The Minnesota Vikings had very good teams in 2007, 2008 and 2009 before the bottom fell out in 2010 when Brett Favre couldn’t duplicate his previous season and the team generally aged out of contention. General manager Rick Spielman has a lot of work to do before the Vikings return to relevancy.

RealGM has been using a statistic called the Trench Counter to rank NFL teams since the 2007 season.

The Trench Counter accounts for average yards per pass, yards per carry, penalty yards, first downs and turnovers to determine how well teams control the game in the most meaningful ways. 

The Vikings rank 9th in Trench Counter from the 2007 season through 2011.

Below are Minnesota’s season-by-season rankings, Trench Counter totals and actual record in parentheses.

2007: 8th, +4.5 (8-8)
2008: 6th, +4.6 (10-6)
2009: 2nd, +6.7 (12-4)
2010: 18th, -0.8 (6-10)
2011: 26th, -3.4 (3-13)