This isn't going to be very long or insightful. I am just really curious what everyone thinks will happen with the NBA Draft should the unthinkable happen and the entire season is lost. Will they still do a draft? How will they determine the draft order? Anyone have any thoughts on this?

via cdn2.holytaco.com

We all know that Jared Allen is having a banner year after having "only" 11 sacks last season. His bounce back has shocked exactly no one around here, but is still drawing very little national attention. That's something I expect to change if he continues on his current pace.

To answer my own question; No, he probably won't get MVP consideration. There's far too many options at the glamor positions this year for the voters to pay attention to a working stiff from the trenches. And it's always incredibly rare for a defensive player of any position to receive that honor, much less a lineman (Alan Page remains the only lineman to accomplish it in fact). But is it possible? I think it is. See Jared Allen's stat line through 8 games this year after the jump.

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Some of you may have come across this Winona Daily News article (if not you can read it here). It was so poorly written and misinformed that I felt I had to respond. You can read my rebuttal after the jump.

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We are now several days into the Post-Childress era of Vikings football, but still several more days away from the first game of what will henceforth be known as "the Golden Age of Vikings football". While Leslie Frazier has been tasked with the monumental task of turning a sinking ship around, it isn't the hardest thing he has to do. Frazier needs to do the smart thing and put Favre out to pasture.

Criticism of Favre's play is not new by any means. Some have been calling for a change since before the Randy Moss debacle. A bold few even wanted Jackson to start since day 1 this season after Favre missed the entire offseason and training camp. But now the call for Favre's removal has begun to approach fever pitch, and with good reason. After the jump is the case for why Tarvaris Jackson needs to replace Favre as starter on this team immediately.

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When things get tough in Vikings Land, there is always one man that we can turn our hate towards. He's been the object of our bloodlust for the better part of the last 20 years and now we have the opportunity to hate him one last time.

Over the last couple months, one thing has become abundantly clear. Brett Favre is a black hole of suck and he is taking the entire team with him. In fact, every single bad play or under-performing player on this team can be traced back to Brett. After several minutes of grueling research, here are my findings on the subject.

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To whom it may concern,

Something happened today that has never happened in 50 years that there has been Vikings football. For the first time ever, the Vikings failed to record a sack in 3 consecutive games. That's right. In 50 years this has never happened. But that was just the embarrassing cherry on top of a humiliating performance by the supposedly vaunted Vikings defense, especially their front seven.

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Over the last 24 hours I've sat back and watched as blog after blog trashed the Twins recent acquisition of Matt Capps from the Washington Nationals for prospect Wilson Ramos. I've been somewhat annoyed by the knee jerk reactions and baffled by the outrage. Finally I could take no more and decided I must throw my own two cents into the proverbial sports prognostication wishing well.

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I apologize to my readers (all 5 of you) for the lateness of this post. I had planned to write this piece yesterday afternoon but tragedy struck Sunday morning (as in real tragedy, not "my car wouldn't start" or something) and I wasn't really in the mood to write. I'm frankly not convinced I'm in the mood right now either but I wanted to get this posted before the draft becomes old news. Maybe writing will be therapeutic for me. Here goes nothing.

The 2010 Vikings draft, unlike previous drafts, was focused almost solely on adding versatility and depth to an already strong roster. All but one draft pick is capable of playing multiple positions in a pinch, and most of them have had productive special teams careers in college.

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And so it ends. The first 3 day draft in history wrapped up Saturday afternoon and ended with the Lions selecting 2010's Mr. Irrelevant, Tim Toone. 2010 was a talented class and I believe there were a lot of great players selected here this week. A number of high profile players also changed hands today, headlined by Oakland's acquisition of QB Jason Campbell. So let's get started.

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As previously poster here.

General Thoughts
Jimmy Clausen lands in Carolina: Today's events were very telling of what NFL evaluators think of Jimmy Clausen. That the Browns and Bills, the two teams most in need of a QB, passed him up twice tells me that we are missing some information. Clearly Mayock, Kiper and McShay were all very high on the kid. But NFL scouts and coaches must have seen something in the tape or heard something in an interview or smelled something fishy for him to fall the way he did.

4th round! I'm pretty excited for the start of the 4th round. Historically speaking, this is where teams start throwing caution to the wind and start gobbling up great players with question marks. Injuries, temperment questions and even law trouble seem to be devalued the second the round begins. Some examples of 4th round picks that fit this mold are as follows: Ray Edwards - Issues with coaches lead to benching, Brandon Marshall - small school, Jared Allen - law trouble, Marion Barber - injuries. The investment by teams is low. All that matters any more is talent.

Much more after the jump!

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As previously posted here.

First off I would like to say that I am not a fan of this new format. I know that means nothing and I'm sure that the league made boatloads of cash today but I find Thursday night and Friday nights to be less than ideal times for one of my favorite rituals. I miss the days of sitting on the couch, laptop in front of me and watching the draft all day on a lazy Saturday.

There. Soapbox appeased.

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Sorry for the redirect but I'm too tired to repost the whole thing here. I have an early morning on top of that so this is the best I can do. Enjoy it while it's still relevant. This one is a little more bold than my previous entry of just the top 10.

