Raptorman wrote:mansquatch wrote:This roster isn't that old...
On offense you have an aged player in Berger at RG. That's it. Rudolph is probably "middle aged" in NFL terms. Reiff was drafted the same year as Kalil, so there is still some shelf life there, plus he plays Tackle, not RB so could go for awhile yet.
On Defense, Griffen and Smith are the big names that are probably going to start running into the wall of age. That being said, I'd the team has at least two and probably three seasons where this defense will continue to be elite.
My opinion is that if they can add a strong player at QB they have the making of a team that can win for at least the next 2-3 seasons and probably longer depending on how the drafts go. For this reason I think getting Cousins would be a huge win.
IMO, the biggest hurdle next year is an absolutely brutal schedule. It seems very unlikely that they'll be able to string together 12+ wins in the face of their road schedule, therefore in the post season they are probably not going get a bye week and will likely to win at least one playoff game on the road. They are capable of doing that, but they need to get over laying eggs 2-3x a season. If you've been following the team awhile, you know that this issue has blagged the Zimmer era.
It's a brutal schedule based on last year teams. You never know what the next year will bring. It could turn out to be easy. After all, how many people looked at the Rams and Eagles on their schedule last year and said, "It looks like an easy schedule."
It's true, but I'd say that a lot of these teams are probably going to be fairly good, and while one or two of them might fall off there's bound to be a team or two that you face that's better than you were expecting. I could see the Chicago Bears being decent next year - Trubisky has a year under his belt and I think the Bears will do everything in their power to get him protected and to put some more firepower into that offense while their defense looked fairly good last year despite finishing more towards the middle of the pack. Also, the Packers will have Rodgers back, and that should make them a much more difficult team to beat and despite the fact that I think we still win both games against them with Rodgers, he's probably worth a couple of wins over almost anybody who replaces him, and they'll have an offseason to arm up as well so I'd expect them to be better.
We'll have a difficult schedule, but it won't be impossible. I've said it before, but I think the Vikings have more opportunity than any team right now to go into the season as the most complete team in the NFL - with all of the money that we have at our disposal, with the talent that we have already locked down on the roster, I have no doubt that we can win these games and match our 13-3 record. We might not beat that record, but I think we can match it and still be a better team than we were last year.
Also, a little side note - I really want to see us beat the Patriots with Belichick and Brady on the roster. I've never seen us beat the Pats in my life, and this has to be the best opportunity we're going to get to do it but we'll be facing them in NE.