Jan/101
Cromartie a Viking
Rumor has it the Vikes could be in the hunt for Antonio Cromartie of the Chargers. If true, and we wouldn't give up too much to get him, this would be big. Especially considering the decline in Winfield's ability to cover the pass. Bring in Cromartie and move Antoine to strong safety. Favre comes back after camp ends in Aug 2010 and 2011 and we become the first team to three-peat. We're comin!
Sep/090
Thoughts on Vikings – Lions by Bill Simmons
LIONS (+9.5) over Vikings
Has Brad Childress ever given an interview in which it didn't look like he should be staring through penitentiary glass holding a black phone?
(Wait a second, did I just pick the Lions? That was an accident. Hold on.)
Vikings (-9.5) over LIONS
Much better. I have two Adrian Peterson thoughts. First, he combines my favorite single qualities of five different great running backs: Walter Payton (the move where he breaks a tackle, then stiff-arms a tackler coming from behind to buy a second while getting his legs churning again); Barry Sanders (the part where he's so electric that it's just not worth betting heavily against his team because he can singlehandedly break you); Eric Dickerson (the way he cruises through a hole and you wait for him to kick it into another gear for a split second before realizing he's running away from everyone already); Emmitt Smith (a nasty edge that can only be described as "Look, there's no way we're losing this game and that's that"); and O.J. Simpson (killing).
OK, just kidding about the last one. Peterson never killed anyone, and the Juice was acquitted, remember? (He was totally innocent! The jury said so and everything.) But can you think of another potentially great athlete who combined the best qualities of four legends? Me neither.
Now we'll add a theory Minnesota reader Brian F. sent me a few weeks ago. We know Minnesota paid $12 million to Favre, but did you know Peterson's base salary is just $755,000? Can you remember another time a half-decent player made 15 times more money than the best player on his team? Peterson isn't the type that would complain about this publicly or hold out. What kind of person is he? The kind who takes out his anger on other teams. Like he did last week. Keep an eye on this one. We could be headed for the first-ever Eff You season by a running back. Unless you count the time O.J. murdered two people. Crap, he was acquitted! I keep forgetting.
Mar/0931
1,600 Club Now Available
In the NFL record books you'll find one interesting WR record - Torry Holt along with Marvin Harrison are the only receivers with multiple 1,600 yard receiving seasons. It just happens both players are now free agents having been cut by their respective teams. With the Vikings looking to add threats that compliment AD, let's take a look at the numbers.
Harrison enters his 14th year in the league, the last two saw Marvin play a total of 20 games and collect 80 receptions for about 900 yards with 6 TD's.
Torry "Big Game" Holt enters his 11th season having played all but 2 games in his career. Holt has been a model of consistancy generating 80-100 receptions each year and at least 1,000 yds. Never a big TD guy only grabbing 10 or more in 3 seasons, Holt instead generates consistant deep routes and possession receptions while averaging about 12-14/yds per catch.
It's easy to see how both players could add a new element to the Vikings attack, but Holt is by far and large the bigger threat at this point in his career. Signing Holt to a 2-3 year deal would be well worth it from a financial and production standpoint. Convincing either player to join the QB-less Vikings might be another matter.
Feb/091631
The Minnesota Vikings Draft Needs
The pink elephant in the room is QB. What will the Vikings do at QB? In today’s NFL you have a short window to be great, then a window to rebuild so you can have a short window to be great again.
All Day isn’t getting younger. With LT’s latest woes it’s safe to say an RB has 3-8 great years in him. With a run heavy offense and an all around superior, but aging D, the Vikings window in now 2…maybe 3 years.
Let’s not forget going into last year and the year before expectations were high with the Vikings and they failed to deliver. To this point the team has underperformed in a very weak NFC North Division.
With the league’s #1 rusher you can only blame the offensive play caller or the quarterback to why the offense shuts down in big games (and little one’s, ie. Detroit twice when most teams where winning by 20).
I can’t reiterate the play calling failures enough when you consider having the #1 rusher. The rusher makes the passer better. When teams put 8 in the box 90% of the time you have to make smart throws, you have to make play action throws – where were all the play action throws?
The Vikings were the 25th rated passing team in 2008, Detroit was 24th.
