Off-The-Field Issues

Anoka County Releases Caleb King, And So Do Vikes

May 1, 2012, by 6 comments

I imagine it was a good feeling for Caleb King to walk out of an Anoka County jail on Tuesday, but probably not as good of a feeling to find he isn’t only a free person but also a free agent.

The Vikings released King on Tuesday after he spent three days in jail on suspicion of severely beating a man at a party who supposedly teased King for looking like Eddie Murphy.  King has not yet been charged.

The Vikings seemingly placed a great emphasis on talent, leadership, and character in this weekend’s Draft.  The decision to cut King, a player that would likely be nothing more than the third running back, should surprise nobody.

Caleb King Arrested For Beating And Bloodying Man

April 28, 2012, by 4 comments

Last night, Vikings running back Caleb King attended a birthday party and apparently a 22 year old man was teasing him, comparing his appearance to that of an unknown celebrity.

In the early hours of the morning, as the party was winding down, King allegedly followed the man out of the residence and punched him in the head several times and threw him head first into the ground.  The man then called 911 from inside a car when King opened the door and ripped him from the vehicle.

The homeowners refused to call 911 for the man and instead offered to drive him home.  When the police showed up, as a result of the initial 911 call being tracked, the homeowners then told him that nothing happened and that nobody needed assistance.

At that time, the man was inside the home.  Later, he received treatment for serious wounds and needed over 50 stitches.  Currently, there are worries that he received brain damage from the incident.

King was arrested but denied assaulting the man.  He claimed that the man simply fell down while the two of them were talking.

Rick Spielman, according to the Washington Post, declined to comment extensively on the situation but did say the team takes these incidents very seriously and will continue to gather the facts.

King went undrafted in the NFL’s Supplemental Draft in 2011 after a failure to appear in court and academic issues saw him get the label “character concern.”  He landed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent, playing fairly well in the preseason, but never appeared in a regular season game.

King figured to be in competition for the Vikings third string running back job this offseason, but this incident will likely see him quickly unemployed.

He will also likely be getting an extended stay behind bars, and if I didn’t know better, I might say that would make him look like a certain celebrity… except without career rushing totals.

Jerome Simpson’s Contract Details

April 27, 2012, by 1 comment

The Vikings didn’t acquire a new wide out in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft, so former Bengal Jerome Simpson is still the latest wide receiver added to this roster.

Today, the details of his one year deal have been revealed.

According to Aaron Wilson, the deal is worth up to $2 million.  He carries an $800,000 base salary, $950,000 roster bonus, and a $250,000 workout bonus.  In other words, Simpson will have plenty of cash to spend on, umm, oregano should he choose to do so.

Simpson is scheduled to be suspended for the first three games of this season for last year’s drug trafficking charges.  I have not yet seen clarification as whether or not the Vikings will get a roster exemption during that three week period.

LIVE CHAT TRANSCRIPT: Day One

April 27, 2012, by No comments yet

Well, the first day of the 2012 NFL Draft turned out to be quite exciting for us Vikings fans.

Our live chat was a blast and a huge thanks to Brett, Malte, and Gil from thevikingden.com for all of the hard work keeping things running smoothly!

Here is the transcript from the live chat so that it can always be a part of our permanent record and also to let you review some reactions if that interests you:

Continue Reading →

Watching Spielman’s Presser

April 24, 2012, by 4 comments

Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman held a pre-Draft press conference Tuesday and he touched on a number of hot topics.

The whole thing can be viewed by clicking here.

I have watched it a few times now, and here are my notes:

Continue Reading →

Spielman Talks About Jerome Simpson

April 23, 2012, by 2 comments

The decision to pursue free agent receiver Jerome Simpson is a curious one for a team that has plenty of image issues like the Vikings.  Even more curious, is the decision to make their interest known during the week in which their image may never be more important to their future.

“I’m not going to go into whether we’re going to sign him or not,” Rick Spielman told 1500 ESPN.

Spielman did, however, make a point of explaining how deep they are digging to see if Simpson might be worth the risk after the recent debacle that landed him 15 days in jail for a drug related felony.

“We’re in that process right now of just going through the discussion and how we feel. But I can tell you — not just in his case, any case — if there’s a guy that has a character concern, we’re going to do everything we can to turn every stone over. You wouldn’t believe how deep we went into the calls to different people that aren’t even involved with football to make sure that we felt very comfortable bringing him in here for this visit.”

Spielman also said that he and his team did plenty of research prior to even deciding to bring Simpson in for a visit.

“There was a lot of research done before he came in on his visit,” Spielman said. “I think from our ownership on down, after we’ve gathered all our information and talked to numerous people in all walks of his life (about) what type of character kid he is and what happened and why he got put in that situation and listening to him (Saturday) talk to all the people at our organization … if we do sign or we do decide to sign a Jerome Simpson, it’s going to be something that we felt comfortable enough with to bring into this organization, to give him a chance here.”

Simpson left Minnesota on Sunday without a contract.

Kalil’s Wonderlic Not Impressive

April 22, 2012, by 11 comments

If you read our comments section and have done so recently, you have surely noticed that a new Vikings site called Vikings Draft Card has a very staunch supporter (highly unlikely to be the writer of the site, right?  Right.) that loves dumping links from that site onto ours.

The site appears to have just been started this month and, by all appearances, has a main purpose of persuading Vikings fans that Matt Kalil is not worth being drafted in the three spot that the Vikings currently hold and should instead draft Morris Claiborne.  I am all about opposing views and going against the grain, so I really do recommend checking out the site.  However, we won’t be adding them to our blogroll until/unless the site owner decides to put his or her name (or any name) to the words they write.

Still, I have to give that site credit (and the person posting links in our comments section) for pointing us towards a report coming out of Green Bay that essentially leaks Wonderlic scores of a number of top prospects in this Draft class.

Much has been made of the reports that Claiborne scored an astonishingly low Wonderlic grade of “4” which would assuredly rank him amongst the lowest scores ever.  Even Vince Young did better.

However, the latest leaks suggest that maybe Kalil isn’t the brightest bulb on the tree either.

The score is lowest amongst the reported scores for offensive tackles, and second lowest of all offensive linemen reported on.  He scored 11 points less than the average score for offensive tackles, but is still 11 points ahead of Claiborne’s score which can allegedly be written off to a learning disability.

So, there you have it, some evidence that might suggest the Vikings should pass on the USC left tackle that yours truly rates as the second best player (yes, including quarterbacks) in this class.  For me, this just more evidence that the Vikings instead should take any trade offers very seriously.

A Wonderlic score may or may not be any sort of indicator of a prospect’s future as a football player, but I still think the Vikings must take Kalil if they remain at the three spot.