The Brett Favre song and dance stopped Tuesday when Favre told the Vikings that he wouldn’t be coming out of retirement. We’ve seen enough back and forth from Favre that it’s still tempting to see this as a pause and not a full halt. But for now, we wanted to take a moment to consider where this leaves the Vikings.
Tarvaris Jackson is a talent, without question. So is Sage Rosenfels, actually. The problem with both players is their tendency to make mistakes. (More details here.) But these guys are not terrible, and they are good enough to get the Vikes to the playoffs. The question is whether they’ll be able in the postseason to avoid the killer mistake. Jackson wasn’t last year vs. the Eagles. But given the way Favre played down the stretch for the Jets last year, I think the Vikings are actually in about the same place postseason-wise. Favre was a mistake-maker too, as overtime of the NFC Championship 2 years ago showed.
Favre’s absence does not kill the Vikings. This is still a dangerous team. And if Jackson develops, then Minnesota will be far happier in the long run. Personally, I’d rather risk on Jackson taking a step forward – as he did in the last four games of the regular season last year – than on Favre holding off deterioration one more year. But that’s just the contrarian in me. Whether you’re a contrarian or not, though, you have to hope the Vikings finally turn the page on Favre.
**
Before we sign off, a brief word of grief for the passing of Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson. He leaves a great legacy of attacking defenses in Philly. He deserves better than to be an afterthought on another of Favre’s day, but we wanted to remember Johnson here.
Football Relativity 