By Jon Merckle

Please realize folks this is nothing more than a shot in the dark.  None of us know what’s going on inside the heads of Brad Childress or Rick Spielman right now.  What is known though is that key player decisions must be made.  I will go into slight detail on why some guys are in and others are out.  Those that are considered locks will not have much written about, as we all know what colors the likes of Adrian Peterson or Kevin Williams will be wearing in 2010.  But who’s backing them up is up for debate.  Let’s get it started…

DEFENSIVE LINE

Locks: Jared Allen, Ray Edwards, Kevin Williams, Pat Williams

Fit Um For Purple: Jayme Mitchell, Jimmy Kennedy, Letroy Guion, Brian Robison, Everson Griffin

Working Elsewhere: Fred Evans, Mike Montgomery, Tremaine Johnson

As Tyler Durden would say, “To make an omelet you have to break some eggs.”  I understand that Fred Evans would start at DT for several teams in this league and has done an excellent job when Pat Williams sits.  Still he’s 4 years older than Letroy Guion (just turned 23 and has looked solid in preseason) and Jimmy Kennedy has salvaged a once lost career working with Leslie Frazier.  Tremaine Johnson went to LSU and was on our practice squad last year and that’s really about I know of him.

The DE backups are straightforward.  Jayme Mitchell has looked dominant playing against second team offensive lines.  Brian Robison is rock solid too.  Everson Griffen has shown nothing in camp and in preseason, but Vikes will want to keep him around to play on Special Teams considering he had a 1st round grade a few months ago and slid to us in the 4^th. Packers let Mike Montgomery walk and our line is simply better than theirs.

LINEBACKERS

Locks: Chad Greenway, EJ Henderson, Ben Leber

Fit Um For Purple: Heath Farwell, Jasper Brinkley, Kenny Onatolu, Erin Henderson

Practice Squad: Nate Triplett

Already Working Elsewhere: J Leman

Expect 8 LBs to make it.  Jasper Brinkley showed promise last year as a rookie stepping in for an injured EJ.  Heath Farwell, Kenny Onatolu and Erin Henderson also offer value on Special Teams.  Have to admit that I went back-and-forth with Erin Henderson, however believe he makes the team being EJ’s brother and Vikes will also want to keep him around if Ben Leber walks after 2010.  Nate Triplett hopefully slips through waivers to make it on practice squad.  J Leman was cut last week.

SECONDARY

Locks: Antoine Winfield, Chris Cook, Cedric Griffin, Tyrell Johnson, Madieu Williams, Jamarca Sanford

Fit Um For Purple: Lito Sheppard, Asher Allen

Working Elsewhere: Eric Frampton, Marcus Sherels, Colt Anderson, DeAndre Wright

Not much debate here.  Sheppard and Allen are all but locks.  Frampton offered value on Special Teams last year, but adding Cook and Sheppard sealed his fate.  Sherels is a Rochester native who may find a place on the practice squad.  It also should be noted that this group is subject to immediate change more than any with Cook and Griffin availability in September in question.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Locks: Ryan Longwell, Chris Kluwe, Cullen Loeffer

Fit Um For Purple: Rhys Lloyd

Only debate here is Lloyd who makes it by the skin of his teeth. He redeemed himself in final preseason game kicking everything deep with two touchbacks.

RUNNING BACKS

Locks: Adrian Peterson, Toby Gerhart

Fit Um For Purple: Albert Young, Darius Reynaud

Working Elsewhere: Ian Johnson

Behind Adrian this team seems content on going with a backup by committee approach.  That being said, Adrian will be on the field for nearly every key 3^rd down with Chester Taylor now on the Bears.  Young and Gerhart will duke it out for backup duties.  I expect Gerhart to have the job claimed by about week 7.  Reynaud is a decent return man who we can expect to cover both kickoffs and punts this year.  Johnson seems like a good kid, but is not an NFL caliber back.

WIDE RECIEVER

Locks: Bernard Berrian, Percy Harvin, Greg Camarillo, Greg Lewis, Sidney Rice (who will begin year on PUP)

Fit Um For Purple: Javon Walker

Working Elsewhere: Logan Payne, Marquis Hamilton, Taye Biddle, Freddie Brown

Considering 5 guys in this group are locks there’s not much wiggle room.  I gave Walker the nod over Payne considering Payne is too much like Lewis and Camarillo.   Walker is more of a red zone threat, which is a need for the Vikings until Sidney Rice is back.

