How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yurrr meat?

Good morning Nation, there’s another dust cloud looming on the horizon, threatening to shut down society as we know it, but that’s not nearly as concerning as the rather torrid week the Vikes have had, unless you’re on holiday, but I’m not…

The main issue is the impending suspension of The Wall. I already spoke about this last week but Viking Nation dug up that interesting story from PFT which suggests we could be without both of our starters for 8 games, as the suspensions could be staggered. I’m not sure how much meat there is to this claim by PFT, but if it is the case then it is worrying.

Then again, the Nation’s other link potentially opens the door for Albert “Complete waste of money” Haynesworth to don Purple and come play for us next season. Now I say waste of money because he went to Washington to be paid to keep Zorn’s car seat warm, but like GB Nordic, I do think he would do a lot better as a Viking, and we need someone to fill the enormous void that Pat will leave when he retires. But I also think that we should be careful in this uncapped season, because we shouldn’t live beyond our means, and risk putting ourselves in a difficult position when the salary cap returns.

The potential, but in my opinion, improbable arrival of Haynesworth is not something we need however according to Andy Rarick at Bleacher Report. Taking a look at the Vikings’ depth chart unearths some promising players like Fred Evans and Jimmy Kennedy who could step up, and gain valuable experience, and we also have Everson Griffen to keep them on their toes. Add to that the constant threat of the Mullet, and a mildly disgruntled Ray Edwards who will no doubt be looking to have a good season to improve any future contact offer, and we may lose a bit of our reputation but our bite should be just as strong.

That’s all from me today, for some reason WordPress is having a superfuntime reformatting my paragraphs so I hope this post comes out okay. Back later in the week with more Purple News. Skol!

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Weekend on the Field – 2 Weeks ’til the Draft, bring your lunch pail

Good morning to you, people of the Purple Nation, and apologies for the rather bittish output these past couple of weeks. Basically work at work is bloody busy, and at home I’m also working my ruddy socks off doing a whole manner of wedding planning, Lost watching, and also now I’m helping out some local Football coaches by filming training ahead of the UK’s own football season which for my team, the London Olympians, kicks off on April 25th.

It’s been a real pleasure I must say to be out in the sun, camera in hand, watching Football. My understanding of the game is increasing every second, for example I know roughly know that a Strong Slot 35 Right Slant Chicken McNugget Slow Ride Take It Easy would send the running back to the local take away to pick up a kebab. And it’s also filling the void left by the Vikes, and their lack of news. On the one hand I kinda want to look at all the “news” about the push for the new stadium, but I also know that a lot of it is “news” and so won’t contain much at all of any real weight, and will only serve to get my hopes up and then frustrate me.

As will any more talk of the draft. From being something quite exciting, it’s now something which bores the living shit out of me. If we had a higher pick in round 1 then maybe it would be more interesting, but at the moment it’s like watching the crap kid get picked last for soccer practice or something.

One of the few items of interest recently has been the future of Defensive End, Ray “Romo Hunter” Edwards. Because of the lack of Collective Agreement leading to among other things an un-capped 2010, Ray, who was meant to be a UFA is now an RFA, and thus in limbo land with regards his future as a Vikings. We don’t need to improve his contract, unless someone else makes an offer for him (and I think they need to do it in this next week), then we can either match it and keep him or not and lose him. But if there is no offer he stays a Vikings. This kinda puts Ray somewhere between a rock and a hard place, but he’s elected to turn down a nice sun lounger while he waits there. There’s a good overview of the situation on the Gab this week.

In my opinion Ray does need to get a bit of a grip on himself. He’s part of a great team, and timed his career game (v Cowboys) so well that in a normal season he’d be due a big contract. But this isn’t a normal season, and his attitude could slowly burn bridges, and not just with us, but with other teams if he’s seen to throw his toys out of the pram by declaring his not going to attend the team’s workout program or Organized Team Activities. If he were to just accept his situation and get on and play, I think we’d be more inclined to make him an offer, but if he goes and acts like he’s bigger than the team, then really there is only one place he can go.

Okay, that’s it from me today. Have a good one, and he’s to something interesting happening this week. Skol!

