A Sage Move to Spice up the Offense?

In the last few seasons, the Minnesota Vikings have done an extremely good job in free agency (Steve Hutchinson, Bernard Berrian), the draft (Adrian Peterson), and trade (Jared Allen) to address areas where the Vikings needed to improve to get them to the cusp of a Superbowl championship.

But for all the effort in trying to upgrade the roster, the quarterback position has been the one area that has been the weak link throughout the Brad Childress era. Entering free agency, the Vikes need to make a splash and add some sizzle and buzz to the offseason. Hopefully that will build some 'Minnesota Momentum' towards a new stadium and the long elusive Lombardi trophy, and to get free agency jump started, the Vikings capped two years of effort minutes into by trading for...wait for it...wait for it a little more...Sage Rosenfels.

Let me say that again so it can appropriately sink in. The Minnesota Vikings, a quarterback away from seriously contending for the Superbowl, spent two years in trading for Sage Rosenfels.

Sizzle? Snap...crackle...pop.

Look, I know that every quarterback option out there has negatives. Kurt Warner is a one or two year option. Ditto Brett Favre, and he's probalby really retired this time. Matt Cassel is probably the best combination of talent and youth, but it would more than likely require a Jared Allen-type trade to acquire him, and the Vikings did that last year for...Jared...Allen. According to Adam Caplan of scout.com, Matt Hasselbeck is damaged goods. Donovan McNabb might be a three or four year guy, but has McNabb, in a similar situation in Philadelhia (good/great defense, solid offense, mostly pedestrian receivers) ever win the Supebowl? And it looks like he's mended fences in Philly, anyways.

But Sage Rosenfels? Sage Rosenfels? Really? He's the answer? If he is the answer, what, pray tell, might the question be?

The positives: He's from Maquoketa, Iowa, about 15-20 miles where almost my entire family is from and still currently live, so he comes from good stock. He has shown ability, but like another quarterback currently on the Vikings roster, he has been maddeningly inconsistent when given an opportunity.

The negatives: He was on the wrong end of one of the most-played highlights from last year, and stop me if you've heard this before: He's a career journeyman, north of 30, a very cerebral, flat line guy that's just expected to manage the game and play mistake free.

With 24 career TD passes, and 23 career fumbles.

Rosenfels is the biggest gamble of Wilf's tenure, both on the field and off, because the Vikings are at a critical juncture in team history. They are tantalizingly close to a serious championship run, and if successful, they will go a long way to securing a new facility in Minneapolis for them to play in for the next generation of Viking fans. Failure to go deep in the playoffs will not help that effort, and a series ofmediocre 8-8 seasons in the near future could be the death blow for the team's future existence in Minnesota.