So diehards will argue T Jack will work in 2010, but these are same ignorant people who thought Troy Williamson would replace Moss (just give him more time, they say). But we don’t have time. The window of opportunity is closing.
With that said, here are the 2009 Minnesota Vikings Draft Needs.
The first two you can’t really draft for in 2009, I’d be looking to trade a #1 or #2 pick to get them.
QB – Don’t draft one, you don’t have time. Find someone in Free Agency while the window is open. As we learned with Jared Allen, a proven veteran is worth far more than any 1st round pick.
Unrestricted Free Agents:
Warner, Garcia
Trading a 1st or 2nd Round Pick for guys I would target who are FA’s in 2011 and their team may not want them:
Hasselbeck – I would go after Hasselbeck pending a back check
Thigpen (how did we let him get away? Oh, thanks Brad Childress)
Remember this is a 2 year solution you need to address now while you have a window of opportunity.
If I were the Vikings I would be pursuing Hasselbeck and/or Thigpen asap.
Shut Down Corner – Antwoine Winfield only has a couple more years and the Vikings are one shut down corner away from being unbelievably great. With the Viking front line, a healthy LB core and hard hitting safeties, just imagine what taking out both WR threats each game would mean for this team?
Will the Vikings make a run for Nnamdi Asomugha?
What you can draft.
Kick Returner / WR – If the Vikings don’t trade away the 1st round pick for a QB, I’d look for them to consider filling one of their biggest glaring needs, the kick return game. The Vikings have no return threat and last year’s hope broke his leg half way through the season in the most disgusting way.
If Jeremy Maclin (doubtful) or Percy Harvin (probable) is available here in the 1st, I take him. A slot solution to help your passing game ala DeSean Jackson, ala Steve Breaston. A solid threat to return kicks and punts. You fill two needs.
OT and/or C – Will Birk be back? What about the right side of the line? Do you move Cook to his college position of Center? Does Bryant McKinnie run block or just sort of stand up and whiff at a guy while he looks confused? Isn’t he about one strike away from being suspended for a year?
Punter – Think Eagles Playoff Game...Please can we find someone with hangtime? Or do we have to sit through another year of our punter kicking long line drives 20 yds in front of the coverage? I’d take 5-10 less yards of kicking distance for a higher chance of no return. My favorite line from the video, "By the way, don't kick to Reggie Bush right now. They did Mike. And it's a line drive."
Kluwe ranks 33rd in Net Avg and 25th in fair catches with 8. By comparion the leagues top 5 punters all have more than 20 FC’s. It’s all about hang time and as we saw with SD in the playoffs, when you have a punter with 5+ sec hang times you can single handedly win a game. Kluwe meanwhile I’m sure will keep trying to kick it 60 yds inbounds with 3 sec of hangtime.
And that’s about it for needs that need to be solved before the season starts. The rest of the Viking needs would be for development reasons.
DT and/or S – Pat and Sharper will be shutting it down soon. Use your late round picks to find value and talent that can develop under these two in the next year or two.
Special Teams Coach – if only you could draft someone to fix the worst punt coverage unit in NFL history.
I’m sure I missed something or you have a different opinion. I’d be glad to hear it.
Dec/081700
Add it to the list, maybe
A common theme amongst Minnesota sports fans is having things begin to go our way and then having the proverbial "rug" being pulled out from underneath us. Well, we can add the Vikes to the list for 2008. I know, I know, all cities and states have their relative issues with sports teams such as Seattle this year and maybe Jacksonville with the Jags, or even San Antonio and the Spiz-urs, just to name a few. However, these teams have other things or recent success to fall back on. For example, the Seahawks, even though they are having a down year, (a really down year) have been to a Super Bowl and/or NFC Championship in the last five years. They may not have won but they still made it and gave the city some hope and generated some genuine excitement. Watch, this year they are on pace to get a top five pick and will be back better than ever after drafting Michael Crabtree and housing teams for size in their division (just my humble opinion from looking at it from the outside). I digress.
