So after reading through a jsonline article comparing the two teams…and hearing Favre’s quote about how this year’s Vikings is the ‘best’ team he’s been on…I thought I’d look at the two, position by position. First of all, you have to take what Favre is saying with a grain of salt, people take him way to seriously sometimes and things get blown out of proportion.
Anyhoo…ranking each position on a grade of 0-10 for each position, with 10 being All Pro status and 0 being complete dud. So let’s start with QBs..
Here’s a 10 minute video to help remind fans of the dominate, 1996 Brett Favre..
OFFENSE
QB + 6 Packers
- Packers – Brett Favre, Jim McMahon
- Vikings – Brett Favre, Sage Rosenfels, Tavaris Jackson
Really cannot compare the 1996 version to today’s version. The only advantage today’s Favre has is experience in the WC offense. He also is much less reluctant to force things…But the 1996 Favre easily eluded pressure and probably made two or three “I can’t believe he just pulled that off” plays each game. That easily made up for any crazy INTs he had. He was also not the true gunslinger he’s known to be now until after Holmgren left in 1998. Holmgren kept him under wraps.
RB + 4 Vikings
- Packers – Dorsey Levens, Edgar Bennett
- Vikings – Adrian Peterson, Chester Taylor
Minimal edge goes to the Vikings just for the fact that AP is the best back in the league right now. And, even though Levens was pretty solid and Bennett was an awesome receiver, they didn’t really start rolling till the end of the year.
WR + 5 Packers
- Packers – Robert Brooks*, Andre Rison*, Don Beebe, Antonio Freeman
- Vikings – Bernard Berain, Sydney Rice, Percy Harvin
Not knowing how solid the Packer’s receivers were that year, I’m sure many Viking fans will say WTF on this…but really they suffered season ending injuries to their best WR (Brooks, who was never the same), five weeks to Free, and brought in Rison. By the time playoffs came around this was an awesome foursome of receivers. Plus Beebe finally got a ring! Oh and small sidenote…the Packers’ decision to NOT bring back Rison (Spiderman) the next year was the start of their downfall!
TE +7 Packers
This is easy…Jackson is a HOFer and Chewy was an all pro before deciding to jump in a hot tub with high schoolers like two years later. Now his name isn’t familiar to many fans today. The double TE formation from that year is still envied by most Packer fans today. Both TEs could catch and block…ok maybe Jackson not so much…but Chewy dominated linebackers.
OL + 4 Vikings
- Packers – Frank Winters, Aaron Taylor, Adam Timmerman, Earl Dotson, Gary Brown*
- Vikings – Bryant McKinnie, Steve Hutchinson
Even though Winters, Taylor and Timmerman would later all make multiple pro bowl appearances…in 1996 they were just starting to become solid blockers.
DEFENSE
Gravedigger wouldn't like Favre's comparisons
DL + 5 Packers
- Packers – Reggie White, Santana Dotson, Gilbert Brown, Sean Jones
- Vikings – Jared Allen, Kevin Williams, Pat Williams, Kenny Peterson
If anyone disagrees with this, just look at one stat…Packers were #1 in points allowed in 1996. They never really had to blitz either, just got pressure from the front four. Seriously, Reggie White alone would sway this in the Packer’s favor. He wasn’t a one dimensional speed rusher like Jared Allen. He took away that entire side of the field basically. I don’t recall seeing a team have ANY success running the ball to White’s side until is last year in Green Bay. Dotson was deceptively good, Sean Jones was lanky, powerful, and a veteran. And Gilbert Brown was the anchor to the entire D. (Athletic, fat, and huge) I contend this is the second best D-line next to the 85 Bears. (Well at least out of the football I’ve witnessed over 25 plus years)
LB Push
- Packers – Brian Williams, George Koonce, Wayne Simmons
- Vikings – Ben Leber, Chad Greenway, E.J. Henderson
I think both of these linebacking corps get held up by their D-lines. Not much else to say here other than Simmons was a terror that year!
CB +2 Packers
- Packers – Craig Newsome, Doug Evans
- Vikings – Antoine Winfield, Cedric Griffin
While Winfield is probably the better of these four, the Packers twosome of Newsome and Evans easily outperforms the Vikings corners. Newsome was an alternate in the Pro Bowl and probably would’ve been there a couple more times without the serious knee injuries that sidelined him for most of his career after the 96 season.
Safety + 8 Packers
- Packers – Leroy Butler, Mark Prior
- Vikings – Madieu Williams, Tyrell Johnson
This is probably the biggest advantage to the Packers position wise. Butler will be in the HOF someday, and that season he was a game changer. Prior was a savvy vet as well.
Kicker +1 Packers
- Packers – Chris Jacke
- Vikings – Ryan Longwell
Since both played for the Packers I’m quite familiar with these kickers. I gave Jacke a slight edge because of how clutch he was that season….when he had to be. And he was a much better bad whether kicker.
Punter +9 Packers
- Packers – Craig Hentrich
- Vikings – Chris Kluwe
Hentrich was another guy Ron Wolf regrets not signing after he became a free agent. Besides Favre, he is the only active player from the 96 team.
Special Teams + 6 Packers
- Packers – Desmond Howard
- Vikings – Percy Harvin
Harvin is definitely a legit kick returner but Howard just has too much here…his career was resurrected this season with Green Bay. He lead the league in return yardage and touchdowns. And dammit, he was the Super Bowl MVP, and was pretty much unstoppable during the entire season..especially in the playoffs.
Coaches + 100,000 Packers
- Packers – Mike Holmgren
- Vikings – Brad Childress
This is where comparing the two teams goes out the window, I mean Holmgren will more than likely be in the HOF someday soon. And look at his coaching staff that year! Jon Gruden, Steve Mariucci, Andy Reid, Fritz Shurmur, Marty Morningwig…its just amazing. And ya I may be bias, but seriously “Chilli” has some serious mental lapses and I haven’t seen him lift this Vikings team up one bit. If anything I think he holds this team back.
Overall, the 1996 Packers were a much more dominant football team. They were #1 in points scored and #1 in points allowed, #1 in yards allowed, #1 against the pass and #1 passing the football…And they absolutely blew people out in 10 out of 16 games. And they did this while suffering some pretty significant injuries along the way.
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