SB Nation User Blog: DCPurple

What Tarkenton Actually Said This Time

DCPurple — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:14:16 -0000

Fran Tarkenton. The first QB of the Minnesota Vikings, the first drafted QB of the Vikings, the longest tenured QB of the Vikings, the man who captained the Vikings to 3 Super Bowls, the man who was a 9-time Pro Bowler, 6-time All-Pro, won numerous NFL awards and accolaides, retired owning almost every NFL passing record, is the reason that you will NEVER again see the #10 worn by anyone else in Purple, and, oh yes, by the way, is also enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, was asked to do an interview last week.

True, Tark is 'yesterdays news', an old-timer, and these days, Favre is the favored flavor... but some of us remember who Francis Asbury Tarkenton is and what he achieved with the Minnesota Vikings, and think that he might know what he's talking about when it comes to football, the NFL, and perhaps even playing the position of QB. If there is such a thing as an 'expert' in the field of 'NFL Quarterbacks', Tarkenton is definitely qualified as one.

Before all the complaining spin was put on it, the interview looked something like this on ESPN;

Fran Tarkenton admits he hasn't seen much of Jay Cutler, but he saw enough Thursday night to render an opinion on the embattled Chicago Bears quarterback.

"I really question whether he can play," Tarkenton, the Hall of Fame quarterback and former Minnesota Viking, said Friday on "The Waddle and Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000 in Chicago. "Quarterbacks need to make their team better. If it's a bad team, they can even make a bad team better. Somebody may say well, even Peyton Manning couldn't help the Bears. Yes, he could. Tom Brady could, too. They might not win the championship or get to the playoffs, but they would make that team better. Those wide receivers who are struggling would be better because they would make them better."

Cutler threw five interceptions, including one in the end zone in the final seconds of the Bears' 10-6 loss Thursday to the San Francisco 49ers.

Tarkenton, who led the Vikings to three Super Bowls in the 1970s, disputed the notion that Cutler's mechanics needed work. It's a lot simpler than that, he said.

"Great quarterbacks, good quarterbacks, make plays," Tarkenton said on "The Waddle and Silvy Show." "Mechanics is overwrought. Whether they're strong-armed, weak-armed, throw sidearm, throw overhead, they're fast, they're quick, I don't care. I just want someone to make plays. Peyton Manning doesn't look beautiful back there.

"Jay Cutler had every opportunity to make plays for his team last night and every opportunity he didn't. That's how I judge a quarterback: Either you make plays or you don't. I don't even want to talk about mechanics."

What advice would Tarkenton give Cutler?

"If Jay Cutler is not comfortable with the offense or the way they are calling the plays, he ought to go in there and tell that coach [expletive]," Tarkenton said during radio interview. "Dan Fouts came into the league and for the first couple of years he was struggling. He said, 'What do you do?' I said, 'Dan, if you're not willing to go tell your head coach or your coordinator to kiss off, then you can't play quarterback in this league.'

"I don't think that will solve the problems of the Chicago Bears. The Chicago Bears need to start over. But for Jay Cutler to be a quarterback and make plays, he's got to take charge."

Tarkenton on ESPN

I'll toss a poll up on the response to what Tark actually said, but my own person 2 cents is that he was dead on target. A good QB will improve even a bad team. Anyone who disagrees with this is probably the coach of ~~the Washington Redskins~~ a crappy NFL team looking for excuses for why his team lousy.

He's also saying that it doesn't matter what the QB's style is, or how strong his arm is; a GOOD NFL QB will make plays, will find a way to make things happen for his team. Hrmn, sounds like leadership, and taking responsibility, to me. I can see why that upsets some folks. Worse, it takes away every excuse that's been made for every half-arsed QB prospect to find his way into the ranks of the NFL. Tark went on to name a pair of QBs in the NFL that he has regard and admiration for; Brady and Peyton Manning.

