Is Rick Spielman the single most underappreciated figure in Vikings history?

Yes. He is. Now let me get into why.

It's certainly not unusual for a fanbase to dislike a general manager. It's one of the positions on a football team that is the easiest target, along with head coach and quarterback. Good, bad, doesn't seem to often matter. 

But it's so often foolish. And it's foolish, dare I say stupid foolish, to feel this way about Rick Spielman. 

We are almost at a full decade now where Rick has been THE guy. He officially ascended to position of THE guy after the awful 2011 season.

Rick had already been in the front office for six seasons before this, arriving before the 2006 season (although it was already late in that offseason, so he had nothing to do with that draft, the Childress hire, the Culpepper trade, etc). He had authority, sure, but not GM level authority. The Rick haters will generally only even acknowledge this period of time if they want to drill Rick for the bad moves in that time (T-Jack, Ponder, Gerhart, Tyrell Johnson). They get silent if you wanna bring up Adrian, Jared Allen, Favre, drafting Griffen, and so on.

Me, I don't really go for either argument. For me, what is relevant about Rick's tenure begins with the 2012 offseason. And from then until now, he has mostly been an outstanding GM with a hell of a track record. Major personnel successes, a minimum of outright failures, and a lot of wins.

During his years as GM the Vikings are 72-54-2, with a 2-4 playoff record. 

I'm sorry, but that's a really good resume of results, particularly given that the Vikings, unlike the other best teams of this era, have not been able to trot out a Hall of Fame quarterback week after week. If you can trot out a Brady, a Wilson, a Mahomes, or yes, even a Rodgers week after week, that can mask a whole lot else. 

Haters say the fact that the Vikings have not had such a HOF QB in Rick's tenure is a legitimate criticism against him...as if finding such a player is easy. 

When Rick became THE guy, we had Ponder. Ponder obviously was not a franchise QB, which was realized quickly enough. Rick drafted Teddy barely 2 years into his run, and also brought in a capable Matt Cassel as a backup. We have seen teams devote many years to young QBs who clearly aren't going to be stars. We turned around pretty fast, and made the Teddy pick. 

Rick critics (cRICKets?) Go after him for the Teddy pick too, because he didn't become a franchise guy. Frankly, this whole situation cannot be evaluated that way. Teddy's knee blew up just before a season that was likely going to be a  breakout. He looked fabulous in that preseason. He showed a real clutch gene in 2015. He was on his way. I won't rip a GM due to injuries he had nothing to do with. 

What matters is the response to them. And when Teddy got hurt, Rick was in a nearly impossible situation. Now, you CAN rip him for not having a better backup QB in place than Shaun Hill. But the idea was clearly to have the old vet as a backup/mentor for the young guy. 

I will argue forever that if Taylor Heinicke doesn't put his foot through a glass door and miss most of that camp, the Vikings take their chances with him that season. 

But as it stood, you had a blossoming team coming off a division title, and opening a new stadium. To more or less wave the white flag with Hill just was not gonna fly. There was very little out there. I was in favor of gambling on Michael Vick. It was certainly better than signing Mark Sanchez.

Instead, Rick swung the Sam Bradford trade. Now, I will always wonder, did he REALLY have to go all the way with a #1 pick, or could he have made the Eagles settle for a 2nd? Fact is we can never know for sure, and the Vikings were just not in a position to play hardball. 

And for all the issues the 2016 team had, Bradford was not one of them. He played really well. If the rest of the roster wasn't decimated, he probably gets them into the playoffs. Hell, they WERE 5-0 before attrition took over. 

And he looked fantastic in the 2017 opener too. Nobody was griping about that pick anymore when it looked like we had the new Jim Plunkett. 

But the injuries hit again and that was it for Sam. Luckily, Rick had learned the Shaun Hill lesson and this time had a capable backup ready in Case Keenum. And you know the story from there.

After 2017, Rick also showed a wise ability to not be sucked in by sentiment. Sure Keenum went above and beyond for us, but was there really any reason to think he could sustain that? I mean, he really didn't even sustain it IN season (if the miracle doesn't happen the story of that playoff game is how awful Keenum was in the 2nd half).

Rick had a very rare chance to pounce on a good, still young QB hitting free agency. And he signed Kirk Cousins. For 2 1/2 years now it has been nonstop bitching from fans and media about Cousins and the contract. 

But it was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT the right move. Sam and Teddy had major injury red flags. It was either sign Kirk or sign Case, or I suppose take a chance on a draft pick which would immediately set your team that just went 13-3 into rebuilding.

And bitch all you want, but everything that has happened since has validated Spielman's decision. Keenum is already on his 3rd team since leaving, after flopping in Denver and Washington. He went right back to being the journeyman QB who you would like as a backup, but who can't lead your franchise. 

And Cousins has had 2 winning seasons here, including leading one of the great wins in franchise history last January. No, no super bowl, but he was a great signing, and has also given us the most stability at QB that we have had in literally decades.