TIGHT END

Locks: Visanthe Shiancoe, Jimmy Kleinsasser, Jeff Dugan

Fit Um For Purple: Garrett Mills

Practice Squad: Mickey Shuler

Not much to debate here.  Dugan and Kleinsasser have been around for a while.  Mills strong preseason says he makes it and has a role in Special Teams.  Mickey Shuler seems to be football savvy, however is going to have to clear waivers and work with the practice squad.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Locks: Steve Hutchinson, Phil Loadholt, Bryant McKinnie, John Sullivan, Anthony Herrera, Chris DeGeare

Fit Um For Purple: Ryan Cook, Jon Cooper

Working Elsewhere: Patrick Brown, Drew Radovich, Chris Clark, Adrian Battles, Thomas Austin

That’s 8 offensive linemen being kept.  DeGeare’s strong camp and preseason moves him to lock territory.  Cook is not a fan favorite, but is better than most backups having experience at both center and tackle.  Cooper will also make team with Sullivan’s injury and Herrera just learning the center position.

And last but definitely not least…

QUARTERBACK

Locks: Brett Lorenzo Favre

Fit Um For Purple: Sage Rosenfels, Joe Webb

Working Elsewhere: Tarvaris Jackson

Count me in the camp that says Rosenfels should be our #2 QB.  While Jackson does have a bazooka of an arm and can move on his feet, he struggles to pickup any complex blitz and has no precision.  Last time I checked running the West Coast offense requires short accurate passes.  Jackson is also the same guy who two years ago lost his job to Gus Frerotte until Gus broke his back.  And the same guy But what do I know?  Childress is the QB guru.  He says Jackson has gone thru an “evolution” in 2010.  Funny because I haven’t seen it. He finished the preseason 12-26 for 60 yards. Repeat, PRESEASON when you’re oftentimes playing against a 2^nd team D!  Rosenfels at least looks comfortable running this offense and has somewhat of a pocket presence.  Webb would also not clear waivers if he were cut.  Keeping both Jackson and Webb means two QBs who are still developing on a team that’s built to win now.

So there you have it.  This was much more difficult to put together than I originally thought.  We here at The Viking Age are open for agreements and criticism.  And while we await the 53 the Vikings keep, just know other teams are also cutting players that we may want to claim for our 53 meaning some that make it immediately become expendable.   Oh… Tis the Season!

A week from tonight, the Vikings will take the field for real against the Saints.  But before we get there, we have to endure one more preseason game.

And this isn’t just any old preseason game – it’s the 4th preseason game, which everyone knows is always the most boring and tedious.

Of course, Brad Childress could save us from tedium by giving his starters some extra playing time, as he hinted he might after a ragged offensive performance against the Seahawks.  However, I have to believe good sense will prevail, meaning we won’t see much if any of Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson and the rest of the stars tonight against the Broncos.

So what is there left to look forward to in this game?  Well, there’s always the chance the Vikings could maul Tim Tebow, which would be satisfying on too many levels to name.

Actually, Tebow’s presence is probably responsible for 95% of whatever intrigue this game holds for fans.  And it’s not just Bronco fans who are curious to see how Tim performs.  Viking fans want to see him too…because if he plays well, they will get to blast Brad Childress for the next several days for not drafting him.  And what Viking fan doesn’t love a good, new excuse to blast Chilly?
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Yesterday was the first cut down day for NFL teams.  The Vikings reduced their roster to 75 by making a decision on Sidney Rice’s status and sending three other men packing.

First Rice.  After hinting at the possibility of the receiver being placed on IR, ending his 2010 season, the Vikings finally decided to place him on the active/PUP list.  The rules governing this list are more convoluted and impenetrable than the plot of Lost, but all we really need to know is, Rice will not be able to play for the first six weeks of the season.

This is not really news, since we knew Rice would almost certainly be out for the first half of the year anyway.  But it does slam the door on the last glimmer of hope that Rice could pull off a miracle early comeback.

And now the cuts:  With the Rice decision made and Jaymar Johnson safely tucked away on IR, the Vikings only needed to waive three guys to get to the limit.  Those three ended up being J Leman, Marko Mitchell and Bill Noethlich.  No, not even catching a bomb from Sage Rosenfels against third-stringers could save Marko Mitchell from the Turk.