As for his advice for Cutler, that's pretty basic stuff. He's telling him to man up, take charge and do things the way he knows how to do them best. If the coach doesn't like it, what's he going to do? Bench him? Cutler should be glad that an HoF QB like Tark actually thinks that Cutler has the potential to be good enough to run a football team, that's more credit than I give Cutler.

Maybe Tark's just a dinosaur that comes from an era when it was expected that NFL QBs had both testicles intact and the best of them were actually leaders on the field, rather than game managers, and it's this sort of outmoded thinking that gives politically correct sensitive folks nightmares when they sleep.

So what's to argue with on Tark's statements?

Poll

What do you think of Tarkenton's statement?

Minnesota @ Houston - What are you looking for?

DCPurple — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:19:01 -0000

We all know we'll be drooling on the TV to see whether Favre looks good or bad (no matter which camp you're in), and to a lesser degree, we'll be especially interested to see what our other 3 QBs look like. Sage will be of particular interest, since he'll be going up against his former team.

But what else will you be looking for during Monday's game?

There's still a lot of questions up in the air!

What's going on with our WR corps? I want to see a lot more of Jaymar, Darius, and most especially, Percy Harvin. It would be nice to see if Berrian really does have the speed to stretch the field, too. It's all well and good having a great QB, but the Vikings were looking for a top WR in the draft for a reason; Berrian may be fast, but last year he rarely stretched the field and AP still dealt with 8-9 in the box and T-Jack was constantly freaking blitzed. The only thing changes that equation is a pair of speedy wide outs that force the secondaries to back off. Will Berrian show the speed he's supposed to be able to bring? How fast is Percy, really? I don't care about numbers, I want to see action.

Speaking of secondaries, I want to see more of ours in action. I want to feel comfortable with the loss of Sharper and I'm starting to get there. Yes, I know Sharper had lost more than a step last year, but when he was able to make up for it with experience, he could still body-slam with the best of them. I want to see more of Asher Allen, and Griffin, and Tyrell Johnson. I'm hoping they get better at reading the plays and getting out in front of the ball instead of letting it get caught and just tackling.

The poll's going to list some of the question-mark players other than the QBs, who're you going to be watching for the most, to see how they're doing?

(by the way, it's a tough choice, I'm going to be watching all those guys, the Mighty Purple has a wealth of great potential this year!)

Poll

Which of these players will you be most interested in seeing how they're coming along this pre-season?

Jaymar Johnson - WR

7 votes

Darius Reynaud - WR

1 votes

Percy Harvin - WR/RB

57 votes

Phil Loadholt - RT

14 votes

Erin Henderson - LB

1 votes

Asher Allen - CB

2 votes

Ian Johnson - RB

2 votes

Albert Young - RB

1 votes

Tyrell Johnson - FS

9 votes

Jamarca Sanford - S

0 votes

Kenny Onatolu - LB

2 votes

96 votes | Poll has closed

Vikings vs Chiefs Roundup

DCPurple — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:48:50 -0000

We've been mostly focused on the high-profile question-marks in yesterday's game against the Chiefs, guys like Favre, Jackson, and Harvin... but there's was a lot of other play worth mentioning. Other play, and other interactions that I just really enjoyed. Here's some of the things I noticed that seem worth mentioning;

Jasper Brinkley! That young man was all over the field last night on the D, making plays and really showing his stuff. He's signed and safe, so hopefully we won't have to be placing any more calls panicky calls to Napoleon :)

Jamarca Sanford got some good play-time in and made a solid impact at during the late goal-line stand. But like Karl Paymuh, who also looked good and aggressive in this game, they both need to get better at working their way inside the coverage. They excel at sticking with their man but they have that typical safety-mentality of staying on top to prevent the big bomb run. When the ball comes in short, they're not yet demonstrating ability to get back in and under to break it up, or make the pick.

Ben Leber! He did a man's job of it last year on the right side, and he's looking even more solid this pre-season, glad we got him. Kenny Onotolu was making his presence known too, and on special teams where he was right in there on most of the stops.

