What should the Minnesota Vikings do with Brett Favre?
This is bad on a number of levels. The first being that Brett Favre is systematically taking apart his own legacy, on top of that the Minnesota Vikings a team built to win now is 2-5 and likely has no answers as their 2010 season swirls around the bowl on its way down. While it has certainly been ugly up to this point there is a very real possibility it will get a whole lot uglier before all is said and done.
Let us start with Favre. He turned in a miserable performance last night versus the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. He ended up going 16 for 29 for 212 yards with 1 TD and 3 INT's. His passer rating was 50.4 for this game and for the season it is just 68.0.
On the year Favre has thrown 10 INT's and fumbled the ball five times losing four of them. For all of 2009 he had just seven INT's and 2 lost fumbles. I think we are seeing a Tiger Woods type situation develop here as Favre's attention is clearly not on the football field but the mess that his personal life has turned into.
Now there is the very real possibility Favre's mess will end up in court, and worse for the Vikings he will likely face a suspension for the NFL for violating the Personal Conduct policy. That leaves the Vikings with no QB, and no way to win more games. Favre was a blind shot in the dark as they were hoping he could pick up where they he left off in 2009. However he is a year older, distracted, and clearly not over the beating he took at the hands of the New Orleans Saints in last year's playoffs. On top of that he got beat up again by the Green Bay Packers last night.
Now the Vikings are looking at starting over with a new QB at the helm either some time in 2010, or for sure in 2011. This is an organization that has done a very poor job developing its own talent at the QB situation meaning they will have to find a QB on the free agent market. On top of that they are fighting for public dollars for a new facility. Going 2-5 is not a great way to convince people to give up their shirking budgets to get a new Vikings stadium deal done. Having a new QB at the helm usually means a team will struggle, unless a great veteran can be found in free agency, or the Vikings get super lucky in the NFL draft.
In my mind the biggest mistake here was by the Vikings front office. With the 30th overall pick in last year's draft the Vikings could have drafted a young QB that could have been learning and developing as this season commenced. Colt McCoy should have been a Viking, he is doing very good things with the Cleveland Browns and given the offensive weapons the Vikes already had we can expect that he could have had a magical season with them in 2010. That seems like a big mistake at this point, but that could change.
Worse then all of that they traded the 30th overall pick to a division rival who used it on RB Jahvid Best. I don't like the policy of making trades within your own division, and while it certainly has catapulted the Detroit Lions to any kind of significance not using that pick on a young QB looks to have been an error.
What we do know is Tavaris Jackson is not going to be the answer for this team, and I don't think Joe Webb looks to be the answer for this team. If Favre gets suspended, injured, or gets fed up and walks away from the game, the Vikings will be in a very tough spot. Not a great job of planning ahead.
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