Thursday Morning Vike-Blitz – Sweet Tenderness for Edwards and T-Jack

Afternoon! It’s a blazingly fast post from me today, but with only one story grabbing the headlines, you’re not missing out on much really.

As mentioned yesterday, free agency starts tonight, and in preparation for that the Vikes have begun handing out offers to their Restricted Free Agents. The biggest offer going to DE Ray Edwards who is set to more than double his salary with a $2.5mil First Round Tender which could keep him a Viking for another year. Meanwhile Tavaris Jackson has reportedly been offered a Third Round Tender of around $1.1mil, DT Fred Evans (?) a Second Rounder of about £1.7mil and Nosferatu Tahi (#12) was handed a calculator to help with his basic math skills.

So as I understand it, other teams now have a week to better that offer, which we can then match if we want to keep any of them. I’m glad Edwards has been valued so highly, his performances late on showed him to be a bit of an unsung hero for the defence, and I think a reasonable value on T-Jack means that if we keep him we’re not getting shafted on the price, and he’s still affordable to anyone mad enough to try and sign him.

We’re still apparently talking with Chester Taylor, I’m sure we’ll hear more on that in the coming days once the FA window opens.

Right, gotta dash peeps! Have a good one, UK

My Top 10 Vikings’ moments of 2009 #7 – Percy Harvin

Good morning people of the Purple! It’s a gorgeous morning here in London, and to compliment the sunshine is a glowing review of our rookie, Percy Harvin, coming up in just a moment in my Top 10 Moments of 2009.

But before that there are a couple of links worth visiting. First off is a review on the Vikings’ official blog of Adrian Peterson’s season and how it wasn’t a failure, contrary to what many of us saw. There’s also a good article on Ray Edwards v Brian Robison on Bleacher Report which is worth a look. And if you still care, there’s a McKinnie update… No, didn’t think you did.

In today’s FAVRE WATCH the old man’s charity has been doing good at a Children’s Charity in South Mississippi. Otherwise it’s very quite on the Silver Fox front.

Okay here’s my number 7 moment of 2009 and it’s another player tribute here rather than just one moment. This time it goes to the NFL Rookie of the Year, Percy Harvin.

Picked up in the first round of the 2009 Draft, Harvin’s stock in the draft had fizzled out a bit, mainly due to questions over his character. During the Combine, he’d tested positive for marijuana, and a lot of teams had therefore decided to pass on him, going instead for a safer choice. Not the Vikings however, a team that likes to take rough diamonds and make them shine. Not that Percy really needed much work.

In his first game against Cleveland, Harvin caught the first ever Purple touchdown pass from Brett Favre. With a 101 yard kickoff return against San Francisco Harvin became the first ever Vikings’ rookie to score in his first 3 games, and the second youngest to return a kickoff for a TD. By the time the season was over, he’d scored 8 times, 2 from kickoff returns (the other was a magnificent effort in our loss to Pittsburgh which brought us back into the game). I particularly loved his TD @ Green Bay, where his incredible agility caused 3 cheeseheads to collide and fall like skittles, allowing him to simply run around their strewn carcasses on his way to the end zone. He was a target to the tune of 60 receptions, and averaged 9 yards per carry on the ground. He was selected to the Pro Bowl, though didn’t play, and was voted the NFL Rookie of the Year. Not bad, not bad at all.

He was also a wonderful age counter balance to our 40 year old Silver Fox, and the two hit it off big time. I dare say that Harvin learned a great deal from Favre, and he wasn’t afraid to give the old man a taste of his own medicine when he slapped Brett’s arse during the Pants on the Ground rendition.

Even with the fact that he had to endure migraine headaches throughout the season, which caused him to miss training and some games, Harvin, whenever he’s been out on the field has proved to be a threat in all areas, showing daring and an iron will which made him such a great target in the air, despite his relatively short stature. He was the perfect addtion to a Vikings’ offence and will help it become more and more lethal in the coming years.

Percy Harvin. We salute you!

Tuesday Morning News – Caught in the Middle with Ray, Vikings were scared of Saints, and more from the Spielmeister

Good morning Purple Nation. This morning more stories have been milked from the teat of Rick Spielman who spoke at the Vikings’ Arctic Blast event last week.

