Comparing this years Viking's offensive talent to the mid 90's Packers offensive talent around Favre=fail.
Not so sure that I would consider it a fail when you look at the individual positions.
Wide Receivers - Sydney Rice, Percy Harvin and Bernard Barrian>>>Antonio Freeman, Robert Brooks and Bill Schroeder
Running Backs - Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor>>>Edgar Bennett and Dorsey Levens
Tight End - The combination of Mark Chumura and Keith Jackson in the 2 TE set for the Packers was bigger than Shiancoe and Kleinsausser. That said, I'd take Shiancoe over Chumura for athletic ability. Keith Jackson was only with the Packers for a little less than half of Favre's MVP run in the 90's so that lessens his spot on the list.
Offensive Line - Packers '95-97 OL>>>>Vikings current OL
Where the big difference between the current Vikings squad and the Packers squads of the mid-90's comes into play is defense and special teams. The Fritz Shurmer defense and Nolan Cromwell special teams were light years ahead of the current Vikings team. Partly due to injuries and partly due to ineffective coaching and utilization of personnel.
There's a difference between throwing long and throwing to guys like Berrian and Harvin who rack up YAC like no one's business. Favre does not throw deep anywhere near as much as he did in Green Bay in his earlier years.
Antonio Freeman was all about the YAC back in the day. Brooks would catch the occasional deep bomb but the WCO was built to throw quick slants and screens. Maybe Favre tossed it 80 yards in the air because he could back in the mid-90's but here are the number of 20+ & 40+ yard passing plays he had in the MVP years along with this year.
20+ 40+
1995 59 5
1996 49 11
1997 61 9
2009 48 11
He had 16 40+ yard plays in '07 with the Packers and there were a LOT of deep balls to Donald Driver and Greg Jennings mixed in with those killer WCO slant plays. The YAC argument just doesn't hold water as being the reason for the deep ball stats listed above.
Because those aren't his actual stats? You are using ESPN.com projection numbers. Plus Favre's roll in the offense now is much less important than it was in GB in the mid 1990's.
I'm using MrBill projection numbers based on an average of his first 15 games. I think that is reasonable, it's not like he had a huge first game and then I projected 50 TD and 5,000 yards. Barring something odd, Favre will end in the neighborhood of that projection, which is
better in every category than his MVP average outside of TD's.
Football is a statistically driven sport. Over the course of a season, the stats do no lie, therefore he is having one of the best seasons of his career.
***Not an endorsement of Favre over Manning for the 2009 MVP award****