General News

WELCOME TO THE BIG SHOW: Greg Childs

May 16, 2012, by 9 comments

Welcome to part six of our ten part series entitled “Welcome to the Big Show” where we attempt to bring you a comprehensive, in-depth look at each of the Vikings ten Draft selections of 2012. In case you missed them, here are links to the first five: Matt Kalil, Harrison Smith, Josh Robinson, Rhett Ellison, and Jarius Wright.

Make sure to go back and check out Brett’s fine article on Wright.  As we all know by now, Wright and Greg Childs have been friends and teammates since a very young age.  Childs is the subject of today’s “Welcome to the Big Show” segment.

PERSONAL HISTORY

During his junior year at Warren High School in Arkansas he put up 65 receptions and made 15 of them count for touchdowns, and earned a spot on the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s all-Junior team.  In 2007, he was an all-State selection as a senior.

Childs left high school as one of the most heavily recruited players in the nation.  He received scholarship offers from Tennessee, Ole Miss, Colorado, Mississippi State, and Texas Tech before deciding to stay close to home and become a Razorback.

Childs turned 22 on March 10th of this year which makes him the youngest receiver on the Vikings roster.

He met fellow Viking rookie Jarius Wright in the third grade when he moved to Warren.  Wright was a popular kid at the elementary school and they decided to target Childs for some old fashioned bullying.  It took about two years for them to finally become friends, and they have been teammates ever since the seventh grade.

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Don’t Expect Rookie Contracts This Week

May 16, 2012, by No comments yet

This is the time of year where Vikings fans get annoyed as they see other teams get their rookies under contract while nothing louder than a cricket is coming out of Winter Park on this front.

According to CBS Sports, we will continue to wait until at least next week before any rookie contracts are finalized according to a team source.

It is not exactly clear why the Vikings are always seemingly behind other teams in regards to signing their rookies, but the truth is that it isn’t that big of a deal.  The team will almost certainly have all of their rookies under contract soon enough and they have great attendance at their offseason workouts.

Vikings Make A Pair Of Moves

May 16, 2012, by 1 comment

Rick Spielman continues to tool around with the bottom of his roster, hoping the depth moves will provide adequate competition in training camp.

On Tuesday, the team signed defensive end Nick Reed (24 years old) is 6’ 1” and 248 pounds.  He played in 16 games as a rookie in 2009 with the Seahawks where he totaled 17 tackles, a sack, two batted passes, and two fumble recoveries (one of which he returned for a touchdown).

Reed was out of the game in 2010 but returned last season and spent time with the Bears and the Bucs, having a minimal impact.  The Oregon product seems like a guy capable of turning some heads in camp, as he has been productive in the past, and fits the mold of the type of player Spielman is seeking out these days.

Harvard offensive tackle Kevin Murphy (22 years old) stands at a massive 6’ 7” and 295 pounds.  The 49ers picked him up as an undrafted free agent in April but they waived him earlier this week, and the Vikings claimed him off of waivers.

Murphy is likely not the last time the Vikings utilize the waiver system in an attempt to upgrade their roster.  Remember, they get the third priority because of their 3-13 record in 2011, so only the Colts and the Rams will have a higher priority.

The Vikings waived offensive lineman Jose Valdez and another yet-to-be-named player to keep their roster size at 90.  As soon as we know the other player that was waived, we will be sure to pass that along.

[UPDATE:  It turns out that the second player cut was defensive end Kevin Cyrille who signed with the team in April as an undrafted free agent out of Florida Atlantic.]

Links Of The Weekend: Stadium Euphoria

May 12, 2012, by 2 comments

Well, we all know what topic has dominated Vikings news this week, and we’ll get back to assessing the ongoing roster transformation soon, but in the meantime let’s highlight some of best articles available right now.  Most are stadium related, but I tried to find a good mix.

Spielman Indicates Longwell Decision Was Made In January

May 9, 2012, by 5 comments

I wasn’t all that surprised when the Vikings decided to select a kicker in the 2012 NFL Draft.  I wasn’t surprised that they cut Ryan Longwell.

