Posts tagged: leslie frazier

Peterson Back To Doing What He Does Best… Running

April 3, 2012, by 4 comments

Vikings fans were all up in arms when star running back Adrian Peterson suffered a scary knee injury in what was essentially a meaningless game last season.

Now, however, the fan base seems to be somewhat excited about his rehabilitation progress and the idea of him making back for what very easily could end up being a meaningless season.

Last week, Peterson reached a major milestone when he was able to run on dry land for the first time since suffering the injury.  This keeps him on track with a timeline that would put him in the lineup during week one of the 2012 season.

“Did a great job and everybody was impressed,” Leslie Frazier said on Tuesday. “Our trainer, (Eric) Sugarman, was impressed with his movement and the things he was able to do. He’s on schedule. He’s doing well.”

Fraizer continued to stress, as he has all offseason, the importance of Peterson’s ability to restrain himself and not push the issue and create a situation in which he could do further damage.

“We had that conversation, too,” Frazier said. “He said, ‘How fast should I go?’ We’re just trying to judge movement, and he wants to run a 4.3 40. But he has to let that graft continue to heal. He understands there’s a time frame he’s working within, and so far, so good.”

While the Vikings are sure to be tickled pink if Peterson can set a new standard for rehab and return for the start of the season, it would be completely shocking if they let him run wild right out of the gate.  Even if he makes it back on time, expect to see Peterson on a strict pitch count with Toby Gerhart getting plenty of action.

Vikings “Excited” Chris Cook Will Be Back

March 25, 2012, by 7 comments

The Vikings took a fairly big gamble with how they handled Chris Cook and the allegations that he assaulted and attempted to strangle his girlfriend, causing him to miss a game against Green Bay while he was jailed for the incident.

Recently, Cook was acquitted of all charges and the Vikings appear ready to get him back on the field.

“We are very excited about getting Chris Cook back,” Rick Spielman said, “not only to help us on the football field, but we think Chris Cook is a very good person, and we really believe that he’s moving on and going to be a better person.”

“We’re pleased that this has all come to a resolution, and now we’re looking forward to what Chris has learned, and he’s looking forward to moving on,” Spielman said. “I know he’s grown from this experience. He was very proactive in doing some things and making sure that he’s going to be not only a better football player but a better person as well.

“Sometimes you have to go through some hard lessons to give you a wake-up call, if there was a wake-up call. But you go through some tough times sometimes, and sometimes coming out of those situations really makes you a stronger and better person.”

Cook is no stranger to misconduct.  His Draft stock took a hit when he was suspended at Virginia for academic reasons.  In May of 2011, a Virginia judge cleared him of any wrongdoing resulting from an incident in which he was accused of brandishing a firearm.  He latest acquittal ended with rumors that he was celebrating the “victory” at the same strip club that he visited the night the allegations were made.

Spielman sounds hopeful that his third year player will finally get his act together, but the pattern emerging here is not only more obvious, but growing incrementally more serious.  Cook has shown fans of the Vikings no reason to believe he is a changed man, other than shaving his dreadlocks, so hopefully behind closed doors at Winter Park he has really given Spielman and Frazier true reasons to place trust in him again.

If not, they may be short handed at cornerback on Sunday again in the near future.

Frazier: “We’re Still Looking”

March 17, 2012, by 7 comments

Leslie Frazier wants fans to know that a slow start to this free agency period does not mean the Vikings plan to bow out all together.  In fact, he specifically identifies some positions that the team is still looking to upgrade at.

“We still want to find a wide receiver that can really threaten the field vertically,” Frazier told Sid Hartman. “We also want to improve our secondary along with our linebackers, also.”

“We’re going to look to do that, we’re going to look to upgrade our team,” he continued.  “We may do it through free agency but we’re definitely going to do it through the draft, as well. But, yeah, we’re still looking at some players in free agency. … It’s not closed, we’re still looking.”

Hartman took Frazier through basically the whole roster and Frazier’s answers didn’t exactly reveal much.  The gist is that they want their young guys to step up, they may re-sign some of their own free agents still, they may look to the outside for added help, and they are looking forward to the Draft.

The conservative approach to free agency, however, does not have Frazier writing off this team in 2012.

“Not in our profession. Somebody else will be sitting in this seat if I look to the future,” Frazier said. “I have to get our guys ready to have a good season next year. We need to have a good year.”