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/Cobra312004/236641/

#4. Washington Redskins, Trent Williams, OT, Oklahoma
Here's my first curveball of the draft, though many are foreseeing this now. Not only is Trent Williams a stronger run blocker than Okung (something the Redskins have always loved) but he is much more athletic. Why is that important you ask? Because Mike Shanahan is the new coach of the Redskins. The same Mike Shanahan that ran a legendary zone blocking scheme in Denver for years. And for his zone blocking scheme to work, he not only needs tackles that can block, but he needs athletic ones that can get after smaller, quicker defenders. Williams is the obvious choice.

The draft is sneaking up on us all very quickly. Just one week from today we will be watching the 4th thorough 7th rounds play out, and politely not noticing the next Tom Brady/Terrell Davis steal that everyone will point to in a few years and ask "How did he fall so far?"

I've been much busier than usual this year and I have not been able to commit as much time to my mock draft. Add in the fact that this is probably the most convoluted draft in years, with more talent through the top 40 picks than any I've ever seen, and you can see how this draft is certainly going to play out unpredictably and with lots of trades.

But let's give it a whirl. Here are my top 10 selections for the 2010 NFL Draft after the jump.

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The NFC North should change it's name to the Front Seven Division. The division is home to the #1 (Packers) and #2 (Vikings) rush defenses from last season (making it four straight years that the #1 rush defense has resided in the North). The Vikings even took it one further, finishing #1 in the league in sacks.

The two teams that didn't have great defenses last year (the Lions and the Bears) have each made big splashes already in free agency; the Lions added tackle Corey Williams and Pro Bowl end Kyle Vanden Bosch, and the Bears added all world defensive end Julius Peppers. And that is after just one day.

Here is a breakdown of the current state of the front seven in the NFC North.

Read the rest here!

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As we all know, Chester Taylor's contract is expiring soon. While his services on the team have been tremendous, there is always the chance that he will want to head for greener pastures and a starting job elsewhere. And who can blame him if he does? He signed with the Vikings to be a starter and watched them draft a RB in his second year on the team. At 31 years old, he has only one full season as a starter. Many believe he would generate a lot of interest on the open market for this reason however, as his body hasn't taken the beating of most backs his age.

If Taylor decides not to re-sign with the Purple and Gold, many have speculated that we should address the backup RB position in the 1st or 2nd round of this year's draft. A player like Dexter McCluster (who I see as a poor man's Percy Harvin) could step into Taylor's vacated third down back duties. While I understand the logic in such a move, it would be counterproductive. Peterson's brilliance is unparalleled but his protection and pass catching have been a weakness throughout his career (though he is improving in both areas quickly). Our backup needs to excel in those areas that Peterson is weakest (as Taylor has for several years). And those areas are the same areas that all rookie backs struggle with, especially pass protection.

Fortunately for us, two veteran running backs have recently come available for the upcoming free agency signing period. Both are experienced blockers and exceptional receivers out of the backfield. They both come from similar offenses even. That's right, Brian Westbrook and LaDainian Tomlinson are both free agents in case you missed the news.

The thought of adding Brian Westbrook to this offense must have Childress salivating a little. Though he has never said it publicly, I believe that Childress had been looking for a player to fill Westbrook's role in his offense ever since he came here. It is for this reason that Childress threw caution to the wind and drafted a player who most assumed was red flagged off the Vikings draft board. Smart money is on Childress sticking with his Philly connection and snatching up Westbrook immediately should Taylor move on. Westbrook has always been too injury prone to be a feature back but may still have some productive years ahead of him as a backup. And the chance to play for a championship caliber team, backup one of the best in the game, work with a coach he is familiar with and continue in an offensive system that he has excelled with in the past may be too much for Westbrook to pass up.

However, the thought of LT and Peterson playing on the same team has me salivating a little myself. And not just out of some John Madden football fantasy where two of the best RB's of the last decade play on the same offense. LT is not the same back he was 3 years ago. That much is clear. But I believe he can still be productive as a backup, especially in the screen game we like to run on 3rd downs. Throw in the added benefit of having one of the best backs in history mentor our own little All Pro RB, and this move makes a lot of sense to me.

The Vikings have publicly stated their desire to keep Taylor. But there has been little to no news on negotiations lately. And those comments were made before two other great options became available. Even with Favre's decision hanging over the Vikings, I think this will be the most important story over the next 2 weeks or so.

So who would you rather have? Westbrook? Tomlinson? Re-sign Taylor? A rookie? Someone else? Sound off Vikings fans!

In the wake of a horrible tragedy, it is natural to look for a scape goat or a reason for the suffering. Whether that be a huge mistake, a bad decision or just God/fate.

I am referring of course to the horrifying events that have unfolded in Haiti over the last several weeks. What happened last night in the Louisiana Superdome, was not a tragedy. Yet many Vikings fans have spent the last 24 hours on suicide watch and in the deepest pits of despair. "This was our year!" they say and refuse to talk about it.

2009 will always be remembered as a great year. Possibly on the same level as the 1998 Vikings. And yes, it was a disappointing end for such a great year. But despair and depression should be reserved for times when the future looks darker than the past. This is not one of those times. The Vikings have a bright future and here are 11 reasons why 2010 could be better.

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