Amongst us Goldseaters, we have a common expression whenever something happens to one of our beloved teams. We say, "add it to the list" a line referring to all the times other teams from the land of 10,000 lakes have gotten our hopes up only to see them come crashing down in one fell swoop. The latest example is the Williams Wall and the StarCaps situation. As of now both Pat and Kevin will not see the field in the coming four games unless a savvy lawyer can pull something out of the hat. That leaves a huge hole in the middle of the D-line and a more challenging mountain to climb into the playoffs.
The situation is a sticky one for the Williams' boys, but Vikes fans should not abandon hope yet. Something just is not right about the situation. In doing a little research and making a few conclusions we may find that Pat, Kevin, and the others may have a legit story. According to a press release from the FDA, which can be found here: http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/balancedhealth11_08.html
the drug which got the players into trouble, Bumetanide, was never listed on the ingredients label on the bottle itself. This would leave the player to believe that the supplement StarCaps would be okay to take in accordance with the NFL's banned substance policy, not knowing the pills actaully contained something which was on the league's banned substance list. The NFL is strict in it's policy saying a player is responsible for whatever they put in their body no matter what. Short of taking it to a lab and having a scientist run a test, how were they to know that the supplement was to contain a banned substance that was not even on the ingredients of the bottle. Nobody else knew, not even the seller of the product (maybe) until the league ran a test on the players and it was discovered.
Further, reading down the FDA press release we see that the bottles of StarCaps containing the banned substance Bumetanide were sold between August of 2008 to October 30 of 2008 which falls in line when the players were in training camp and subsequently tested positive according to league officials. The dates match up almost perfectly with when they would have been taking the weight-loss supplement giving the players more credit to their claims.
Long story longer the players may have a complelling case, but the league and its "make an example of you" attitude was quick to rule against the players, and now we are without two key pieces to our defensive puzzle. If its not this it will be something else, like an immobile QB or a bothced special teams play, that will brings our hopes and dreams of a Super Bowl victory crashing down in the end.
Sep/082366
Minnesota Vikings Season Prediction
Ok, it's preseason prediction time. Here is how I see the Vikings' season playing out this year:
Week 1 @GB: On the road, nationally televised game, LOSS (0-1)
Week 2 IND: Home opener against Manning et al., LOSS (0-2)
Week 3 CAR: Carolina's strength is the run, we stop it, WIN (1-2)
Week 4 @ Ten: Titans have a poor passing game, we stop the run again, WIN (2-2)
Week 5 @ NO: Great passing offense gets the best of our average at best secondary, LOSS (2-3)
Week 6 DET: All Day is too much for Shaun Rodgers-less run defense, WIN (3-3)
Week 7 @ CHI: Chicago always plays us tough at Soldier Field, they win in the snow, LOSS (3-4)
Week 8 BYE
Week 9 HOU: We squeak out win at home vs. surprise team in AFC, WIN (4-4)
Week 10 GB: They won opening night, we get revenge in HomerDome, WIN (5-4)
Week 11 @ TB: We haven't won in Tampa since the 80's, I guess Vikings don't like pirate ships, LOSS (5-5)
Week 12 @ JAC: Jacksonville defense too tough on the road, LOSS (5-6)
Week 13 CHI: Bears offense might not score this week, WIN (6-6)
Week 14 @ DET: Vikings get a season sweep of the lowly Lions, WIN (7-6)
Week 15 @ ARI: Tarvaris passes fansy all day vs. weak Arizona defense, WIN (8-6)
Week 16 ATL: Jared Allen flusters Matt Ryan all day, WIN (9-6)
Week 17 NYG: Giants are 7-8 at this point and out of the playoff picture with nothing to play for, WIN (10-6)
10-6 record is good enough to win the division, but not a first-round bye. Vikings will win the wild card game, but fall short of making it to the Superbowl. The team is set up nicely to make a legitimate Superbowl run in 2009.
Ok, I am on record and would love to have everyone with an opinion lay out thier game by game predictions below. I think the Vikings have a team that can beat any team any day, but we got a tough draw this year playing the AFC South which affects our record. If we were playing the AFC East, for example, I think we would have one more win this year, which would mean a first round bye in the playoffs. Where do you think I'm right and where am I wrong? Let me know WHY, don't just say 'you're an idiot...' or 'Green Bay blows!...'
Go Vikings!
