The Minnesota Vikings are heading into the 2013 season with high expectations after making an improbable playoff run last year and with Adrian Peterson rushing for 2,000 yards and winning the MVP award, the success of the team will likely hinge on quarterback Christian Ponder.
Head coach Leslie Frazier has a firm hold on his team now and despite trading away wide receiver Percy Harvin, the Vikings feel that they upgraded on offense by adding Greg Jennings and rookie Cordarrelle Patterson. Harvin will be out for the season anyway after being dealt to the Seahawks after undergoing hip surgery and after the Vikings finished 10-6 last year to make the playoffs on the final day of the season in Week 17, they will try and wrap things up earlier in the division with solid play against the Packers, Bears and Lions.
Frazier said to ESPN.com during training camp that he knows how hard it is to compete in the NFL North and that this year the Bears and Lions are improved and the Packers have shown consistency over recent years at making the playoffs. Frazier knows that all too well after defeating Green Bay to make it in last year just before losing to them the following week. Frazier is now in his third training camp with the Vikings and he hammered home that only four teams made the playoffs each of the last three years, the Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots and told his team that they have to learn to sustain success.
The team likely will rise and fall with the play of Christian Ponder, who led the Vikings to a victory against the Packers in Week 17 to get the team to the playoffs with 234 yards passing and three touchdowns, but after getting hurt it was Joe Webb in the Wild Card game at Lambeau. Last season Ponder passed for 2,935 yards and 18 touchdowns with a 62 percent completion rate, but he had 12 interceptions and the team ranked in the bottom of the league in passing yards per game.
Adding a player like Jennings will help the offense open up and grow with Ponder and Jerome Simpson has shown some flashes in training camp so far. The Vikings finished the season 4-0 last year and since it was Ponder's first full year as the starter, he will have to prove that he deserves it this year with Matt Cassel waiting in the wings as his backup after signing this offseason. The Vikings had three first round picks this year in the draft and after using one on offense with Patterson, the team picked Xavier Rhodes and Sharrif Floyd and after Antoine Winfield left to sign with the Seahawks, Rhodes will have as good chance as anyone to start for Minnesota outside.
