Rumors

At The Last Minute, Receiver Market Gets Slimmer

March 13, 2012, by 13 comments

News is flying around at the moment, but little is out there directly relating to the Vikings.

Former Vikings such as Randy Moss, Steve Hutchinson, and Ben Leber are all active as free agency nears.  Moss signed a deal that has made him a San Francisco 49er, Hutchinson is visiting the Titans with Peyton Manning, and Leber is possibly going to be an Eagle.

Even though  Moss was never on the Vikings radar, the wide receiver market took a hit on Tuesday and is looking suddenly thin.  Marques Colston reportedly re-signed with the Saints getting him $40 million over five years, with just under $20 million guaranteed.

Rick Spielman appeared on the radio at 1500 ESPN this morning and reiterated that the goal is to get younger.

Less Than A Day

March 13, 2012, by 3 comments

In well under 24 hours the NFL will begin its free agency period, and the Minnesota Vikings have been unexpectedly quiet.

On Monday, they signed Sage Rosenfels to a two year contract that should put him third on the depth chart behind Joe Webb and Christian Ponder.  Other than that, not much was happening.

In fact, pending free agent linebacker Erin Henderson took to Twitter to seemingly let us know that his phone has yet to ring.

He tweeted, “Let’s write a letter. I’ll start it…. Dear Vikings,”

By the time a letter arrived at Winter Park, however, free agency will be well underway and those hoping that Minnesota retains their weakside linebacker better hope they use more modern technology, such as a telephone, to contact Henderson.

The Vikings will forego the chance to tender linebacker Kenny Onatolu as a restricted free agent, as Brett wrote Monday, but they still sound interested in retaining him.

Defensive tackle Letroy Guion is close to signing a contract extension, according to a source in this report, and contract talks were described as “fruitful” on Monday.  No news has surfaced regarding safety Husain Abdullah and his status with the Vikings.

The Vikings are thought to be a team gearing up to be active in free agency when it starts at 3:00 Central Lutefisk Time on Tuesday. 

The top targets talked about are wide receiver Vincent Jackson, cornerback Brandon Carr, and guard Carl Nicks.  These are names we have discussed for quite some time on these pages, and the odds are good that by Wednesday night we will know if the Vikings actually land any of them.  The Vikings were thought to be on a road to disappointment in this regard, but major free agency players such as Washington and Dallas are going to have trouble chasing big money players in light of their punishments handed down by the league for dumping too much money into the uncapped year.

We will be here to cover every last second of free agency, so get all your chores done early on Tuesday… it could be a long and interesting evening.

Vikings Are Essentially On The Clock

March 10, 2012, by 4 comments

News broke late on Friday night, via Jay Glazer, that the St. Louis Rams have traded the second overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft to the Washington Redskins.

According to Glazer, the bounty (ha!) is quite plentiful.  The Rams will receive the sixth overall pick in this Draft, two future first round picks, and other multiple draft choices.  It is assumed, and for good reason, that Washington plans to use the second pick on Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III.

 It will be tough for some Vikings fans to think about how close this franchise could have been to netting such a profit had they not beat, coincidentally, the Redskins on Christmas Eve with Joe Webb and Toby Gerhart playing the roles of unlikely heroes, but not all is lost.

The deal cannot be finalized until the league year begins on Tuesday, but as I stated previously, the Vikings now find themselves in a pretty good situation.

They can now take the player they find to be the best non-quarterback addition to the roster whether it be Matt Kalil, Morris Claiborne, or Justin Blackmon.  They can also begin to entertain offers for teams, like perhaps the Bengals, that may be looking to move up and snag a player they covet.

The Vikings may not have the same leverage that St. Louis had, but they suddenly have a lot more of it than they did on Friday morning.

I hope Rick Spielman’s cell phone came with unlimited minutes.

Things Are About To Happen

March 8, 2012, by 4 comments

Vikings fans are used to being patient.

This team seems to always wait until the very last moment before making transactions.  Whether it signing draft picks, re-signing their own free agents, or jumping into free agency itself, they always keep us waiting.  Heck, one time they waited so much, they forgot to make a first round selection.