Pass-rushing is something the Vikings have gotten much better at since Allen came to town and he seems to have inspired others to pick up the pace. Our guys are getting good penetration to the backfield, and regularly flushing out the QB. Unfortunately, if they don't catch the guy right away, they're not doing very well in running him down. The result is a lot of running around in the backfield and the QB making his completions or taking off downfield. They need to do better in pursuit.

Kluwe gets an A+ for improvement over last year. He's getting the hang-time, the distance, the accuracy; it's all there now. I love seeing those swarming purple jerseys on the scene before the receiver can do very much. One thing to watch out for is that new rule limiting 'wedges', no more than two guys running in tandem. Violating that sort of thing can easily happen in an unplanned fashion, and draw penalties. I don't think Chilly will have anything to complain about this year. Farwell is like a force of nature out there, he's just everywhere the action is.

Some tidbits caught in passing from the announcers; Harvin is driven to the stadium every morning by his mother! Wow, talk about a great way to make sure a young man with a troubled past is kept grounded and supported, I have to give Chilly huge props for setting this up. It really reassures me on Harvin and gives me cause to believe he's not going to turn into a cancer or a trouble-maker; Harvin's been set up for success. Harvin was kicking himself in an interview regarding one of his returns; he seemed to think that he was one juke away from taking it to the house. I'm not sure i saw that myself, but apparently he saw a lot of green on the other side :)

You had to love that goal-line stand at the end... the energy of the entire team, did you see the guys on the sideline getting into it and cheering on our D?! This may have been a pre-season game that didn't mean anything in the stats or division championship, but they didn't act like it was meaningless. The entire team was yelling and celebrating that, and to me, that speaks worlds about the competitiveness and comradery that our Vikings team has this year.

This is the first pre-season in my memory where I like most of the guys on the squad, and hate to see the inevitable cuts. Not that everyone's a superstar (although we have a lot of very good guys here!), but so many of them have potential that I really don't envy the coaching staff's job in whittling down the roster.

What parts of the game did everyone else really enjoy, or pay close attention to (other than the QB drama)?

That Olde-Tyme Leadership

DCPurple — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:04:33 -0000

How important is Favre to the Vikings... really? I personally think the Vikings are a 10-6 to 12-4 team this year, with Sage at the helm. I think we're headed to the playoffs even without Favre.

We're doing a lot of wrangling over whether or not Favre can throw, will his INT rate be too high, will he last through the season, can all the fans get over the old hatreds enough to get behind the team. But there's something that keeps rising in the back of my mind, the bigger, longer lasting impact on the Vikings... the impact that's going to last for years after Favre's gone.

It's something much more important than a better throwing ability that Brett Favre brings to the Vikings' table this year, something that most of them had probably forgotten about or never truely knew. He brings the experience of what's like to have a top-flight QB leading the team, calling the plays (instead of having Daddy Childress call them from the sideline), making the reads and audibling on the line of scrimmage, accepting responsibility when a drive fails, and the sheer authority with which the ball will move from his hands to whomever he's going to entrust with it. That's something that a real leader brings to the table. Whether the ball is entrusted to AP for a run, or it's entrusted to Berrian on a deep slant, the recipient is going to know, understand, feel it in their gut, that something important was just placed in their care, something beyond an inflated pigskin. The ball is just the symbol. They aren't just carrying it out of self-motivation now; the eyes of a 20 year veteran, a future hall of fame leader are on them. Failure will be more than just not making the yardage, more than just dropping a ball. Failure will be returning to the huddle and having to look into Favre's eyes and praying like hell that he'll give them another chance to redeem themselves... because he doesn't have to. He doesn't have to send the ball their way again for the rest of the game. For the rest of the season. He can send them off the field and call for a replacement in mid-drive. That's something that Jackson couldn't do, Sage couldn't do... that's what you get with a QB of Favre's caliber, he's not just ball-tossing proxy for the coach; he's the field general.

When was the last time that the Vikings had someone like that running the offense? Culpepper? Maybe. But I think C-Pep was still too young, was only starting to come into his own when got injured. No, I think we have to go back to Cunningham. And before him, it was Moon.

