I'm actually not all that high on Minnesota's future, I don't see strong fundamentals. Their defense was essentially league average by DVOA, and their offense was perfectly average (0.0 DVOA). In 2015 they were the epitome of an average team. Almost all of their value above average came from special teams, and almost all of that came from a handful of kick returns by Patterson.
As far as their defense goes, it could evolve into a more than solid unit, but it kind of has the feel of a no-name defense. Griffen has good sack totals the past two years but his pass rush repertoire is pedestrian IMO. Minnesota's corners ARE talented, but just average in terms of play. Safety play is tough to evaluate sometimes, but Harrison Smith has failed to get my attention in any Vikings game I've watched. Maybe that's my fault, but I will say that Chancellor got my attention immediately with his playmaking in 2011. Point being, it's very hard to know how good a safety really is sometimes especially if the splash plays aren't in abundance. Remember when the Saints signed "best safety in the NFL" Jairus Byrd? A couple years later Byrd was part of a Saints defense that had the worst defensive DVOA in history.
On offense, the Vikings built everything around a soon to be 31 year old RB. Their OL is a big weakness. Rudolph is a fungible talent. Some of their receivers I like (Mike Wallace especially) but they have the exact wrong QB to take advantage of Mike Wallace's talents. If you look at the Vikings season, their wins and losses are predicted very strongly by AP's success in those games.
Bridgewater is a better decision-maker than Christian Ponder, but otherwise they are two similar QBs. Both are good but not great scramblers. Both lack arm strength and throw an overwhelming percentage of short passes. Both seemed to lack inner fire.
When AP is done being effective, I think Minnesota is going to be in trouble. The Vikings were 6-9 without AP in 2014 with basically the same team they have now.
Long term, I see Minnesota as a team that hovers around .500 over the next five seasons. It's likely that their 11-5 record in 2015 will be a career high for Bridgewater. I don't see his arm-strength or shot-put mechanics or his lack of inner fire changing. It's not that he's a TERRIBLE QB, but he'll only have success against teams that allow it, as he's one of the easiest QBs in the league to game plan.
So for me, if Seattle had lost this game it would have been a bitter pill to swallow. If Seattle loses to a SB caliber opponent it feels like a loss is easier to take, but if they had lost to an average team with an average future like Minny I'd have felt regret over it for years, much like the regret I felt after Seattle dropped one to the paper tiger Falcons in 2012.
