Culpepper is completely overrated. He excelled with Moss because Moss would win the jump ball situation. He was average [an overstatement] without him. I would be shocked to see if he had 25+ passing touchdowns this season.
This would certianly explain why Culpepper had his best year when Moss had his worse year and missed a good portion of games in 2004.
Blue Onion - How do you explain last year? He was horrible and it was not all the OL fault - he threw interceptions that a high school QB knew better not to throw.
I put it on a lot of variables, but it is my own opinion and certainly not fact:- Offensive Playbook - The playbook used was a fairly unaltered playbook from the Denny Green era that ended in 2001 and was designed around Randy Moss, who no longer existed. Tweaking the playbook would have been a big help.
- Offensive coaches - Who were the offensive masterminds in Minnesota last year? Mike Tice, who was a career backup tightend and his only coaching experienc (college and pro) was being an offensive line coach. Steve Loney, the offensive coordinator who broke into coaching as Mike Tice's assistant offensive line coach and was promoted to offensive coordinator because McCombs told Tice to promote a coach from inside the organization? I hate to say this but the most qualified offensive mind on the Vikings' staff last year might have been Ted Cottrell.
- Offensive line was pretty dismal; The starting RG, C and LG may be lucky to be in the league this year.
- Most of Daunte's interceptions came after the Vikings were down by two scores to playoff teams.
But to answer your question,

I don't think you can pin his performance on one thing, much like you cannot pin his success in previous seasons just on Randy Moss.
But there have only been two quarterbacks in the history of the NFL to reach 20,000 passing yards faster than Culpepper and those names are Marino and (P) Manning.