Trio of gunslingers boast credentials to fuel Purple envy

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson's rulings will allow the Williams Wall to play for the rest of the regular season and playoffs following their suspension by the NFL.

If Magnuson really wants to help the Vikings, he'll place a restraining order on the three quarterbacks the Purple will have to navigate to make the playoffs -- a restraining order to keep these gifted passers from tossing a football within 100 yards of Cedric Griffin.

In the last three games of the season, the Vikings will face MVP candidate Kurt Warner, rookie of the year candidate Matt Ryan and reigning Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning, leaving the Purple with a severe case of passer envy.

The Vikings are shrewdly countering with a 37-year-old guy with a bad back and a recently benched youngster expected to play because the 37-year-old has a bad back.

This three-game stretch will test the basis of Brad Childress' quarterback philosophy, which has posited that a quarterback need only run the offense intelligently for his celebrated Kick-Rear Offense to function.

Given their advantage over most NFL teams at other positions, if the Vikings fail to make the playoffs, they will probably fail because of quarterback play, will probably fail while gazing covetously at the opposing quarterback.

All three are prototypes:

He won a Super Bowl in his first year as an NFL starter. He's virtually the same player now, and as in his glamour days running the Greatest Show on Turf in St. Louis, he throws to brilliant receivers -- Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt then, Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin now.

The Vikings' best hope on Sunday is to put a dynamic pass rush on Warner, who does not move well and who will throw interceptions when pressured.

Warner is the kind of quarterback the Vikings have to wish they had picked up in free agency at some point --like Jeff Garcia.

• Ryan is the classic rookie phenom -- and by "classic" we mean few rookie quarterbacks immediately play with Ryan's grace and savvy in the day and age of violent and complex defenses.

Ryan is the kind of dynamic youngster the Vikings have to wish they had picked up in one of their recent drafts.

The next week, he led a comeback victory at Chicago, a prelude to winning four road games in the postseason and upsetting the previously undefeated Patriots.

Manning is the kind of increasingly wise youngster the Vikings wish Jackson had, or will, become.

So in their attempt to make the playoffs for the first time since 2004, the Vikings will face a divine trinity of quarterbacks -- the savvy veteran, the precocious rookie and the proven winner entering his prime.

Barring a stunning run of regular and postseason competence by Jackson, the Vikings will be looking for a quarterback this winter. They'll be looking for someone who looks a lot like one of their three remaining opponents, any of whom, were they wearing purple today, might make the Vikings one of the four best picks to win the Super Bowl.

Then again, at this point, they'd probably be thrilled to reclaim Tyler Thigpen.