As I was making my rounds through the early morning rumor mill. I found an interesting little nugget on PFT. Larry Fitzgerald's Father recently did an interview with an LA radio station and in the interview he mentions how Larry grew up a Viking and was drafted by a former Viking's head coach, and how he's always wanted to be a Viking. Larry Sr also points out that we are trying to clear cap space.  The article goes  on to say that connecting the dots would make it seem Fitzgerald is coming to Minnesota. 

Anyway what do you guys think the chance is he lands in Minnesota either after this season or possibly in a trade this season so Arizona might get something for him. Anyway thought the article was interesting. I'll link it below.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/08/05/larry-fitzgerald-sr-says-that-larry-jr-always-wanted-to-be-a-viking/

So as I lay around this offseason and hope like hell there will be football next season I can't help of think of all the moves I would be making as a GM for the Vikings.

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     Last season our Minnesota Vikings were one of the oldest teams in the NFL. We need to get younger so as not to have to go through a major rebuild 3-5 years from now.  We had16 players over 30 years old on our roster last season.Of those 16, 12 of them were starters. That's an old starting lineup, experience is good but some of those players have lost a step.  The Vikings need to start a youth movement, and to kickstart that movement we need to resign some of the good young talent one our team. Sidney Rice and Chad Greenway  are on the top of that list.

      Sidney Rice provides the offense with a young reliable outside receiver who'll will go up and get the ball or make sure the other guy doesn't at the very least. They only problem is he has been injury prone and there's a small sample size of his work.  He's going to want a big contract, but if he isn't on the field he isn't helping the team. I say give him an incentives based contract. When he's on the field he's a force, and looking into other possible free agents this offseason Vincent Jackson is the only other WR worth going after, but only if we can't resign Rice. The other WR are a collection of head cases, old wash ups, good number 2 receivers or a combination of the 3.

        Chad Greenway got snubbed again this year for the Pro Bowl. His talent level is unquestionable and with Ben Leber aging and an impending free agent and EJ Henderson also aging we must keep Greenway solidify our linebacking corp for the future. Greenway has been a playmaker for our defense the last two years and one of the better linebackers in the League. If we lose him in free agency our defense would be set back a great deal. Outside the injury his rookie year he's managed to stay healthy and help our defense to be among the league's best.

       I didn't mention Ray Edwards here because I believe as does he that he won't be back with the Vikings next season. I also like the defensive line depth we have, Everson Griffen showed some flashes this season and I believe Brian Robison can be effective as well at a much lower price than Edwards comes at.

      Outside the retention of Sidney Rice and Chad Greenway, there are a few primary areas our team needs to get younger at particularly on the defensive side. We need young play making DB's and a DT and youth on the Offensive line. With three offensive line starters 30 years or older, and both of your defensive tackles over 30, some infusion of youth would go a long way.

     Looking at free agency this offseason there seems to be few young DT's on the market. Aubrayo Franklin would work well next to Kevin Williams. I firmly believe we need to let Pat Williams move on, he's been great but we need to get younger on both sides of the ball and he's currently the oldest active defensive player. Promotion from within is a possibility but Fred Evans, Letroy Guion and Jimmie Kennedy have been inconsistent at points.

    Free agent offensive lineman are plentiful this season and signing someone like Logan Mankins would go a long way in improving our offensive line. With Hutchinson, McKinnie and Herrera all over 30 we need to get younger.  I would like to us sign a Tackle but with McKinnie just getting an extension and Loadholt's youth I don't believe the Vikings will make a move in that direction. I firmly believe Steve Hutchinson will return to his former Pro Bowl level after an offseason to recover completely from his injuries.

    Looking at the crop of defensive backs in free agency, there are non that stand out to me as feasible options. Jonathan Joseph will be resigned and Champ Bailey is aging, Quintin Mikell, Erick Weddle, and Roman Harper will all be retained by there teams as they appear to integral parts to young defenses.

    Looking at the free agent QB there seems no viable options, unless we were to take a chance on someone like Alex Smith or Matt Leinart to compete with Joe Webb.

    If we made it priority to resign the young talent on our team particularly Sidney Rice and Chad Greenway to extensions, and targeted Logan Mankins, Aubrayo Franklin and a young yet seasoned QB in free agency we could draft the remaining cogs and come away with a very good football team next season.

    These suggestions are only through free agent activity. I will make another post on my opinions of what we should do with the draft. 

     After every loss, I am completely and totally disgusted by this team, to brink of thinking I'll never bother watching them again, but then Wednesday rolls around and I have renewed faith, and hope for the coming week. Yes this team is 3-6 and probably out of the division race, but running the table from here on out should put us in position for a wildcard spot. This team doesn't have any less talent than last year, and I don't know what ails them, but they need to start working together again. I know they say they are in it for each other, but I have a feeling that some of the guys are playing for themselves and not thinking about the team.

    Not to name names or anything but Brett Favre falls into this category.  At some point Chilidress needs to show he's in charge and has the teams best interest in mind, and he needs to pull Favre. His streak is already impossible to break and there's no reason for him to be on the field contributing 3-4 turnovers per game. Against the Bears Favre accounted for every last one of our offensive turnovers. You make the point his receivers fell down on a couple of the picks, but the reality is for every one of those types of turnovers he makes a bonehead throw or fumbles the ball. He's a warrior no doubt, fighting til the very end but he's both mentally and physically hurt. He needs some time off, to heal up and get his head in the game. Put Tarvaris Jackson in. Let him show us what he can do, and determine if he is worth resigning next season. His mobility will also help, as the offensive line  has been performing poorly this season in pass protection. He may be able to buy more time than Favre effectively helping the offense move more efficiently. He also can't do much worse than Favre who has accounted for 21 of our 23 turnovers this season.

