Points where the Vikings should have tanked

[SeahawkFever]

People have noted that the Minnesota Vikings are consistently mid to good, occasionally great, and rarely outright awful.

Out of curiosity are there any points of their history where they probably should have traded a number of players and bottomed out for a couple years, and perhaps came out of it with a better team than what they had in reality?

The period for me would be after trading Randy Moss, possibly after the Herschel Walker trade didn’t pan out too.

[Brian wolf]

Would have to look into that more. Like I stated in the drought thread, Jim Finks had his chance to get a talented young passer in 1970-1972 but didnt. They missed out from 1985-93 as well, despite having Rich Gannon on their roster. Kramer and Wilson were plagued by turnovers.

Teams tank nowadays, but that was more unheard of going back to the 80s, 90s and 2000s. The teams wanted to win games and show effort for their fans. Culpepper should have done better and the team struck out with Ponder, Bridgewater and Cousins, though Cousins gave them a better offense. Just petered out come playoff time.

With Dennis Green, QBs could play great one year and strike out the next. This happened with Moon, Johnson, Cunningham and George, though they let George go ...

[7DnBrnc53]

After losing to the Cowboys in the 1977 NFC Title Game, I think the Vikings should have let GM Mike Lynn and HC Bud Grant go. Then, hire a new GM (like Beathard or George Young) and clean house.

[Brian wolf]

After losing to the Cowboys in the 1977 NFC Title Game, I think the Vikings should have let GM Mike Lynn and HC Bud Grant go. Then, hire a new GM (like Beathard or George Young) and clean house.

Letting a successful HC like Grant go would have been tough but could anyone have imagined what Bill Walsh might have done with the Vikings? Back then though, offensive minded coaches werent as enamored by owners and Paul Brown never endorsed his assistants becoming head coaches elsewhere.