It's been a decade since the Vikings have been captained on the field by a real leader, and we got NO ONE who knows what that feels like any more.

Well, they're about to learn.

And just as important, they'll have a yardstick by which to measure a real QB by. There won't be any mistaking a half-baked retrofitted tail-back as an NFL caliber QB any time soon in the next few years. Sage may not be happy about not having the #1 position, but will he complain? I don't think so. Everyone on the team will know what's it like to have a real leader on the offense again, even the D will take their cue from him and be able to trust his word, and his ability.

I'm not drinking the Favre-Aid on this post... I think we'd get the same thing with a Warner, or a Garcia. Maybe not as strong with Garcia since he doesn't have the cred behind him, but it would still be there. That old-time leadership that every team in the NFL covets.

This is what we needed; a reminder and an experience, and a proper gauge for the future.

Randall McDaniel Going to the Hall of Fame

DCPurple — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:05:18 -0000

According to the Purple Press, on August 4th, yet another Viking great, Randall McDaniel enters the Hall of Fame in Canton.

An excerpt from his bio, for anyone who might not remember Big Mac's road-grading ways;

Selected in first round, 19th overall, 1988. . .Earned all-rookie honors. . .Started 202 consecutive games. . .Started 13 straight playoff games for Vikings. . .Blocked for six 1,000-yard rushers and five 3,000-yard passers during career. . .Anchored offensive line of explosive Vikings team that scored then-record 556 points, 1998. . .Named All-Pro nine consecutive times (1990-98). . . Selected to play in a record 12 consecutive AFC-NFC Pro Bowls (1990-2001). . .Born December 19, 1964 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Randall McDaniel is truly deserving of this honor and it does my heart good to see him get it :)

The Vikings certainly have their share of truly outstanding players over the years, and have sent 7 players to the HoF so far (McDaniel will be the 8th). At the same time, I watch certain prominent Vikings overlooked year after year. This isn't to take anything away from Big Mac, but what about Jim Marshall, and Cris Carter? If only for longeivity and the records he held on retirement, how about Fred Cox? Or Mick Tinglehoff? While I understand that there needs to be some balance between the personnel from the various franchises, but I think the HoF committee owes the Vikings some catching up :)

Who are your favorite Vikings who haven't made it to Canton yet?

Poll

Who's your favorite Vikings that hasn't yet made it to Canton?

Jim Marshall

24 votes

Mick Tinglehof

1 votes

Cris Carter

46 votes

Fred Cox

1 votes

Other

1 votes

73 votes | Poll has closed

Free Agency PUNTERS

DCPurple — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:56:02 -0000

We saw some really ugly Vikings special teams play in 2008, especially on the punting team and it's return-coverage. Almost set a new NFL record of the sort you don't get to live down for decades. Granted, Farwell was out, but one man does not an entire coverage team make. Childress pointed the dirty finger at Kluwe, and while I think Childress was excessive in his public display of anger, I think he's right on target with who is responsible for the problem.

Chris Kluwe caught the rash because his punting wasn't accurate; he was told to put the ball on the sideline, and he dropped it in the center field instead. What also comes to mind, however, is the strength of his punting. If he was able to punt the ball high enough, he'd get the necessary hang-time that would allow our special teams guys to be standing around the receiver, waiting to cream him if a fair-catch wasn't called. That's always so nice to see, isn't it? Kinda ensures that there'll be no unpleasant punt returns that result in TDs.

According to NFL.com, Kluwe's a upper-middling-ranked punter (#12), so it shouldn't be too hard to find an upgrade there.

If the Vikings were to consider a replacement punter in FA for Kluwe, according to WalterFootball.com, here's the best of who's available;

Rank 1 - Shane Lechler, Raiders, age 33, 48.8 yard average

Rank 7 - Sam Koch, Ravens, age 27, 45 yard average

Rank 38 - Matt Cassell, Patriots, 57 yard punt, he's only booted it once, but hey, maybe he works as a dual purpose player, lol. Shades of Bob Lee!

