Upgrades at safety would be nice, but ....

The release of safeties Oshiomogho Atogwe and Bob Sanders has created some speculation the Vikings might sign one of these guys to improve a position that was very weak in 2010.

While it looks like Atogwe might re-sign with St. Louis anyway even after they released him, I won't be worrying too much about whether these guys land with the Vikings or not.

We certainly saw a lot of bad safety play from the Vikings last season, particularly from Madieu Williams, who seemingly forgot how to play football in 2010 – letting sure interceptions slide through his hands, taking impossibly bad angles on passes thrown his way, and overall tackling poorly.

Still, the Vikings have a number of weaknesses to address assuming NFL football is played in 2011. Safety is one of those weaknesses. But its hardly the most pressing one.

Consider (and I'm sure you have) that the Vikings currently need to find a quarterback of the present and the future. They may also need to find a replacement for linebackers Ben Leber and Chad Greenway, placekicker Ryan Longwell, left defensive end Ray Edwards, they may also need a number one and a number three wide receiver, a right guard, a center, and depending on the health of cornerback Cedric Griffin, a starting cornerback to team with Antoine Winfield.

Again, I'm not disputing that the Vikings safety play wasn't bad in 2010. It was. But I think it was often bad in 2009, too. But that bad play didn't hurt the Vikings too much because the team got such great performances from more vital positions like quarterback and wide receiver.

Even as things went horribly wrong in 2010, I don't remember thinking too often during a Vikings game that, "Fuck, our safeties are costing us this game. If only we had Ed Reed we'd have been 11-5!"

The Vikings have four guys under contract – Williams, Husain Abdullah, Tyrell Johnson and Jamarca Sanford – who have all started games for the Vikings the past two seasons.

The Vikings can survive using some combination of those four, just like they did in 2009. So I'm hoping team management isn't expending a great deal of brainpower worying about the safety position.

What's more important is finding the right solutions to the more pressing roster holes.