brooks Bollinger looked like a highschool quarterback.

The season looked pretty dismal at 2-5 after the loss to Philadelphia. I've been following the Patriots this year for a couple reasons - they are televised so often, I like Randy Moss and Tom Brady, and Bill Belichick is a card-carrying genius.

The win over San Diego was a fluke. The Chargers underestimated us and our offensive line blew holes in their 3-4 defense big enough to drive trucks through. Frazier called a blitz on almost every down and E. J. Henderson was a monster.

The whooping at Green Bay with AD's knee injury deflated that feelgood moment.

Then out of the blue comes a 5-game winning streak to take the Vikes to 8-6 and you ask "what the hell?". Where did this come from. Did Brad Childress finally figure out how to be a head coach?

It was a great early Christmas present and to have the game against Washington moved to Sunday night with the NBC flex schedule - and the game to have play-off implications was simply fantastic! Of course we were out-coached and out-played and made Todd Collins look like an All-Pro - but what the hell...

Thank you Minnesota Vikings for giving me a meaningful game on December 23rd when none was expected just 6 weeks ago.

I'll gladly eat crow for my prediction of a 4-12 record. I'm predicting 8-8 for next year and I hope you make me eat crow again - it'll be my new Christmas dish.

Merry Christmas to all - especially the good folks out there in Viking land.

Everytime he touches the ball he causes you to hold your breathe - he is capable of scoring from anywhere on the field. There hasn't been a running back as dangerous - not even Ladanian Tomlinson - since Barry Sanders.

Today there have been hundreds of articles and blogs singing the praises of Adrian Peterson after his amazing record day against the Chargers with 30 carries for 296 yards. What a mind-boggling performance. Some writers have compared him to Eric Dickerson, some to Walter Payton, one even mentioned Bo Jackson.

That last one may be the closest. Bo was an incredible athlete with blazing speed and power. He didn't waste time with feints and stutter steps - he turned on the thrusters and if defensive players took the wrong angles they got burned.

Eric Dickerson was a glider with a graceful gait that sliced through defenses with ease. He, O.J. SImpson, Tony Dorsett, and Marcus Allen ran with similar styles.

Ladanian, Walter Payton, and Barry Sanders were similar style runners of the "waterbug" style. Payton was not a speed burner but could dance through an entire defense's 11 men without being touched. For many years he held the single game record of 275 yards which happened against the Vikings, a record I'm glad no longer stands.

Then you have the big backs like Shawn Alexander, John Riggins, Earl Campbell, Franco Harris and Larry Johnson. Even though smaller, Emmit Smith fit this group.

The roster says that Adrian is 6-1, 217 pounds but he looks so much larger than that. By comparison, Chester Taylor looks diminuative.

No one in history runs like Adrian Peterson, he is unique. He does not glide, he does not juke, he doesn't slow down to wait on blocks - he attacks. Once he gets the hand-off he accelerates like a rocket but can still make full-speed cuts or pull a leg away from a would be tackler. He runs with aggression and power and intelligence. He can use a stiff arm if he wants but mostly he just attacks and continually accelerates.

On his 3rd TD Sunday, the 46-yard score, he was still accelerating at the 30. On the replay it looked like he was at normal speed and all the defenders were in slow motion. His talent is just breathtaking. Its as if his speed is limitless. His time in the 40 is meaningless because with a football in his hand he can accelerate as fast as he wills himself to do so.

Adrian Peterson is unique, a category unto himself. In the future he will be the measuring stick new running backs are compared with.