Offseason Fun - Rankings, Lists, etc.

7 starting offensive tackles? Where was Adrian Peterson in 2016? How many OCs does it take to run an offense? 

The 2016 Vikings running game, paced by Jerick McKinnon and Matt Asiata, eclipsed 100 yards rushing AS A TEAM only TWICE in 2016.

Going from having the same 5 guys start every game on the OL together to a veritable MASH unit revolving door, especially at the tackle spot with Phil Loadholt retiring, Matt Kalil injured, Andre Smith being Andre Smith, the duct tape that held Jake Long together finally breaking...
But that wasn't it for injuries...Adrian Peterson missed 13 games, and bad as he was while playing, he would rush for another 3000+ yards and 23 TDs in his career-he wasn't done, just struggling. Stefon Diggs missed three games, David Morgan, Jerick McKinnon, amongst others.

From the Daily Norseman:
"Eric posted on Monday about how the Vikings had the third-most games lost to injury in the entire NFL this past season. The Vikings, as a team, had a total of 120.6 Adjusted Games Lost to injury in 2016, and 92.1 of those. . .a little more than three quarters. . .were on the offensive side of the ball. By (Football Outsiders') calculations, that makes the 2016 Minnesota Vikings’ offense the most injured offense the NFL has seen since the year 2000."

So...suffice to say, there were a lot of non-Bradford issues in 2016:
*Bridgewater's knee explodes, and he nearly loses his leg while the team watches.
*Norv Turner up and quitting after the Chicago game.
*Zimmer calling a prevent against Detroit allowing them to move into field goal range in 13 seconds AFTER Blair Walsh had already messed up a pooch kick...Detroit wins in OT.
*Getting all of 4 possessions the second half vs Washington, surrendering 4 fgs on 4 straight drives to lose 26-20.
*Losing by 3 to Detroit on Thanksgiving Day.
*Bradford getting clobbered in the head on the 2 point try to tie vs Dallas and Gene Steratore saying, on camera, no less "No, you got hit in the shoulder."
*The CBs going rogue and getting themselves torched against Green Bay.

All this to say, who knows if 2017 ends differently with Bradford? He certainly looked excellent Week 1.

To judge Sam Bradford based on going 7-8 in 2016 isn't just.

2016 was a another in long line of utter shitshow season's the Vikings have experienced in recent memory. 2005 (Love Boat, Ticket Scalping, Culpepper's Leg), 2010 (3 Wise Men go to Mississippi and bring Welfare Fraud back, Trading for Moss, Cutting Moss, Firing Childress, Dome Collapses and Playing Tuesday Night in Philly), 2018 (Sparano dies, Carlson missing 3 FGs in GB, DeFilippo and Zim at each other's throats, Kirk telling Thielen how to run routes).

Damn, this franchise deserves a Super Bowl. Or, it really, really doesn't. For my sanity's sake I am going to believe the former over the latter.

Fun lil thing here:

Yeah I was going to say. The way 2 Sleeves lit up the Saints in week 1, who knows how far that team could've gone. But he's had flukey good games before, so again, who knows lol. The guy lacked consistency.

Ooof, yeah I remember that team being on pace to set some modern day futility records in the rushing department. Their 1205 yards were the 14th fewest rushing yards in a 16 game schedule (out of 1305 teams) and 15th lowest YPC (3.17).