NFL Power Rankings: Preseason

ESPN Preseason Power Rankings

Ladies and Gentlemen, the great spirit in the sky that is ESPN has spoken. The first power rankings of the year have been released. I'm not sure how much stock any of you may take in what ESPN has to say, but if your answer is "a lot", you are probably pretty sad or pissed off at this first poll. The NFL writers have our Vikings sitting at 25th in the league, just above the likes of the 49ers and Broncos and just below the likes of the Dolphins, Lions, Titans, Cardinals and Seahawks. I did not put the latter in any particular order.
With the way last season unraveled for our squad, I can understand a lower-third ranking for these Vikings. They are bringing in yet another journeyman QB (albeit only one season removed from leading a team to the playoffs),  lost Sidney Rice (who, if you aren't from around here, you might think he actually PLAYED games and wasn't constantly injured, outside of the magic 2009 season) and did not greatly improve our two biggest areas of need: the O-Line and the secondary.
Howevah, I cannot help but feel slightly incensed by seeing teams like the Seahawks above us. Sure, they added Rice and Zach Miller.  But they also plan on either starting Charlie Whitehurst or, if Darrell Bevell has anything to say about it, TARVARIS JACKSON. With a team that is one year and only a handful of players removed from an NFC Championship that should have been, how did we end up below a team (6 spots below, I might add) that was not even .500 in the worst division in football (we're actually below 3 teams with this distinction)? And this team is now planning on starting T-Jack. Did these writers suddenly forget watching this man 'play'? Was the film burned as an atrocity to football fans everywhere? Outside of that one mystery of a game he played vs. the Cardinals, where the Cards secondary decided to take the day off or just challenge T-Jack to actually hit a wide-open-by-15-yards target, this man hasn't had a decent game in his life. I'm disturbed. I need not go on anymore of a tangent because any Vikings fan should find this laughable. The Dolphins are also ranked above us. Yes, the same team which let it's top two running backs go and then traded for Reggie Bush to be their top back. Also, the same team whose fans are chanting for any QB other than the one they have and whose ownership has clearly shown they do not want Chad Henne as their starter nor Tony Sparano as their HC. The Rams also come in at number 15 in these rankings. Don't get me wrong, Sam Bradford looks like a stud. But they also failed to hit a .500 record in the aforementioned worst division in football.

Don't take these rankings to heart, my friends. Revel in how much fun it should be when the whole league is super surprised at the fact that Donovan McNabb can actually lead a team to victories that doesn't feature Ryan Torain as their best RB and Daniel Snyder as the owner. Also, how surprised ESPN NFL writers will be when the NFC West still turns out to be the NFC West.