The 75 guys remaining on the roster can breathe easy until September 4, when rosters must be reduced to 53 in preparation for the regular season.

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Chris Cook made a big impression in his first start as an NFL corner Saturday night vs. the Seahawks.  Unfortunately, Cook had to leave the game prematurely after suffering a knee injury.

Afterward, the rookie tried to downplay the severity of the injury.  Now we all know the truth:  Cook has a torn meniscus which will keep him out of next Thursday’s season opener against the Saints.

Veteran Lito Sheppard is expected to start in Cook’s place.  The Vikings are now thin at corner with this injury and last week’s trade of Benny Sapp, so look for them to possibly pick someone up on waivers.  With cuts being made all over the NFL, a halfway decent corner may become available.

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The words “ankle” and “lubricant” are never ones you want to see together in the same sentence.  Especially when said ankle belongs to the man you’re counting on to lead your football team to the championship that has eluded it for all 50 years of its existence.

But, this is the reality Brett Favre – and we – will have to face from here on out.  A reality full of reports like Peter King’s about the injection of lube Favre got in his bad ankle after the Seahawks game – a game in which Favre threw 2 interceptions, and also lost a fumble and part of his thumbnail.

At least Brett seems to have a sense of humor about the whole thing, comparing the work done on his ankle to a “grease fitting.”

Well, as long as Brett doesn’t require a whole transmission job or something, I guess everything will be fine.

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After three preseason games, my eyes tell me that Sage Rosenfels is ahead of Tarvaris Jackson in the competition to be the #2 quarterback behind Brett Favre.

Forget about stats.  I’m just talking about the way the offense functions when Tarvaris is in the game vs. when Sage is in.  To put it bluntly:  When T-Jack is behind center, the offense resembles a sputtery, leaking, shuddering clunker that’s ready for the junkyard.  When Sage is in, it looks dinged up and not very pretty but functional enough to get you from A to B.

It seems to me that this glaringly wide gulf between levels of performance would mean something to the whole process of determining who stands where on the depth chart.  But, obviously, Brad Childress has a different opinion on that.

As far as Childress is concerned, Tarvaris is still the #2 quarterback, and nothing short of debilitating injury could move him from that slot.  Sage Rosenfels could throw for 400 yards in two quarters with 5 touchdowns and he would still be the #3 quarterback.

This seems insane.  However, according to Chilly, what guys do in preseason games isn’t all that important.  How they look in practice – when, conveniently, no one else gets to watch – is much more vital to the evaluation process.

“Right from the first day of training camp, I’ve seen just an evolution and I’ve seen a growth in Tarvaris,” Childress explains. “Not that I haven’t seen it from Sage — he’s been the beneficiary of having that extended [preseason] time, where he was able to flash.”

I’ll give Childress this – at least he’s consistent.  Every off-season since Tarvaris was drafted we’ve heard the same story about how he’s evolving, growing, maturing.  However, when it comes time for him to actually play quarterback in games, he somehow never manages to show all this growth and evolution.  He always ends up looking like the same hopeless mess he’s always been.

But, I admit, I am not privy to what goes on in practice.  Maybe, if I watched Tarvaris in those sessions, I would also see the brilliant field general Childress insists he is.  Maybe, if I got a peek behind the curtain, I would also learn to have absolute faith in T-Jack.

And then I would be able to understand how it makes sense to dangle Sage Rosenfels as trade bait while essentially declaring Tarvaris Jackson untouchable.  Well, actually, I do see how that makes sense:  because Sage has some value, while T-Jack has almost none.

Evidently, among all the coaches and personnel gurus in the NFL, only Brad Childress is able to see what makes T-Jack so special.  But that doesn’t matter because, even if someone else wanted him, Childress would never give him up.

So, T-Jack is our back-up.  And if something should happen to our gimpy, aging, ever-more-pessimistic Hall-of-Famer, all our hopes will ride on the guy who got benched for Gus Frerotte two years ago, and couldn’t crack the line-up again until Gus broke his back.

And people wonder why we worry.

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It’s a good thing Brett Favre decided not to skip the preseason, because judging by last night’s performance, the guy needs all the work he can get.

