Not much worked well or as intended on the Minnesota Vikings' offensive line this year, leaving coach with a lot of tape to review. Photo by Jim Bryant/UPI |
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EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The Minnesota Vikings' 38-10 win over Chicago on Sunday prevented a losing season while reminding the Vikings one more time that their top priority for 2017 is the offensive line. Period.
Rashod Hill, a Jaguars practice squad player in mid-November, became the fifth left tackle to play this season when T.J. Clemmings left with an elbow injury in the first quarter. Overall, the Vikings used 12 linemen while averaging a league-worst 75.3 yards rushing and desperately shifting to a short passing attack that helped Sam Bradford set the NFL record for completion percentage (71.6).
Bradford returns next season along with Teddy Bridgewater, whose availability for the start of the season is in question as he recovers from the knee injury he suffered 12 days before the opener.
Meanwhile, Adrian Peterson, who missed 13 games because of injury, isn't expected to return. The team won't pay him $18 million for 2017, and Peterson isn't likely to accept less to stay.
Defensively, the Vikings finished sixth in points allowed (19.2), but need to figure out what happened in Weeks 15-16 when they went flat while surrendering 72 points in playoff-crushing losses to the Colts (34-6) and Packers (38-25).
That includes coach Mike Zimmer taking a hard look at his leadership after the Vikings became just the sixth team in NFL history to miss the playoffs after starting 5-0.
"I've written down a list of at least two pages of things I either don't like or need to evaluate better," Zimmer said. "There's a million things that I have to go through."
The Vikings are without a first-round pick because of the Bradford trade, putting the pressure on general manager Rick Spielman to pick wisely. It's also vital that receiver Laquon Treadwell, the 2016 first-rounder who caught only one pass all season, produce in 2017.
--Addressing reporters in the locker room on Monday, Peterson said he "would love to finish my career here with the Minnesota Vikings," but also said the word "business" eight times while making the point that his return isn't just up to him.
Peterson turns 32 in March and will be coming off a season in which he missed 13 games because of a torn meniscus and a groin injury suffered when he came back from knee surgery a month and a half ahead of schedule. He is due to make $6 million the first week of the league year and $18 million total for the 2017 season.
The Vikings aren't going to pay that, so the question Monday was whether Peterson is open to accepting a sizable pay cut to stay in Minnesota.
"I'm not ready to get into the contract talk and all that," he said. "I don't want to go down that road when it comes to considering less money, this, that and the other. I'll just save that for another time."
Peterson was asked if he is starting to understand the nature of the business and how other players have taken pay cuts. He said yes, but also mentioned star players who have gotten more money.
"There is the reality that there comes a point in time where, yeah, the best thing to do is take a pay cut," Peterson said. "It might be in the best interest of the team as well.
"And there are situations where there are guys that are, I would say, worth putting the money into as well. Like, for instance, you got a guy like Tom Brady or a guy like Antonio Brown. You put more money into those guys than you do -- I'm not going to name any other receivers or any other quarterbacks -- than you do other guys. So it is what it is. That's just how things go."
