| | By John Clayton
ESPN.com
RIVER FALLS, Wis. -- Cris Carter made a bold prediction as he walked away from one of his many power lunches with Randy Moss and Daunte Culpepper at Vikings training camp.
|  | | The Vikings are counting on big things from Daunte Culpepper. |
"As far as this year, I think he will throw 57 percent completions and somewhere between 28 and 34 touchdowns," Carter said. "Randy and I are
good for 12 to 14 touchdowns apiece. That's 26 right there."
The bigger question involving Culpepper is whether he will score more points with his strong arm or his thick legs. Culpepper had his first major test against a talented defense during Monday's duel practices against the Kansas City Chiefs. Three of his first eight plays were scrambles.
"It helps break down a defense when he has a chance to run," Vikings coach Dennis Green said. "And if guys aren't open, we want him to make something happen. He can break a defense down because he has a superior running style. It will take bump-and-run coverage off Randy and Cris."
Culpepper says that he's born to run in the Vikings offense in order to force teams to commit one defensive player to spy on him every play.
"I feel I can make defenses stay honest if I run the ball," Culpepper said. "That's exactly what we want to do. If teams want to blitz and play man to man, they are going to have to put a man in the middle to account for me. If they do that, we are going to capitalize by running the ball."
The debate from the defensive side is that the choice between a Culpepper run and a long Moss touchdown pass is vast. A good Culpepper run might result in a first down. Good Moss plays result in touchdowns. Teams might let Culpepper run. A rolling Culpepper gathers no Moss on those plays.
Several times, the Chiefs dropped back in zone coverages, almost encouraging Culpepper to run. He did.
"The Chiefs were dropping seven guys into coverages, and Daunte doesn't want to make a dumb play.
"You don't want another team to get their hands on the ball. You don't want them tipping the ball. What we are really trying to do is to stay under double digits in interceptions. With his ability to run, it doesn't make sense to throw the ball into a lot of traffic."
From the Monday practices, Culpepper's performance was predictable. He showed flashes of brilliance in completing a couple of long tosses to
Moss. The Vikings have added a few screen passes and short tosses to Robert Smith
and others, which Culpepper executed well.
Predictably, some of his passes weren't close. Some hit the ground. Others were high. And sometimes observers were left with the impression Culpepper would rather bail out with a run than stay with a pass.
"I going to do what it takes to move the chains and get the job done," Culpepper said. "My thing is not pass then run. I want to go through my progressions. After that, then I run."
Don't minimize Culpepper's running ability. He's 250 pounds and fluid. At 6-foot-4, he's hard for a defender to pull him down. At one point in
the offseason, Culpepper ballooned into the 260-pound range, which he considered too much weight for his position.
Moss, meanwhile, wants Culpepper to throw more of his weight around in the huddle. He wants more leadership from Culpepper.
"I think in order to be a championship caliber team, your quarterbacks need to lead you," Moss said. "Look at Joe Montana or John
Elway or Brett Favre or Troy Aikman. They lead their team. Just because you
are inexperienced and are a talented and gifted quarterback, that doesn't mean he's going to lead us to the Super Bowl."
Carter doesn't think Culpepper's job will be that hard.
"He's a young quarterback who's in the best situation because he's got the best receivers," Carter said. "I believe that his numbers will
compare or be better than Tim Couch, Akili Smith or all those other guys.
Daunte's on a good football team."
Green agrees.
"Daunte is a passer," Green said. "That's what he's always done. He comes out of a college that used the shotgun more than another college
than I've seen in a while. He can throw the long passes that Randy likes.
"We're giving him the keys to the car. He doesn't have to build it. He doesn't have to design it. He doesn't have to kick the tires. What he
does best is distribute the ball. He's a basketball player, so distributing is something that he's real good at."
We'll see how defenses distribute schemes against him.
John Clayton is ESPN.com's senior NFL writer.
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