Okay, having been inspired by Gothic Purple and Grime among others my next question is about scheduling, and also the affect various factors are going to have on our game play.... Being an Historian by training I kind of think about a lot of factors so please excuse the food for thought rambling, but here it is.

How does our schedule look and how do you think it will play out/ be affected by the following factors... (I know that nothing has been settled about who we play and when so I'd see that as another factor to consider)... If I've missed some (as I'm bound to have done, please feel free to shout :D

1) Weather (when not in a Dome)... I'd be interested for views on not only Favre's performance but also Tjack/Sage's perfomance in said weather conditions and also views on the range of conditions possibly faced (Chicago Cold, arizona hot/arid are two that spring to mind from the 2009 season)

2) Injuries, how will the players coming back from injuries have their game/fitness level affected by said injuries and is it better to have the opening games at home/dome.... also will the grass/turf issue be much of an issue in said injury repairs.... who would you rather play and when relating to who we have coming back from injuries/back up/possible draft

3) The Chilly effect... Chilly and the team are on a learning curve, and one would assume adapt and adjust according to a range of factors. Therefore who should we play and when according to this curve and how much of an affect will our latest play off experience have.

4) The playbook. Here's one for the theorists... what game alterations to the play list would you make due to weather/temperature/ time in the schedule.... for example more/less running plays in cold/snowy conditions... shorter/quicker plays for hotter games... later in the schedule adding/testing more plays or closing the play book down if we are in the playoffs and don't want to give away too much.

5)Which are going to be our tougher games and easier games and when would you like them.

6) How much will the different environments affect the different players and our rookies... whose better at playing where and does it make a difference for the rookies/people drafted as to what college they have played/ what conditions they are used to playing in?

Please feel free to comment on some/all of these or add as you see fit... just some food for thought... also thanks to Gothic in particular for this idea :D

Thanks for all the really good responses so far :D

Karl (Go Vikes!!!!)

You guys have been absolutely amazing with regards to helping this, now more educated, Brit out regarding my last question regarding the draft and seeing as you were so wonderful I've got another question for you. It's about the following:

a) Who (or what combination) of people call the plays that we see on offense and defense?

b) Is Childress likely to improve/adapt considering Favre's input (I remember in the 2009 season during the Bears game we were getting annihilated until Favre started calling the offensive plays and then we made a radical come back)

c) Was Chilly's (our resident leprechaun/Gerbil)  play calling so vanilla due to T-jack and his need to learn our playbook or is that Chilly?

d) If (When) Favre comes back how much input do you think he is going to have on the play calling and is that going to be the difference between us getting to the SB next year or not?

e) Does our defensive play calling need a shake up or is it good at the moment? (I seem to remember that we don't blitz, but we us Jared Allen to cause a lot of pressure, but he was getting double teamed a lot during the last games... expecting that to continue will that affect our strategy at all?)

f) Should we start a "Help the dumb Brit" column (this one is what you'd call dry British humor :D)

Hi,

    Could somebody help a dumb Brit understand something about the free agency strategy for the Vikings at the moment,please :D

    I've been a Vikings fan for 26 years now (ever since American football was big in the UK when the Fridge was playing for Chicago, used to listen to the games in the American Armed Forces Network). Lately, thanks to this amazing website and the contributors here I've really got into following the off season moves and all the ins and outs of the season as well. But.... I really don't understand fully what our Free agency strategy is at the moment. 

    Are we currently doing nothing because the talent that we are after is not available, or is our plan linked to the draft (can we get RFA's and URFA's cheaper then)? Do people become available on free agency between now and when the season starts? Or is it up to draft day? I understand we are hampered in our choice because of the final 8 ruling and there being no CBA but we just don't seem to be doing much of anything at all where as other teams (Detroit, Chicago) have made some bold moves.

    Oh and one other final dumb question from this dumb Brit. The fact that Chilly seems to be making absolutely no move whatsoever regarding our QB position this year, do you think that he knows something that we don't (I.E that Favre is almost definately coming back or that there is an extremely good chance of this)... does he have some kind of game plan in place that maybe we don't know about if Favre doesn't come back (and if so what could it be)... or is he still putting all of his hopes in T-jack and Sage, and if so is this really a wise thing considering our window for the SB. I'm definitely in the Favre come back camp, but it would be really reassuring to know that maybe Chilly's got some kind of plan....

    I'd love to hear your thoughts, I read this site every day and love to read all of the discussions and ideas that you all have. Anyways, good luck and here's to the Vikes getting to the big one and finally lifting that Lombardi (a dream of mine that is still with me in my 27th season now :D)

I've been a Minnesota Vikings fan for a long time now and have been reading the blogs on the Vikes site really closely this season. One thing that has stood out is the maturity and intelligence that a lot of the Pack fans have displayed when posting on our site. I've really enjoyed reading a lot of what has been written by you all and am looking forwards to continuing to be enlivened by the thoughtful and yet energetic discussion posted.

Good luck with this season, I'm really looking forwards to watching our meetings this year!