Thoughts on the subject?

Poll

Should Kluwe be replaced, or given another chance?

Boot to the Head, kick the bum out of Minnesota!

6 votes

Bring in the FA Punters, let Kluwe compete for his job

29 votes

Look for a hot punter in the draft!

4 votes

Kluwe may have just had a bad year, give him another chance

15 votes

Kluwe's better than he gets credit for (or his stats show), keep him!

39 votes

93 votes | Poll has closed

L.A. Vikings?

DCPurple — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:07:13 -0000

I was reading an article in Pioneer Press (http://www.twincities.com/vikings/ci_11471528) that speculates on the possibility of the Vikings moving to L.A. when their stadium contract runs out in 2011. It seems to be the perennial worry, but this time there's an LA billionaire backing the project and the Vikings are on his short-list of teams to lure down there with a new stadium.

What got my attention this time wasn't the article, but the 93 comments on the article. I took the time to read them and was shocked to count that fully half the comments were from people who didn't care if the Vikings left Minnesota, or not. And that makes it a majority of commentors, because there's a bunch of fluff comments in the pack as well. Then I remembered, Minnesota is the state that lost the Lakers, and the North Stars, and re-voted and re-voted and re-voted until they put a comedian in the Senate, and I begin to wonder if the Vikings have any chance to actually stay in Minnesota.

Maybe it's all about the money; the NFL doesn't want to ante up for a stadium but wants the revenues to continue to bloat it's pockets and tax payers aren't in the mood to make the NFL any richer than it already is. The sportsmanship angle with it's attendant considerations of team loyalty long dead and swept beneath the corporate carpet.

My poll question is; if the Vikings leave for wamer, more (theoretically) lucrative grounds, how many folks would remain die-hard Vikings fans? What would folks do?

Poll

If the Vikings leave Minnesota, where do your team loyalties go?

Vikings Forever, no matter what state or city!

60 votes

Time to support the Bears

1 votes

Those Packers are starting to look better...

3 votes

Start lobbying for a new Minnesota football team and start fresh!

27 votes

The Vikings without Minnesota is an upgrade!

1 votes

Give up football and take up competitive crochet

31 votes

123 votes | Poll has closed

QB Possibilities

DCPurple — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:22:37 -0000

Yeah yeah, I know, we're beating the hell out of this one, but that's because we know this is the single most critical issue the Vikes need to fix, and none of the previous posts has reached anything remotely like a consensus for decent options. Came across an article in the Pioneer Press that did the same run-down, only more complete;

http://www.twincities.com/ci_11407058?source=most_emailed

Most of names have distinct negatives attached to them and we've covered those, but there's 3 names that seem to stand out as the best possibilities for 2009;

66.5 - Derek Anderson

80.2 - Matt Leinart

79.5 - Sage Rosenfels

What do you think of those three? The Vikes didn't want to spring for Rosenfels last year, maybe they'll change their mind...

On a slightly different note, just a bit of angst of what we could have had if the Vikes had put JDB on the waiver list instead of Thigpen.... Hey, how 'bout that Thigpen?!? He's doing alright for a rook playing 1st string.... So much for Chilly's vaunted QB judgement.

Michael Vick in Purple?

DCPurple — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:07:52 -0000

One QB who will probably be available this spring that might be just what the Vikings need, is Michael Vick. If his ability has survived a year and a half in prison, he could be a very capable and available quarterback next year.

But his past may be too much for folks to accept. Serving a prison term for animal abuse may not be enough punishment in the hearts and minds of many dog-lovers around the country.

What do folks here think about the idea of the Vikings picking up Vick?

Poll

Does Michael Vick's dog-fighting background make him ineligible to be a Minnesota Viking?

The Vikings have had too many bad eggs in the past, don't need another in Vick!

63 votes

Vick is too controversial, the Vikings should pass on him

39 votes

Vick's paid for his sin against dog-kind, let's suit him up in Purple!

66 votes

168 votes | Poll has closed