Vikings

It seems that everything that can be said about Brett Favre at this point has been thrown around the web. The consensuses appears to be that everyone who lives in Minnesota is ridiculously overconfident and everyone else is cautious about throwing any kind of positive support behind him. The good thing for Vikings fans is that it might not matter, this is a team who won the division last season with a combo at quarterback of Tarvaris Jackson and Gus Frerotte, he can't be worse then that....can he? Although the rest of the division seems to have improved, the Vikings have looked stout on defense this preseason and still have the best player in the division.

Jared Allen and the "Williams Wall" (that's an unfortunate nickname for everyone involved) did not disappoint last season and the rest of the defense should be improved if the loss of Darren Sharper's leadership doesn't cause any trouble.....speaking of Sharper, he might have been worth keeping around if they would have known for sure Favre was coming. What better way to settle locker room controversy then having a proven leader speak up for a guy he played with back in the day and put everyone minds at ease about his last season and two off seasons.

The left side of their offensive line is also impressive with Bryant McKinnie and Steve Hutchinson and it should be noted Favre did play much better last year when Thomas Jones was able to run the ball and in '07 when Ryan Grant exploded out of obscurity to carve up defenses for a freakishly productive half year. Wide Reciever is still a question mark, but Bernard Berrian seemed to improve drastically last year and it might be the fact that Jackson was throwing to them. The wide receiver corp might go through a post-Michael Vick Atlanta Falcons receiver corp transformation this season, which actually thrives once their quarterback is equipped with things like touch and finesse. But then again maybe I'm giving Favre too much credit. Basically the Vikings looked like a team that who could win and make a run with a game manager like quarterback and rolled the dice on a play maker which could propel them over the top into the elite of the NFL or bring them back down a few notches getting them overconfident in their new toy and losing the team identity that won last season.

For me the biggest advantage for the Vikings is their early season schedule, Browns, Lions, Niners, which allows them to work out some kinks on offense against poor defenses and create some confidence for the defense against Matthew Stafford. If they can get through this easy part of their schedule untainted it might be enough to get an early lead in the division and give them enough experience to get in sync for the remainder of the season