Following on from his statements about the future of Chester Taylor and other free agents, Rick also touched on the loss to the Saints. It’s pretty much the same stuff that’s been said by players and fans for the last 3 weeks, but at least the guy is also trying to move things on, by looking ahead to next year, “You have to move on, you don’t have any choice… we are very hopeful that we can have a good draft and get some of these guys back and we’ll be right back where we were last year.” Rick will soon be in Mobile looking for Leprechauns and potential players for next year, they’ve certainly set some high draft standards of late, let’s hope they can keep up the good work.

Spielman’s other priority as mentioned was to keep hold of our unrestricted free-agents, but while the future for these guys is clear, the situation for restricted free agents is not. Defensive End, Ray Edwards is not happy about being “caught in the middle” with regards the current situation. As it stands, we have to offer Edwards a contract or another team can lay claim to him so our role is clear, but this doesn’t stop Edwards feeling left out in the cold. Most of his frustration luckily is aimed at the “pencil push[ing]” Commish, Roger Goodell, and also the Players union. We just need to make sure that we do retain his services and keep him sweet with us. Handle this right and he’ll be a loyal player for years to come, take advantage of his situation and he could understandably leave us at the first opportunity.

Edwards also took time to speak about the loss to the Saints. His comments have drawn quite a bit of interest however due to hinting that the team showed some fear as the game neared its unfortunate climax.

“There’s no room for fear in this game and I felt that there was a little bit of that there in New Orleans and that’s why they beat us,”

We’d had a few pieces of insight into the Saints game but this is one of the more interesting. Now I’m not surprised the team were scared as the end of the game approached, this was a chance to get to the Super Bowl for the first time in 30-odd years, but being scared and showing fear are two different things, and Edwards is right when he says we showed fear whilst the Saints didn’t and that’s what lost us the game.

Edwards also vents some frustration at the attitude of the Vikings’ coaching staff.

“We try to pride ourselves in trusting everybody that is on our team and I feel that it wasn’t [the case],”

On the one hand these comments are worrying. For a player to come out and say that they didn’t feel the coaches trusted their players at a given point isn’t what you want to be hearing, and there is a good chance that over the coming days that certain areas of the media will take these quote and run wild with them, particularly with his future undecided. But at the same time, he also accounts this breakdown in trust as a blip, a poorly timed blip, but a blip nonetheless. Either way, it is something that needs to be overcome because if we are going to make it to the Promised Land, we need to be able to cope with crunch situations.

From real news to happy go luck offseason speculation, here’s a little gem from Bleacher Report, and 10 Things for The Minnesota Vikings to do this Offseason. Some pretty standard stuff in there about Favre and Peterson, but also some interesting opinions on keeping Ray Edwards over Chester Taylor, getting a better player to kick the ball to touchback every time (something about Ferris Bueler), and also some scathing views on the true value of Jared Allen and telling it like is about Madieu Williams.

And that’s all folks, apart from another slightly dour FAVRE WATCH

Today, Daniel Beer reckons we need to worry more about Cedric Griffin than we do Brett Favre.

And Dave Carroll throws in his opinion on Brett’s season and on our options if Favre does pack it all in.

Have a good one everybody!

Skol!

Top Ten Vikings’ Moments of 2009 #9 – Pants on the Ground

Good morning Nation!

As per last week, my Saturday roundup is a brief one, but will be followed by my #9 moment of last season, so sit back and enjoy…

Our DE, Ray Edwards, on KFAN yesterday explained to Paul Allen that he didn’t see all those hits on Brett Favre during the Saints game, if he had, he would have done something about it. Now I’m a bit baffled why he wasn’t watching the offence, but maybe that’s football, I don’t know.

Also, further to yesterday’s news on Antoine Winfield’s injury, it looks like Cedric Griffin is going to be out for around 6 months, which should see him back in time for the new season, hopefully he’ll be match fit and ready to roll by then…

And there’s no FAVRE WATCH today I’m afraid, because there is simply no news about the Old Man today. So here is my #9 moment of 2009…

The win over Dallas in the NFC Playoff game was magnificent, and that will be revisited later in this countdown. But from this game came a moment which I’m sure I will call on for some time if I ever need cheering up during the offseason…

Genius! Pure genius! In this simple moment, the spirit of the team burned brighter than it had done in the three years that I’ve followed the Vikings. If Favre never returns to the Vikings’ I think I will remember this just as long as I’ll remember his interception against the Saints. This moment showed how far the team had come and how strong they were as a unit.

