Putting way too much pressure on the Vikings

I don't think I am being too dramatic here, but if the Vikings don't win the Super Bowl this year, they have completely missed their shot with this window. This season is a crucial one for the Vikes, and they can't screw it up. The problem is that I don't believe they have the ability not to.
It is difficult to maintain a core of talent for much longer than 2 or 3 years, and the Vikings are likely approaching the end of such a cycle. Players will either age out of their most effective ability, or they will reach free agency, and their contracts will no longer fit. It's not an issue of team management, it's just the way things work in the NFL. The exception is teams that have a broader period of contention.
One thing that most teams who reach a contending window, and are able to lengthen that window, is a stable, home grown quarterback. The Vikingsgave up on Teddy Bridgewater, just as they have had to do with all of their drafted quarterback talent, excepting only, perhaps, Daunte Culpepper and Brad Johnson, so they broke the bank on Kirk Cousins.
So this season is just as much a referendum on Cousins as it is on the Vikings' window. He still has two years left on his deal, including the coming season, but if Cousins can't lead the Vikings deep into the playoffs, or if he does and still looks shaky thereafter, the final year of his contract will likely consist of keeping the seat warm for the next man ready to fail as Vikings quarterback.
The problem is that Cousins is a deeply flawed player, who has never really proven himself of leading a team into the postseason. Washington was just as successful, if not moreso with Alex Smith at the helm last year, before he got hurt. Quarterback statistics are hard to assess. Often because a bad team is behind early, a quarterback's numbers are inflated as his team tries to catch up. The only way, in my opinion, to judge whether or not a quarterback is effective is if his team wins when he is on the field. Has Kirk Cousins proven that he wins? Not consistently.
That's the biggest albatross on the Vikings' neck this season. Next season, they will need to worry about retaining core pieces of their roster if they hope to sustain some modicum of success. Their last challenge is time. They'll find out, either this year or next, that they've run out of it.