Things are expected to start happening this weekend, however, so I want to make sure you are plenty prepared for the action and know what to expect.  Below are the links to my position-by-position breakdown of how I see this Vikings offseason playing out:

The Passers,

The Runners,

The Wide Outs,

The Tight Ends,

The Offensive Line,

The Defensive Tackles,

The Defensive Ends,

The Linebackers,

The Cornerbacks

The Safeties

The Specialists

In the linebackers preview, I project that the team will try hard to retain linebacker Erin Henderson and it appears that they will do just that over the next week or so according to multiple reports like this one.

In the section about the quarterbacks, I predicted that the Vikings will probably bring back Sage Rosenfels to round out their depth chart.  There is a recent rumor floating about that the Vikings and Rosenfels have mutual interest in making his return happen.

In the cornerbacks preview, I mistakenly (undoubtedly due to a lack of research and excess of scotch) thought Marcus Trufant was an unrestricted free agent.  This was not true… but it will be soon.  PFT reports that the Seahawks will release Trufant and his $7.2 million salary soon.  So, let’s just pretend I saw that coming and knew what I was talking about all along, okay?

 

Links Of The Week: Free Agency Starts Soon

March 8, 2012, by No comments yet

Okay, so I know I haven’t been keeping you as up-to-date as I normally like to, but these links should ensure you are all caught up and didn’t miss anything so far this week:

  • Our blogroll has been updated to include another cool Vikings blog.  Check’ em out and tell ‘em who sent you.
  • Could Peyton Manning’s landing spot affect this year’s Vikings draft?
  • Joe Webb is still jumping really high on YouTube.
  • The new Madden video game could, in theory, include either Jared Allen or Percy Harvin on the cover.
  • Unless this is a typo, the “snitch” that spurred “bountygate” was actually a Vikings player.
  • A breakdown of the reasons behind Pro Football Focus’s crush on linebacker Erin Henderson.
  • Chris Cook’s girlfriend testified in court on Wednesday.  Here is a summary of the bizarre testimony that she gave.  He might just be off the hook.
  • Cook’s attorneys argued self defense in court on Wednesday.
  • An argument for a very stiff penalty for the New Orleans Saints.
  • Christian Ponder is preparing (yeah, right) for the possibility of the Vikings drafting another first round quarterback.
  • The Vikings are trying to re-sign linebacker Erin Henderson prior to free agency starting.
  • Some of the key figures involved with the new stadium proposal.
  • Brett Favre says that a referee apologized to him for a missed call in the 2009 NFC Championship game against the Saints.
  • I think some hack blogger has mentioned this before, but gambling is an unpredictable revenue source for a new stadium and could be a sticking point in the proposal.
  • An interesting experiment surrounding the Cris Carter Hall of Fame mystery.
  • Jared Allen takes an even handed approach in answering “bountygate” questions.
  • This mock draft has the Vikings drafting… oh, forget it, you already know.
  • Peyton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.  He is also one of the classiest NFL players of all time.  Any team would be lucky to have a guy like this for as long as Indianapolis had Manning.  So, here it is, your moment of Zen:

Links Of The Week: Bounty Hunter Edition

March 2, 2012, by No comments yet

Normally I try to do this feature on Wednesdays.  On Wednesday there wasn’t enough news floating around to make it worth.

Something changed.

I can’t remember what exactly that was.

But if you give me $10,000 I might suddenly be able to recall.

Hurry Up And Punish Them

March 2, 2012, by 5 comments

New Orleans is the center of the latest, greatest controversy in the NFL as it has been uncovered by an NFL investigation that the Saints, led by defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, paid bounties out to players on defense for injuring opponents.  Brett Favre, not to anyone’s surprise, was obviously a target during the 2009 NFC Championship game.

Now, I’m really not that surprised, shocked, and quite honestly not all that upset.

Bounties have long been rumored to be a part of the NFL, and the Saints were just dumb enough to get caught.  I think bounties are likely an unspoken truth similar to taping opponents signals (spygate) and tampering just prior to free agency.

Still, being dumb enough to get caught partaking in such a barbaric practice means you must be punished.  Rumor has it that punishments could include cash fines, suspensions, and the loss of draft picks.

I have a better idea, but the league needs to act fast.

Take away their right to use a franchise tag this year.  If you do that, then Drew Brees might just hit the open market, which would surely doom the franchise to years of awful play at the quarterback position.

There, I said it.