It was hilarious too, a 40 year old acting like he was 14, breaking into a terrible rendition of General Larry Platt’s “Pants on the Ground” which had only appeared on American Idol a week previously, and if that wasn’t enough, to take attention away from his embarrassment, Favre landed an almighty butt-slap on Jared Allen who screamed in pain.

This was a team who were loving their football, who loved each other, and who should have been in and won Super Bowl 44. And whilst we don’t have that memory, at least Pants on the Ground will remind us of a team who genuinely believed they could.

Welcome to The Fransition Zone – Vikes tried to sign Dorsey, much ado about Chester and more mock drafts

Blimey, it’s a chilly one in London this morning, and I had the pleasure of sitting across from someone on the train who obviously didn’t realise that they could turn off the ‘tock-tock’ keypad sound from their phone! Consequently I feel like I’ve shared my commute with Woody Woodpecker.

There doesn’t seem to be much in the shape of headlines this morning, the main thing is that it’s the beginning of the period when teams can apply franchise or transition tags to free agent players. I don’t know if this period really has an official title which is why from now on, it will be referred to as The Fransition Zone.

Our main concern in The Fransition Zone should be securing the services of DE Ray Edwards who pwnd Tony Romo last month, and is a Restricted Free Agent. However it is unlikely that we will tag Chester Taylor in any way as he is an Unrestricted Free Agent and is probably going to check out his worth through other team’s offers for his services. Keeping Chester should be another priority for us, but could prove tricky, which is probably why we tried to sign Dede Dorsey . His numbers don’t tell the tale of just how valuable he is, but he can make more money at another team, and be a starting RB, so where his future lies is more up to him than to us, but I do hope he stays (for one I’ll have to replace my home jersey which bears his name). There is a more complete roundup of our Unrestricted Free Agents on The Daily Norseman if you want a more complete overview.

Another player who will be hitting Free Agency is Tavaris “T-Jack” Jackson. Jacko’s performances in Purple haven’t set the Vikings’ world alight thus far in his career, and he didn’t really have the chance last season thanks to Favre. It’s hardly surprising then, that he doesn’t really know where he’s going to be in 7 months time, but thanks to free agency looming, he doesn’t really need to worry about it. Personally I think we need to lose either Tavaris or Sage to make way for a rookie in the draft, so if a bid comes in for Jackson, we should probably let him go. If we don’t however, it won’t be the end of the world. Hopefully he’s learnt a lot from spending a season with Favre, and with little pressure on him at the moment, it could put him in a good frame of mind if/when he is called on to step up and play.

One person T-Jack could draw inspiration from is the Vikings’ new Hall of Famer, John Randle. There’s a great article from Sid Hartman on the Star Tribune today charting Randle’s rocky road to becoming a starter for the Vikes, and how he never stopped trying to make it in the NFL. I particularly love the bit about how we used to practice with a #4 dummy, thanks to our animosity towards our “current” quarterback.

There’s more mock draft goodness out there on the interweb, this time from our friends at Bleacher Report. In their opinion a new centre/guard is at the top of our list, with Colt McCoy (most American name ever?) being picked up in round 2 at Quarterback. It’s hard to get too excited about any of this though, at least until after the Combine when the team should start to make a few signals about who they might be interested in, but it’s still fun to look at who we might, but probably won’t pick.

Okay, that wraps up a quiet day in The Fransition Zone, but expect things to pick up a bit in the coming days. And now, it’s time for FAVRE WATCH, which today is brought to you by Molton Boron.

Recently The Viking Ship invited readers to write their own articles for the site, and today features Yvonne, who explains how she became a born again Favre Fan. It’s a fun read, charting how her hatred for a Green #4 eventually transformed into love for our Purple Silver Fox. And she’s right when she says “Brett made it fun to watch football again.”

And that’s it for the Watch today, but thanks again to Molton Boron for making today’s lack of news on the Old Man possible.