In the middle of a tough season, the Vikings have pulled themselves together these past few weeks to play their best football. Starting with the close loss to Dallas in Week 9, this has been a much better, more competitive team than we saw earlier in the year.

Although the team's record of 2-2-1 in those games might not blow you away, the pieces have fit together more effectively these past few weeks, giving hints of more success to come. Despite starting the season 1-7, everyone has continued to play hard, to keep fighting through adversity.

That's valuable. It shows the Vikings are competitive personnelwise, that they have talent and are not giving up. No matter what changes you make in the draft and free agency this offseason, most of the team is going to be the guys we're seeing now; it's important to have confidence in the building blocks of the team.

Future success, of course, will ultimately come down to quarterback play. If you put one of the top-tier quarterbacks on this Vikings team, I believe they win the division. With more consistent quarterback play, a lot of the other pieces are there. As we've seen, once you take Aaron Rodgers off the Packers, they become the worst team in the division. One position makes all the difference. And it's that way for every great team.

The Seahawks look pretty unbeatable right now, but the biggest element in their success is consistent excellence from Russell Wilson. On the flip side, the Jets, despite their great defenses and other strong pieces, have been unable to win consistently over the past five years, even when they were advancing in the playoffs, because they weren't getting that kind of play from Mark Sanchez and now Geno Smith.

So while the Vikings can be confident in the great Adrian Peterson, the athletic play of Kyle Rudolph and the development of Cordarrelle Patterson and the other receivers, the path forward in a tough division is obvious: Find a franchise quarterback. Christian Ponder and Matt Cassel have shown what they are, and while they'll win some games, the long-term answer is elsewhere.

And to find that guy, you have to look in the draft. When teams find guys who can play at the quarterback position, they don't let them go (unless you're the San Diego Chargers sending Drew Brees on his way, of course).

The Vikings, like every team that needs a quarterback, almost certainly have their scouts looking at every draft-eligible quarterback in the college ranks. Who should it be? I'm not sure yet -- to be confident about that, you have to spend a lot of time watching them, talking to them and getting to know them, what kind of people they are and how they are with coaches and teammates. I hope the right people are studying these prospects every day, to pick out the best guy the Vikings can get.

You have to be up close, watching with a trained eye. It's not about finding the guy who meets your expectation of what a quarterback looks like; it's about finding somebody who can play. Sure, you need to have an NFL-caliber arm, but that's just the first hurdle. What kind of a leader are you? How do you handle pressure? What about your football smarts? How quickly can you identify the easy throw against the defense?

And once you've found the right guy, let him be himself. The worst-coached position in sports is quarterback because teams so often try to force players into molds that just don't fit. The Seahawks are successful because they let Wilson be himself; they don't try to make him play like Peyton Manning, because he couldn't do that. He scrambles, runs bootlegs, rolls out, runs the option and uses the skills he has to the best of his ability.

The 49ers, on the other hand, have struggled more this year because they made a mistake in trying to turn Colin Kaepernick into more of a pocket passer. He has looked uncomfortable because he's having to think about what he's doing instead of just using his legs and athletic ability. Even when he runs, he's hesitating that split second that makes the difference between a big play and routine play for the defense. Find the strengths of your quarterback and build around those, letting him be who he is instead of who you want him to be.

This problem isn't new; it was certainly true in my day, too. The exception for me was the last seven years of my career, when I returned to Minnesota and got to play for Jerry Burns, who really understood how to coach quarterbacks and was great at it. That made a huge difference for me. With the right approach, the Vikings can find their answer at the quarterback position and make a decisive climb.
