I really, really don’t understand what the Vikings are thinking. This has been the case for the whole offseason, but it was reinforced now that I just read the latest story out of the endless Favre saga. A source has come out and said that Favre is conflicted about his choice, which he has said he will make by the end of this month. The source indicated that Favre would perhaps favor retirement, but he feels an obligation to the Vikings coaching staff and to the players who have been lobbying him to join them. I still think that Favre will decide to join the team. What I don’t understand is why they would want him.

Let’s look at the best case scenario. In a perfect world Favre would have a year about like he did in his last year in Green Bay. That would probably be enough to make it to the playoffs, and maybe win a game or two. But then what? You can’t convince that even Brett Favre in his prime would make this a likely Super Bowl winner. You also can’t convince me that Favre has more than a year or, at the very, very most, two left in him. After that the Vikings are right back where they started. They will have had a year or two of decent but not overwhelming performance, but in the meantime they have failed to develop a quarterback, and they have only alienated and frustrated the quarterbacks they do have. It’s a small step forward followed by a fairly significant step back. Why would they want to do that?

Remember, that’s the best case scenario. More likely, Favre is going to show what he showed last year – flashes of the brilliance of old tempered by some stunningly bad play, and a general display of how not to be a good teammate. Even if he wasn’t old, though, this would still be a ridiculous situation. Every other starter in the league has spentthe last few months working with his receivers, learning the playbook, and developing his relationship with the coaching staff. Favre has been in Mississippi playing catch with high school players. He’ll be behind from the very start, and I really doubt his ability to catch up well at this stage in his career. The Vikings are putting themselves in a situation where failure is a high risk.

And what happens if Favre doesn’t return? You’ll have a quarterback who clearly won’t feel like he has the support and faith of his team behind him, and he’ll constantly face the comparisons to Favre and what could have been with every misstep. That’s hardly a way to create a situation for success.

I don’t understand why the Vikes think that this is what they need to do to be as competitive as they can be. I really don’t understand why Brad Childress would pursue the Favre option so aggressively when he’s at the stage of his career where he really needs to win in Minnesota now to secure his future there. I was optimistic about this team last year and they let me down. I’m nowhere near as optimistic this year regardless of what Favre decides to do.