Archive for July, 2011

All 10 of the Vikings’ 2011 draft picks are now under contract, in Winter Park and ready to begin training camp in Mankato on Monday. This includes QB Christian Ponder, who was drafted #12 overall and was the presumptive starter until the trade for Donovan McNabb. Now we’ve learned that Ponder not only won’t be the starter going into camp, he won’t get the first team reps the first week while McNabb has to sit. Joe Webb, the incumbent, will be the #1 QB out of the box. Obviously Leslie Frazier is the kind of coach who makes a big [...]

Adrian Peterson is a man of his word. He said he’d show up for training camp on-time and he did – although it was close. According to dispatches from Winter Park Peterson pulled up in his Escalade just as the media were leaving the premises, or about five minutes before the deadline for players to report. I’m guessing Peterson alerted the Vikings ahead of time of his intention to sneak in under the wire and avoid having to answer questions about his contract situation. The timing isn’t important anyway, what matters is that AD is in camp. There will be [...]

A great deal of the Vikings-related free agency talk these past few days has been about the wide receiver position and specifically who the Vikes should bring in to replace Sidney Rice as a tall, playmaking downfield threat. Various names have been bandied about at various times: Braylon Edwards, James Jones, Malcom Floyd…even Randy Moss for those poor souls who just can’t let go. As far as we know the Vikings were in on Edwards, Jones and Floyd to some extent, with Jones at one point rumored to be “on the verge” of making a deal. In the end though [...]

The expected rush of rookie contract signings began this morning with Kyle Rudolph putting his John Hancock on the papers and becoming an official member of the Minnesota Vikings. As proof, Rudolph tweeted the above picture. Nice watch. Rudolph is expected to step right in as a major contributor on offense. Bill Musgrave‘s plan, as far as we know, is to feature Rudolph in a lot of two tight end sets with Visanthe Shiancoe. Rudolph was drafted in the 2nd round, 43rd overall, and was something of a surprise pick given that TE was not seen as an area of [...]

Erin Henderson will be staying in the fold with the Vikings for one more year after signing his RFA tender. Henderson broke the news himself on Twitter:  ”Las night I signed a 1 yr deal wit the Vikes worth more than my entire rookie contract. Guess hard work does pay off…” Henderson’s rookie contract was for 3-years, $1.155 million, and his tender was for $1.2 million. So yes, that’s more than his entire rookie contract. Good math skills there Erin. Henderson is expected to take over as a starter at outside linebacker after the inevitable departure of Ben Leber, who the [...]

Donovan McNabb is in the house. Well probably not anymore – he surely wants to get some shut-eye at some point – but he was in the house earlier today to have his physical, make his contract official and participate in a conference call with the media. He is now a certified member of the Minnesota Vikings. Next on the agenda for Donovan: Getting on the practice field with his new teammates. Though the Vikings are allowed to begin practicing on Monday, Donovan won’t be able to join them until August 4th per some goofy post-lockout NFL rule. But Donovan’s [...]

It’s still a couple days till camp starts and Adrian Peterson is obviously feeling antsy. This could explain why he spent most of Friday afternoon taking requests for retweets from his Twitter followers and pretty much filling every request. Every. Single. Stinking. Request. For a short period of time it actually seemed like Peterson had totally taken over Twitter, bringing the normal flow of irresponsible NFL free agent speculation to a screeching halt. Now, some of you are probably asking what the big deal is about this. Isn’t Adrian just showing love for his fans? Isn’t that kind of sweet? [...]

Yup, the Vikings are trying to find a new wide receiver. Last night Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune labeled the Vikings as one of two teams who were “hot” for Malcom Floyd, the other being the Arizona Cardinals. Now Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reiterated the Vikings’ interest in Packers receiver James Jones. No word today on Braylon Edwards but yesterday such luminaries of the NFL insider world as John Clayton said the Vikings were on him as well. At this point it seems receiver is the team’s top priority in free agency. Which makes [...]

Ray Edwards has finally gotten his wish. He’s a former Minnesota Viking. For the next five years, barring unforeseen circumstances, he will be an Atlanta Falcon. Financial terms of Ray’s new deal are not yet available but I’m guessing he got a lot less than Charles Johnson got from the Panthers. That’s just a guess. And what kind of player did the Falcons just buy with whatever amount of money they spent on Ray? They bought themselves a potentially dominating pass rusher who, at least during the course of his career so far, has mostly not lived up to that [...]

Viking players are expected to report for camp in Mankato on Sunday, and as far as we know Adrian Peterson has every intention of being there, new contract or no new contract. In an interview a few days ago, Leslie Frazier said he talked to Peterson by phone and received assurances that AD has no plans to hold out. As far as we know nothing has changed in Peterson’s mind since Frazier made that announcement. There’s no real reason for us to doubt Peterson’s word…so why do I not entirely trust it? Could it be because Adrian himself has planted [...]