Nine of the 11 offensive starters from the 2009 team that advanced to the NFC Championship Game were still with the team in 2011, although Bernard Berrian was thrown overboard midstream last season. The two that didn't start the season with the Vikings were Brett Favre and Sidney Rice. All of the starters played in 14 or more games, further emphasizing the need for consistency.
In 2011, three starters on offense – Michael Jenkins, Steve Hutchinson and Adrian Peterson – were on injured reserve by mid-December.
Two years after the 1998 team advanced to the NFC Championship, five of the 11 offensive starters were gone. Instead of trying to hang on with older players like Jake Reed, Randall McDaniel (who had Pro Bowl seasons left in him), Jeff Christy, Andrew Glover and Randall Cunningham, the Vikings had youth in reserve to replace them with players like Matt Birk and Daunte Culpepper, among others.
That may be the real key for which Spielman is looking. The Vikings' insistence on trying to hang with their 2009 team came back to bite them when "experience" just turned into "old." That may be why Spielman continues to preach the importance of drafting players and patience in the free-agent market.
Last year, the Vikings had 10 draft picks and nine of them made the team. Two of those, Ponder and Kyle Rudolph, played more than 45 percent of the offensive snaps. Another two, Christian Ballard and Mistral Raymond, played in 22 percent or more of the defensive snaps.
This year, they are expecting another 10 picks after compensatory picks are awarded. If they have the same results as last year and the 2011 draft picks all remain, more than one-third of the roster would be made up of first- and second-year players. That's not likely to happen, but it shows just how serious Spielman is about getting younger after lopping 101 years of experience off the roster already.
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