Over the half + one series he was in, Favre showed good zip on his throws, but also demonstrated some poor decision-making and was inaccurate on some throws where guys were open.  And you can’t blame most of it on the offensive line, because outside of a couple early hiccups, the pass protection was actually pretty solid.

Of course it didn’t help Favre that his favorite receiver, Sidney Rice, was not on the field.  Over the course of 2009, Rice became the Vikings’ most dangerous deep threat; Favre became very comfortable tossing it up to Sidney and letting him go get it.  It became glaringly apparent last night that there is no one on the Vikings’ roster who offers an obvious alternative to Rice as a down-the-field option.

Favre seemed to be consciously auditioning other receivers for the Rice role.  He tried Bernard Berrian, but Bernard juggled a perfectly thrown slant pass to Earl Thomas for an interception, and then later when he had a chance on a well-thrown deep ball, he tripped (and Favre was seen shaking his head in semi-disgust).  On another occasion, Favre tried tossing one up to Javon Walker on the sideline, a very Sidney Rice-type play, but Javon failed to corral it.  On his last pass of the evening, Favre tried leading Greg Camarillo down the field, but overthrew him by several yards (the pass was picked off).

Right now, the Vikings have no one they can rely on to stretch the defense – and that is a problem.
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It’s always a good idea for the new guys on a team to make a quick positive impression on the home fans.

Several of the newest Vikings took this idea to heart, using Saturday night’s preseason tilt with the Seahawks to get a head start on winning over Purple Nation.

Greg Camarillo, acquired just this week in a trade with the Dolphins, got off to the fastest start, catching two passes for first downs in the same first quarter series.  Camarillo kept it going early in the second half, catching two more balls from Brett Favre before Brett got too frisky and overthrew him on a deep pass for a series-ending pick.

Camarillo’s offensive teammate, rookie Toby Gerhart, also impressed.  The former Stanford stand-out took over for Adrian Peterson in the second quarter, and ran 5 times for 24 yards, showing both power and nifty moves.

On the defensive end, rookie Chris Cook, making his first start of the preseason at corner, executed a pair of impressive open-field tackles on Seahawks ball carriers, one of which halted a potential Seattle touchdown drive.  Cook now appears almost a lock to win the starting right corner spot, after his Winfield-like showing.

All three of these guys will surely have their ups-and-downs as the weeks progress, but for now, it’s all up.

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Ideally, a team would like to use the third preseason game as a nice relaxing tune-up, and not as a platform for answering a bucketload of nagging questions.  Unfortunately, just two weeks before the start of the regular season, the Vikings find themselves still plagued by a swarm of unresolved issues.

Hopefully, tonight’s match-up with the Seahawks will clear up a few of these situations, and not create any more.

The big one, I think everyone agrees, is the wide receiver question.  Sadly, the only thing we know for sure here is that Sidney Rice will not be on the field for a very long time.  And here’s a brief listing of what we don’t know:

• If Percy Harvin will even be able to play tonight.  Or any other night.
• If Bernard Berrian is ready to step up and earn that #1 wide receiver money he’s been making.
• If Javon Walker has anything left.
• How newly-acquired Greg Camarillo fits into the offense.
• If Logan Payne can nail down the sixth receiver spot.
• When Brad Childress will stop having to tell everyone he has no intention of turning Joe Webb back into a receiver after using him at quarterback all summer.

There’s nothing like a multi-part question to make the head swim.
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The Vikings held practice in the Metrodome Thursday (they can use it anytime they want now that the Twins are no longer there), and unlike Wednesday, Percy Harvin was not on the field with his teammates.

Harvin was, however, seen wandering around near the Metrodome loading dock.  I don’t care to speculate on what he was doing out there, but I’m sure that it was entirely non-cannabis-related.

Despite Harvin’s absence from Thursday practice, Brad Childress remains hopeful that the receiver can play Saturday against the Seahawks.

In other receiver-related news, newly-acquired Greg Camarillo arrived Thursday for his first practice with his new teammates, and wore #85.  Chilly spoke about his new receiver after the session, and raved about Camarillo’s “A-plus hands.”

Indeed, according to a stat unearthed by ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, Camarillo led the NFL in sure-handedness last year, dropping zero balls in 73 targets.  Of course, he did not have Brett Favre slinging heaters at him last year in Miami.  We’ll see how Camarillo handles Favre’s velocity.

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