Most surprising to me, however, was the timing of the move to waive Longwell.  That timing, as General Manager Rick Spielman explains it, was a matter of respect for Longwell.  Spielman wants to give him the best chance possible to find a good fit with another team.

“We felt that Ryan deserved an opportunity to go out and get employment instead of waiting through training camp,” said Spielman.  “Once we made the decision to go with Blair [Walsh], it was the only fair thing to do with Ryan, to give him an opportunity to potentially get hooked on with another team instead of waiting until the end.”

Spielman also indicated that the decision to move on from Longwell was one that was made when he gained full control of the roster.

“I think it all goes back to when we started our whole process of evaluating our roster back in January, when we started our meetings and evaluating everybody on our roster and making those difficult decisions on, like I said, some very good veteran football players,” Spielman said. “It makes it even more difficult because of the type of people they are as well.”

Longwell has always been a class act, at least until he came to his senses and left Green Bay (wink), and I look forward to seeing him kick a game winner or two in 2012… as long as it isn’t against us.

Vikings: “The Wilfs have stepped up and made a huge commitment to Minnesota and a huge commitment to the fans”

May 9, 2012, by 2 comments

One of the biggest questions over the last few days has been how the Minnesota Vikings, particularly the Wilf family, would respond to the public squeezing that the State Legislature has put on them.

The House tried to get an extra $105 million out of them in their version of the stadium bill, while the Senate wanted an extra $25 million.

The Conference Committee met late on Wednesday night and the Vikings have agreed to pay what amounts to a compromise, an increase of $50 million.  That bring the Vikings (and NFL’s) contribution to the new stadium up to $477 million.

“The Wilfs have stepped up and made a huge commitment to Minnesota and a huge commitment to the fans,” Vikings vice president Lester Bagley said to the Committee.

At this point, it is kind of hard to argue with him.

Now, it is time to see if the State is willing to show the same level of commitment.

The House and the Senate should have final votes completed by Thursday night at the very latest.

Peterson Shows His Determination

May 9, 2012, by 2 comments

On December 24th, Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson suffered a major knee injury and had to celebrate the new year while recovering from reconstructive surgery.

On Wednesday, Peterson and head trainer Eric Sugarman met with Minneapolis media to show that both the player and team are cautiously optimistic that he will be able to return to playing meaningful football early in the 2012 season, perhaps even the opening game.

“That first game against Jacksonville, I plan on being back, so that will be disappointing if I’m not,” said Peterson.

“I’ve been ahead of the schedule since Day One,” Peterson continued. “The staff here, the staff down in Houston, they’ve been doing a great job with just pushing me, pushing me, but having that limit on it and knowing that, ‘Hey, Adrian, I know you want to do this, but you’ve just got to play it slow and it will come.’ ”

“You know, he’s to the point now where he’s really safe to do just about anything,” Sugarman said. “We gradually ramp him up to functional activity, and when we get to the point where he’s comfortable and has normal strength back to the other side — or better than the other side — and can function as he needs to, then we make that decision.

“He realizes now that there’s too much to lose by doing something foolish,” Sugarman added. “He has been pretty good. Now you have to pull back on the reins every once in a while and just remind him. But he has been pretty good about it, and I’m on the record as saying that he’ll continue.”

Peterson worked out in front of the media on Wednesday, performing a litany of drills and exercises to show just how far he has come.  He wore a brace on his knee for everything except for straight-line running.  Cutting and deceleration are the hardest things to do for Peterson at this point.

While Peterson showed a willingness to appease trainers by taking things as slow as his ultra-competitive personality will let him, he said that he has no intentions of playing second fiddle to Toby Gerhart once he does make it onto the field in the regular season.

“I’m not going to see myself in a limited role,” he said. “I want to be out there full throttle. … I feel like I’ll be able to go out there and help my team. That’s where my mind-set is going to be at.”