*It's easy to forget that Daunte Culpepper had legitimately spectacular seasons at the ages of 23, 26, and 27, and that it seemed like he would be the franchise quarterback for another decade. I still don't understand what happened. In 2007 this same man came back to the Metrodome as an Oakland Raider and threw for 344 yards, and I was in the Metrodome watching, and I felt nothing special. What happened? We need Jay Cutler.
Monday, March 02, 2009
How I long for Jay Cutler
Do we really need to be offered hope? Do we really need people making me believe that the Vikings could acquire a Pro Bowl quarterback that will be 26 next season? Do we really need people making me believe a quarterback that threw for 4,500 yards and 25 TDs last season could be coming to a Viking team that has averaged 2,992.5 yards and 16.25 TDs passing over the past four seasons? Is it possible to hope that the Vikings could solve the quarterback problem they've had since Daunte Culpepper* flamed out? Are we being offered hope just so we can be thwarted once again? As flies to wanton boys, so are Viking fans to the gods.
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mmm yea Culpeper was great until we got rid of Moss. Come one man i can play quarterback w/ Randy on my team...
ReplyDeleteThree things happened to Culpepper. One, as noted above, he lost Moss as a teammate, which greatly exacerbated his largest shortcoming, an inability to read coverages in a timely manner. Having a Hall of Fame caliber receiver, who can reliably dominate defensive backs, and a decent to good offensive line, tends to hide that shortcoming quite a bit. Give Tavaris Jackson a Moss or a Fitzgerald, and he'd look like a good NFL qb.
ReplyDeleteHe lost Moss. His offensive line suffered some injnuries and aged at some positions. Holding onto the ball forever became more problematic, which led to him scrambling more, which led to the third thing; he blew his knee out on a scramble, and never regained his former mobility.
He is now a poor man's late stage Drew Bledsoe.
That was a really really bad knee injury - let's see how Tom Brady does this year after a less severe injury. And of course, Culpepper was rushed back by Childress and never healed properly.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't Joe Theisman bad, but that knee injury was definitely a career-ender.
Since Childress saw Culpepper face to face maybe one time, if that, when Culpepper was on the Vikings' roster, it is a huge stretch to say Childress rushed him back.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in the Chilly fan club, but sheesh, the way he gets blamed for everything short of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping is a bit puzzling. No, he wasn't the referee who swallowed the whistle on the Drew Pearson push off on Nate Wright, either, nor was he impersonating Gary Anderson on a certain late field goal attempt against the Falcons in January 1999.
Are you sure about him not impersonating Gary Anderson? Now that I look back that would make alot of sense......
ReplyDeleteCulpepper lost Randy, but I think people often forget that the downfall of Culpepper came when Matt Birk had groin issues and missed all those games. Birk was the one calling out the defenses and without his help it really screwed the whole offense up. I am afraid of what might happen without Birk if he goes to the Ravens. A great center helps make a great offense. (Although Birk is aging...but we need to find an absolutely quality replacement soon if not now)
I wish the Vikings would just make a ridiculous offer for Cutler and mortgage our drafts for the next two years. At this point who cares....
Think about it. Years more of this good-but-not-good enough causing us fans existential crisis or the possibility of splashing into dominance with the best RB in the NFL and a young franchise QB with decent WRs? (not to mention the defense is just getting older slowly)....
Do it and Do it now.
11 draft picks and some hacks for Cutler.
In the beginning of 2005, Daunte Culpepper was without Randy Moss (a bigger impact on a defense than any WR I've ever seen), Matt Birk (they had a career backup at center), and his offensive coordinator Scott Linehan (who can forget the images of Mike Tice in glasses looking down at his play chart?). He was getting hit immediately and had nobody to throw to, nobody to hand off to, and no offensive minds around to try make something work. That can be explained. Then he had a devastating injury. The Vikings hired a coach that, after TO, wasn't going to deal with malcontents, and Daunte became a bit of a malcontent (as reported, rehabbing away from team, avoiding team during injury, coming back and to talk with Childress and just going to Viking management to demand a new contract), that sort of pushed him away. Then the Vikes traded him, and the pressure from the trade probably made Daunte want to rush back, and Nick Saban probably encouraged it, and he shouldn't have been playing yet. It can all be explained: six games with his 2004 offensive support gutted, then a catastrophic injury, and then rushing back from that catastrophic injury, then playing with a bunch of lousy teams. It all just makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteI think that with all the turmoil surrounding the Bengals, the annual rebuilding etc., that maybe Carson Palmer would be a more reasonable trade target than Jay Cutler. I don't know if Rosenfals is the answer, but the Vikings can win without having a top flight QB. I can't believe that Childress has gone this far without solving a major problem in his area of expertise. I think it will cost him his job
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