From the moment running back Adrian Peterson returned to the Vikings, the team instantly became a contender for the coming season. And for good reason; 7-9 despite not having Peterson for 15 games in 2014, his mere presence could propel the team to enough additional wins to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2012.
Among those seeing the coming campaign through purple-colored glasses is owner Zygi Wilf, who addressed whether the team has a chance to win the Super Bowl in remarks to a group of reporters.
“Absolutely,” Wilf said, via Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “I mean, we can win the Super Bowl, but I stopped my predictions I think my third season [of owning the team].”
Wilf has owned the team for a decade, with the 2009 edition of the franchise nearly making it to the Super Bowl. But his positivity is currently unprecedented.
“I’ve never been more optimistic since we’ve owned the team about the players or a coach, our organization or the direction that we’re headed,” Wilf said.
Things should only get better from here. The Vikings will finish their two-year stay at the University of Minnesota’s open-air venue in 2015, christening next year a futuristic new structure that Wilf says will be “rivaled by none.”
The football team is far from reaching that point, but the arrow definitely is pointing up. There’s a danger, however, in putting the bar too high, especially for a franchise that hasn’t seen the divisional round in six years. It’s always better for a team’s expectations to be low, and the expectations are now anything but that for the 2015 Vikings.