The Vikings have been a poorly run team for a while, even the year they made it to the NFC Championship game. They've always appeared shortsighted and confused. Holding onto the idea of Favre too long, letting a solid young talent like Rice just walk away in FA, drafting Ponder, keeping with Ponder last year, seemingly treating Ponder as the unquestioned starter for 2013, etc. They let young talent walk, they make horrible errors at QB beyond lucking out with Favre for one year, they've made some bad moves in the draft, they don't have the balls to move on from bad players (though they let Sid walk and can't hang onto an elite young player like Harvin), and so on and so on. They come off as a delusional franchise with many delusional fans who think Ponder is going to grow into this franchise quarterback he was never going to be and thinking they aren't a team whose best players are near the end of their primes or careers in general that needs to focus more on rebuilding than anything else at this point.
I know there's a lot said about the Seahawks and Vikings swapping players here and there, but I think there's just a series of unrelated moves and with our current regime + their's you're just seeing a franchise that lets really good young players leave and another that knows that these types aren't usually available and snatching them up.
When I was hearing they were in on Wallace before he signed in Miami, I thought it was absurd. What a ridiculous pairing. They trade away the type of guy Ponder needs for success that can make plays if this bad QB just does a minimal job and gets the ball in the guy's hands (which Percy reportedly recognized as he argued that Ponder wasn't worthwhile), and then pursue a guy hard in FA for more money that's biggest talent is doing something their QB can't take advantage of. This is just an awful franchise, it reminds me of the Ruskell era. Just awful decision after awful decision, some good players might sneak through, some good vets carrying over from better days, but lots of good players leaving the team and a team that really has no hope to go anywhere. Sometimes bad teams make the playoffs, the Vikings were a bad team last year, they were carried by a historic performance by AP and a decent defense, but it's just not a good team. I'd bet on them picking top 3 next year before I bet they make the playoffs again.