Chris Cook Unlikely To Receive Suspension

March 15, 2012, by No comments yet

It appears that the Vikings decision to retain cornerback Chris Cook following allegations of assault and strangulation may be netting the result they were looking for.

After being acquitted of all charges on Thursday, NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello said, “We will review the facts, but we do not expect league discipline in this matter.”

Despite Cook’s lack of guilt, the NFL could have (and still can) suspended Cook for having two legal matters in his two NFL offseasons.  Ben Roethlisberger was never found guilty by any jury, either, but they still suspended him following a series of disturbing allegations.

It appears that Cook will indeed be allowed back to Winter Park without further incident, however, and that means he is a likely starter come week one of the 2012 season.

The Vikings seem to hope that they can still salvage Cook as both a quality human being and a quality football player, and there is legitimate reason to believe that Leslie Frazier’s mentoring will work out better for both the team and the player as opposed to just cutting him loose.  Still, these incidents are something the Vikings will not be eager to again invest time and money into, so Cook better stay out of trouble from this point forward.

The Vikings have already invested a lot into Cook, including their 2010 second round draft choice, and they have yet to receive much return on that investment.

Cook has played in only 12 games in his two seasons, six of which were starts, and has yet to produce an interception.  He has netted 41 tackles, six defended passes, and that’s about it.

That is not very much production for a guy that is already half way through his rookie contract.

Time to step up, and shape up, young man.

Leslie Frazier Pads My Ego

February 24, 2012, by 4 comments

At the NFL Scouting Combine on Friday, Leslie Frazier talked with the media about a number of subjects, two of which I have taken recent interest in and discussed in articles.

The first has to do with how the Vikings plan to use dynamic playmaker Joe Webb from here on out.  On Tuesday I penned an item over at Grant’s Tomb in which I laid out a plan that boiled down to three basic steps:

  1. Give up on Webb as a wide out.
  2. Minimize his other duties such as the “Blazer” package.
  3. Let him settle in and focus on being a backup quarterback.

On Friday, Leslie Frazier broke down his thoughts on how Webb should be used in the future and it looked a little like this:

  1. Give up on Webb as a wide out.
  2. Minimize his other duties such as the “Blazer” package.
  3. Let him settle in and focus on being a backup quarterback.

Okay, had to toot my horn a little bit there, sorry about that.

“We’ve talked about that as the season ended, and we’ve kind of settled on Joe being in that quarterback role,” Frazier said. “Although he can do a lot of different things, we really want to see him develop at the quarterback position. We’re leaning, as we speak today, moving away from some of those other things he’s capable of doing.”

Also, back in December when the Minnesota media was already writing Cedric Griffin’s obituary, I argued that the Vikings would not be so quick to jettison the cornerback and I reiterated those thoughts in my recent preview of the position.

On Friday, Frazier expressed optimism that Griffin could finally put his ACL injuries behind him in 2012 and return to form.  He cited Griffin’s good performances in the final two games of the season as a sign of things to come.

“He was coming off a major knee surgery a year ago, and sometimes guys need a year under their belt before they can really get back to (production) they had before,” Frazier said. “It remains to be seen if he’s one of those guys.”

It sounds like Frazier might be willing to give Griffin another shot, but it remains to be seen if Rick Spielman agrees.  It is thought that the Vikings have internally discussed both a restructured contract for Griffin and also the possibility of moving him to safety.

Senior Bowl Week Has Arrived

January 23, 2012, by 4 comments

I apologize for my absence of late. 

I have been in a self-induced NyQuil coma for the last few days and every time I started to write a new post this is as far as I got:  “The Vikings are realllyoresfjlksdgjfdksl… Childress.”

Not sure what I was even going for there.

However, it is time to move on and this week will certainly have a Senior Bowl theme to it.  I plan on covering the events, including updates for how the Vikings coaching staff is faring in Mobile, in great detail.

Check back for updates, but in the meantime you can see Leslie Frazier’s opening address to his Senior Bowl team by clicking here.

Bears Turn Down Vikings Request

January 17, 2012, by 5 comments

Perhaps the Chicago Bears are also tired of the Vikings long, drawn out search for a new Defensive Coordinator.

Jeremy Fowly of Vikings Now reports that the Bears denied a Vikings request to interview their defensive backs coach, Jon Hoke, for their currently vacant Defensive Coordinator position.

Hoke has a Tampa-2 background which is yet another indication that Leslie Frazier would like to continue to employ a 4-3 defense and that Mike Singletary is unlikely to get the gig.