I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but there is undoubtedly an anti-Tarvaris Jackson statement lurking in Sage Rosenfels‘ remarks to reporters about how he sees the Vikings‘ offense. Here’s what Sage said:
"I think there is some untapped potential in this offense. I think the receivers do have a lot of talent and I think there’s a lot of tight ends that can do multiple things and everyone knows about the running game. This isn’t going to be an offense where we lead the NFL in most yards and I hope it’s not. Last year, the top three teams in the league [in offense] were all 8-8, but the top three teams in defense all made the conference championship games. To win in this league you’ve got to run the ball well, you’ve got to play great defense and execute in the passing game and have a high third-down percentage. You’ve just got to look no further than the Pittsburgh Steelers, the world champions, and how they’ve been winning consistently over decades and then try to copy some of that here."
Again, I don’t think Sage meant to denigrate Tarvaris Jackson, the guy he will be competing against for the QB job this training camp. Sage’s criticism of Tarvaris was, I believe, unconscious. When he said, “I think there is some untapped potential in this offense,” what he really meant deep down was, “There are solid players on this team but the other quarterback just isn’t good enough to get the most out of them.” And I’m saying deep down. Below the conscious level entirely. On top, Sage is cool with T-Jack, and T-Jack is cool with Sage. Mostly because I don’t think T-Jack is clever enough to read between the lines and realize he was just – accidentally – called a no-talent punk by his new teammate.