Oh we ain't done. That was just one position. Let's go around the rest of the offense.

The offensive line. This has more or less become THE area on the team that people most often bash Rick for at this point. I actually think that criticism is at least somewhat valid. I mean, that position group has been a pretty consistent issue basically his whole tenure. And he is rippable on this. Now, the talking point that he has ignored the position is dead wrong. His first ever draft pick was Matt Kalil. And he has used picks in the first 2 rounds each of the last 3 years on linemen (O'Neill, Bradbury, Cleveland). But he has flopped on a whole lot of mid to late round guys (TJ Clemmings, Willie Beavers and David Yankey just a few examples). 

I'll always give him a break on 2 fronts: Major injuries struck John Sullivan and Phil Loadholt, cutting short tenures here you figured had a long ways to go. And two, NOBODY could have seen Kalil regressing like he did. Kalil was the no brainer pick of all time, and he was a Pro Bowler rookie. You figured he would still be at LT to this day. Instead some injuries and Kalil being kind of a dink led to him becoming a liability within 3 years, and now he is out of the league. You had a whole defense to rebuild during this time, mind you, so with those 3 guys seemingly locked in, you're not going to be spending much upper round draft capital on linemen.

And Spielman HAS been more focused on the OL He made the Rieff and Remmers signings and drafted Pat Elflein, which all paid off in 2017. He drafted O'Neill, then Bradbury, and now Cleveland. And he picked up Dakota Dozier, who looked like a real find last year and may start this year. 

And the line showed marked improvement last year, at least when they weren't facing an elite pass rush. Where they go from here will be a major factor in deciding where the team goes.

But yes, as I said, there was a whole defense that badly needed rebuilding early in the Rick era. That 2008-9 core was well past their prime by 2012, and what was still there sure wasn't helped by Leslie Frazier. 

A lot of people try to spin it that that the defensive improvement the Vikings made with Zimmer was entirely on Zimmer, that Rick had nothing to do with it. 

But Rick drafted Harrison Smith. Rick drafted Xavier Rhodes and Sharrif Floyd (who until medical issues ended his career was a beast...imagine that 2017 squad with him still in there).

And of course with Zimmer we have hit on a bunch of other defensive moves: Barr, Kendricks, Waynes, Munnerlyn, Anthony Harris, Sendejo, Joseph, Eric Wilson, Newman, Odenigbo, and a little guy named Danielle Hunter.

Even if you want to be one of those people who gives Zimmer sole credit for all of that, you can't do that for Rick's signature offensive moves that I haven't mentioned, like finding Adam Thielen and CJ Ham, drafting Stefon Diggs, Dalvin Cook, Alexander Mattison, Irv Smith and Justin Jefferson (yeah I'm already putting him in the win column, you'll see), and signing Greg Jennings and the Tay Train.

I would also defend trading up for Cordarrelle Patterson, even though his impact as a return man greatly eclipsed his impact as a receiver. And yeah, he blew it with Treadwell. He didn't yet know what we had with Thielen and Diggs. Receiver looked like a need there but it wasn't. 

What's left? Okay, the kicking game. Here's where I get spicy.

Drafting Blair Walsh was a great move. *pause for dramatic effect*

That's honestly not even debatable in my opinion. Walsh was amazing his first 2 years. He was a rookie Pro Bowler. He absolutely was a top 5 reasons they made the playoffs in 2012. You got more value out of him than most 5th round picks ever bring. 

The issue is the contract extension Walsh got before 2015. Walsh had already slipped a little in 2014. Kickers don't really incite bidding wars. So handing him a pricey extension was a needless move, and it proved to be one of Rick's worst moves when Walsh struggled that next season and then, well, you know. 

At least Rick did not hesitate to pull the plug in 2016.

And there was the Kaare Vedvik debacle, although that really cost us nothing. It maybe lit a fire under Dan Bailey, and what would one more draft pick this spring really have been.

Speaking of drafts, Rick gets mocked a lot for his collecting late round draft picks (though that's how you get guys like Bisi Johnson), but he doesn't get enough credit for his shrewd moves, like moving down 1 spot in 2012 (that move got us Harrison Smith), or holding serve with his 1st rounders this spring, or now TWICE trading publicly disgruntled wide receivers for draft hauls.

He also, in conjunction with his cap gurus, has worked magic with the salary cap for years. Remember when signing Cousins was going to cause us to lose like 5 other core players and then we signed all of them to extensions? Good times.

So look, in summation (jesus this has been long...I started it the day Rick got the extension like 2 weeks ago), Rick Spielman is a great general manager. If your only measure of success is a super bowl title, you're missing out. He has assembled rosters good enough to get to the playoffs with Christian Ponder and a raw Teddy Bridgewater, and to the NFC title game with Case Keenum. He has overseen just 2 losing seasons out of 8. He hired Mike Zimmer. He will get us to the promised land. 

Long live the slickness!