Jim Souhan: Heads-up to Frazier, elite QB is the ticket

You might not have begun looking at the NFL playoff bracket with the Vikings in mind. You might have been busy contemplating what it would have been like if incoming linebackers coach Mike Singletary had been here at the same time as Brett Favre and Randy Moss, giving the Vikings three guys known for dropping their pants.

Singletary: "A team that gets naked together loses together."

Favre: "Anybody can drop their pants. It's the texting that proves you have a firm grasp ... of technology."

Moss: "Man, I just pretended to drop my pants in Lambeau. Y'all some crazy nudists up there -- y'all and Dino Ciccarelli."

This is a painful weekend for Vikings fans, a reminder that their team couldn't qualify for a tournament that let the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks in. This can also be an instructive weekend for Vikings fans wondering how their team will reinvent itself:

• Vikings coach Leslie Frazier is promising a physical, run-first, power offense featuring his best player, Adrian Peterson.

But it may be instructive to note that there are zero teams that qualified for the postseason that have based their offensive success around a single, star running back.

Ten of the top 30 rushers are in the playoffs. Maybe a better way to put it is that eight teams in the playoffs have a rusher in the top 30, because the Chiefs and Jets each have two rushers in the top 30.

The NFL's leading rusher, Arian Foster of Houston, didn't make it to the playoffs. Four of the NFL's top six rushers didn't make it, including the best backs in the game, Chris Johnson and Peterson. Nine of the top 13 didn't make it.

Now look at the gifted array of quarterbacks who made the playoffs. The top five passers (in terms of yardage) are in the playoffs, and 10 of the top 12, and 11 of the top 16. The only outlier is Matt Hasselbeck, who plays for the Seahawks and ranks 28th in passing yards.

All 13 of the teams that won 10 or more games this season have a QB who ranks among the 17 most productive passers in the league.

So while featuring Peterson sounds logical, relying on one dominant back is not the way teams are winning today in the NFL.

Smith's job was considered in jeopardy entering this season, yet he hired former Vikings head coach Mike Tice to coach his offensive line and former Rams head coach Mike Martz to run his offense. Tice has held together a group that looked inept early in the season, and Martz has coaxed a big year out of Jay Cutler.

Frazier's willingness to interview former 49ers head coach Mike Singletary and former Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels demonstrates that Frazier possesses lots of confidence and wants to surround himself with independent thinkers. That can only be good.

• This year's playoffs prove you need a big-time quarterback to be relevant in today's NFL.

Look at the 12 playoff teams. You've got three locks for the Hall of Fame -- Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees. Four others could turn into Hall of Famers -- Aaron Rodgers, Michael Vick, Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan. You've got five who have played in a Super Bowl -- Manning, Brady, Brees, Roethlisberger and Matt Hasselbeck -- and four who have won one.

You've got eight who were drafted in the first round -- Manning, Roethlisberger, Ryan, Vick, Rodgers, Joe Flacco, Jay Cutler and Mark Sanchez -- and another in the second, Brees.

• If you're an optimist regarding the Vikings, root for the Falcons. They have a power runner (Michael Turner), a young quarterback who developed rapidly (Ryan), a well-coached defense -- and they survived the loss of a franchise quarterback (Vick).

In the NFL, you can turn around a franchise overnight, if you land the right coach-quarterback combo.