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The Minnesota Vikings are the team in this scenario and the player who essentially is being asked to not screw things up is quarterback Tarvaris Jackson.
The second-year starter has been handed the keys to a team poised to make a playoff run in the wide-open NFC.
In addition to having the luxury of regularly turning around and handing the ball to the most explosive player in the NFL in Adrian Peterson, Jackson also is armed with one of the top offensive lines in the league as well as a vastly improved receiving corps led by free-agent acquisition Bernard Berrian and second-year player Sydney Rice.
Throw in the fact that Minnesota traded for the best pass rushing defensive end in the NFL in Jared Allen and you can’t help but feel this Vikings team is going to be an improvement over last year’s 8-8 squad.
The one wild card in the equation though has to be Jackson.
First and foremost he needs to stay healthy and on the field. Last year the Vikings were 8-4 in games Jackson started and 0-4 in games he didn’t.
Granted, the emergence of Peterson and the Vikings’ running game had an awful lot to do with those eight wins, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that they didn’t win any of their games without him.
In order to play the entire season a quarterback needs to make sound decisions about how often he is going to expose his body to punishment. As dynamic as Jackson is when he runs with the ball he needs to understand that you can’t help your team win games if you’re sitting on the disabled list.
I’m not suggesting that he should minimize his athletic ability and stand in the pocket like a statue. Quite to the contrary, Jackson’s mobility combined with his arm strength put a tremendous strain on defenses and make him the perfect compliment to the NFL’s top rushing offense.
It just might be worth while to mix in the occasional hook slide after he takes off running with the ball. Jackson’s failure to do so against Baltimore on Saturday brought a stellar evening (7-for-11, TD pass) to a premature conclusion when he dinged his knee at the end of a nine-yard run. Fortunately for the Vikings, Jackson’s knee wasn’t badly damaged and he was in pads and practicing with the team Monday.
When Jackson is able to stay on the field he finds himself in the enviable position of (because of Peterson) facing 8- and 9-man defensive fronts on a regular basis. What that means for an NFL quarterback is a pretty steady dose of single coverage on your outside receivers. That is a battle that any quarterback/receiver should win more often than not, and was the impetus for the front office’s decision to bring in the blazing Berrian.
In the past those one-on-one matchups meant a barrage of balls bouncing off the hands and/or helmet of the speedy but bungling wide receiver Troy Williamson. Now the stone-handed blooper machine is playing in Jacksonville and Berrian is salivating over the chance to work against all that man-to-man coverage.
If Jackson hopes to enjoy the benefits of playing for a playoff-quality team with a QB-friendly system, all he needs to do is stay on the field.
That doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