    Another person needing to get himself back out on the field and produce is Sidney Rice. Rice has sat out all season after having a late surgery. Now the story is he may sit out the rest of the season and shop his 2009 stats in free agency. I'm sorry Sid but after the Antonio Bryant fiasco in Cincy no team is going to pay you big bucks if you haven't shown you have come back completely after your injury. By coming back now and playing hard and putting up some numbers showing he hasn't lost anything, he can increase his asking price, also if his presence pushes this team out of their hole and into the playoff picture he will increase his value. Ultimately getting what he wants. Money Money Money.  But whatever sit out the rest of the season and try to grab a contract with Vincent Jackson, Santonio Holmes, and Terrell Owens all hitting the open market after this season. Get on the field be a team player and earn your money. He has yet to earn his 600k in salary this year that he feels is unfair for his skill set he has yet to display this season.

   Childress needs to get a clue. As much as I hate the guy, he can save his job a la Tom Coughlin. If the locker room has a problem with him, they aren't to going to want to talk to him about. He needs to call the veteran leaders into his office and ask them what he needs to do to get this team firing on all cylinders. The players aren't going to come to him, as far as they are concerned they'll let him rot and wait for the next leader to come in after the season. If his Childress really wants to save the team and his job, he needs to be taking the proactive approach, and getting input from everyone he can and listening to that input.

   Those are my three biggest beefs this week. I could go on about the defense and their seeming lack of heart and our special teams lack of competence last week but these are the three biggest problems hindering the team at this moment. It's probably too late to save the season, but if anyone in the locker room cares about the fans and team, and wants to win a championship, these are the points that they need to start at. Skol.

This team is quickly falling apart, and it seems the Coach is hell bent on bringing the team down along with him.

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With the departure of Chester Taylor and the draft only 4 days away, I was thinking about who could be our back up RB and a steal in this draft. I personally believe Toby Gerhart could  be that player. He ran 4.5 forty time which isn't especially fast but he doesn't have to be a speed demon as a third down back. He had a huge combine with a 38 inch high jump and posting 22 reps on the bench press. He was second in the closest ever Heisman race only to Alabama's Mark Ingram. He's a great north-south runner that will pick up tough yards and break tackles. I know we have Ian Johnson and Albert Young on the roster along with recently WR converted RB Darius Reynauld. But if we can take Gerhart in the third round or later where most "experts" have him rated, I think he could be an impact player steal of the draft kinda guy.

Recently there's been speculation that the saints have no intention of bring Bush back next season as his cap numbers would be too high for his production. What would you guys think of bringing in a guy like this if we ended up losing chester taylor in free agency?

Bush isn't a powerback by any means of the word but is fast and dangerous if he gets to the outside. He may compliment Peterson well as we can use him a reciever and jack of all trades, kind of like Taylor. And if favre comes back we would have yet another weapon in the arsenal to tear up the North and the league in general. I'm typing this between classes so i don't have a ton of time to put up a full argument for or against the USC legend. Give me your thoughts, cause this could be an interesting acquisition.

Watching TJ and JDB this week and Sage last week, it looks to be a close race for QB roster spot. TJ was 12 for 15 for 202 yards and 2 TDs. Impressive to say the least.  JDB was 6 of 8 for 61 yards. I'm was impressed. These performances to top off Sages 10-12 for 93 yards last week. I know it's only preseason, but I'm liking the depth at qb. I hope we can retain all 4 but I know that would be difficult. What does everyone else think? I'm excited and slowly coming to grips with Favre being our QB.

I play in an 8 team league so our depth is pretty good all season, and I've won once and placed third last year and was just looking for some input into how you guys think i did with my draft. I picked 7th.

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We're effed in the A, for our future now. Whose going to qb this team next season and the following 5-10 years after that. NOT Brett Favre. Sage possibly? Beats the shit out of me. There's already talks of us letting TJ go, so my guess is he's out of the picture. Does this not worry anyone or is a one year fix fine with everyone, cuz to tell you the truth I'm kinda worried about this. What's your thoughts. Be honest.

And does anyone know what happened in the williams case, wasn't that suppose to be decided yesterday?

Minnesota's quarterback quandary.

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Tonight, we're going to lay down a few facts that point to the Bears as being the most overrated team this season.

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It looks as though the Raiders are trying to accomodate Derrick Burgess by shopping him on the trading market. With the retirement of Udeze and Ray Edwards lackluster season last year and the possibility of losing The Wall for the first four games of the season, do you think it would be logical to put up a trade offer for his services.

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While I was browsing the web this morning through all the sports news I've noticed a ton of Vick to Vikings? rumors now that the Favre situation is through. Here's the links:

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/112230-vick-next-in-line-for-vikings?eref=fromSI

http://www.twincities.com/ci_12936872?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2009/07/29/vick-to-the-vikes-if-the-vikes-have-any-sense-absolutely/?cxntfid=blogs_mark_bradley_blog

There's many, many more out there.  I was just wondering what the rest of you thought of this new distraction brewing.

Also just came across this nugget:  http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/07/29/bobby-wade-says-urlacher-thinks-cutlers-a-pussy/

Kind of thought that was funny and the rest of you would appreciate it.

I am truly disappointed.

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This may be asking a bit much out of everyone here at the DN, but I'm moving to Madison Wisconsin at the end of next month to begin my college education and i was wondering if any of you knew of some spots where Vikings fans hang out on gameday.

And because this has to be seventy five word im going to show you guys this link to a segment of family guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXHaCEhOiWU&feature=PlayList&p=EF8D6E091373BF9B&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1

While watching America's Game on the 98 Broncos I started to see some similarities between that championship team and our very own Vikings, especially if Favreseals the deal and plays for us this season. (A little birdie has told me that its pretty much a done deal with the uniform being produced this week)

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