Donovan to Don the Purple and Gold

If it wasn't the Eagles, it would be the Vikes.

Remember when a supposedly over-the-hill quarterback signed with the Vikings and ended up having the best year of his career?  That was the 38-year-old Brett Favre, coming off a less than inspiring year with the Jets.

This time the veteran quarterback coming to the Twin Cities is Donovan McNabb.  Like Favre, McNabb’s year prior to joining the Purple People Eaters was unspectacular.  Bear in mind though, that McNabb played for the Washington Redskins, one of football’s least talented offensive teams.  Last year proved that McNabb can’t be the singular talent that carries a football team to greatness, but that’s all it proved.

McNabb can still be very good—if not great—when given the proper supporting cast.  Just two years ago, McNabb posted a passer rating of 92.9, the 3rd-highest of his career, while compiling 3,553 passing yards, 22 touchdowns, and just 7 interceptions.  He did all that on an Eagles team that relied almost entirely on the passing game; he got little help from the run game.  The opposite will be true this season where McNabb will have the behemoth force that is Adrian Peterson and the road-grating offensive line of the Minnesota Vikings.

Those that have dumped on McNabb as over-the-hill are missing the forest for the trees.  He may be too old to carry a bad Redskins team, but at 34 years old he is certainly young enough to push a team with great talent to ten wins or more.  He didn’t forget how to play overnight, and he didn’t lose his physical skills in one offseason.  Sometimes players are simply put in bad positions.  Success in football more than most any other sport is predicated on being on the right team, with the right fit, at the right time.  McNabb fits like a glove (and not OJ’s glove) in Minnesota.

Weapons abound under the re-inflated Metrodome roof.  Percy Harvin is the electric playmaker much like McNabb enjoyed with DeSean Jackson in Philly.  Visanthe Shiancoe, not to mention this year’s second round pick Kyle Rudolph, is the type of sure-handed tight end that McNabb covets and will use often to move the chains in the middle of the field.  If all that wasn’t enough, McNabb can also turn and hand the football to the best running back in the league, Adrian Peterson, 25-30 times per game.

McNabb is smart, he’s still mobile, and he can throw an excellent deep ball.  This Vikings team has the rare chance to combine a ball control running game with a positively frightening vertical passing attack.

Minnesota’s defense is also a talented unit.  Studs like Jared Allen and Kevin Williams compose a tremendous duo in the front four, and Chad Greenway emerging as a star at linebacker.

With this supporting cast, the Vikings quarterback doesn’t have to be other-worldly; he just has to be smart, have the ability to stretch the field, and not turn the ball over.  Essentially, all the Vikings needed in order to be a good team this year was to nab a game-managing quarterback.  They got all that and more in McNabb, who will show the doubters that with the right cast he can still be a dynamic star in this league.  Brett did it at the age of 38; Donovan surely can too at the tender age of 34.

--from @AdamHocking

(image from flickr.com)