1. Bryan Walters

The UDFA from Cornell turned a lot of heads in camp and is now set to be the Chargers’ slot man with Patrick Crayton injured. He looked pretty dang good in the preseason tape I watched, a lot of it from the Cardinals game where he caught 5 balls for 61 yards including a couple of first down grabs from Philip Rivers. He did have a fairly glaring drop in that game as well but overall he looked like a tough little slot man who could show up big catching quick underneath stuff with the Vikings dropping their coverage deep to deal with Vincent Jackson and Malcom Floyd. Antoine Winfield will, as always, be lined up against the slot man in nickel. It will be interesting to see how young Walters fares in that match-up.

2. Mike Tolbert

The Chargers are going with a two-headed beast at running back, and Tolbert is the bowling ball half of that combo, Ryan Mathews being the speedy half. I think the Chargers will try to run Tolbert and Mathews right at the middle of the Vikings defense and test out those tackles, but I also think Tolbert could be a big weapon in the passing game. The Vikings figure to employ their usual strategy of playing their safeties and corners deep which means there will be lots of stuff open short: in other words, feast time for tight ends and receiving backs.

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The oft-injured veteran safety I refer to is Bob Sanders, who today was cut by the Indianapolis Colts. Actually “oft-injured’ may be an understatement in Sanders’ case: the former Defensive Player of the Year has appeared in only nine games the last three seasons due to various physical problems. Both his 2009 and 2010 seasons were cut short by biceps tears, the latter occurring in the first quarter of the first game, which would have to suck.

The Colts reportedly tried restructuring Sanders’ contract, but were unable to reach an agreement with the player and therefore parted ways with him. Sanders still had $12.5 million left on his old contract.

And now the inevitable question: In light of his injury history, would signing Sanders make sense for the Vikings, a team that is desperate to upgrade at safety?

If you ignore the injury issue, Sanders is a perfect fit for the Vikings. He played in the Cover-2 in Indianapolis, the same scheme the Vikings employ. Last year the Vikings were hurt by having slow-reacting safeties who didn’t tackle; Bob Sanders is a fast-reacting safety who is legendary for his huge hits. A healthy Sanders would represent a massive upgrade at the position, even if he isn’t the greatest in coverage.

I’m sure Sanders himself would be intrigued by the chance to play for the Vikings. He’s familiar with the scheme like I said, and perhaps more importantly, he’s familiar with Leslie Frazier who was his defensive backs coach for a time in Indy.

It all comes down to money. If Sanders can be had for cheap, it makes sense for the Vikings to take a run at him, injury history and all. Even if he never gets back to his previous Pro Bowl form, he would still be better than Madieu Williams who is a great humanitarian but a dreadful defensive back.

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Aaron Kampman did nothing Thursday to quell speculation that he’s not overly thrilled about his role in the Green Bay Packers’ new defense.

The former defensive end who is converting to outside linebacker in the new 3-4 defense continued his media boycott. The eight-year veteran has not granted any interviews since coach Mike McCarthy revamped his defense by hiring Dom Capers as defensive coordinator in January to replace the fired Bob Sanders.

A team spokesman said Kampman originally planned to address reporters after Thursday’s organized team activity practice — the first session open to the media — but Kampman changed his mind and never appeared in the locker room. Kampman also declined to speak to reporters at the team’s Fan Fest in March.

For the first seven years of his NFL career, Kampman played defensive end in a 4-3 scheme and accumulated 50½ sacks while starting 95 of the 103 games he appeared in. Along the way, the former fifth-round draft pick signed a four-year, $21 million contract extension and made a pair of Pro Bowls (2006 and 2007).

Greg Bedard of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel posted several tweets from minicamp yesterday, ominous tweets for Packer fans like:

Ted Thompson is talking with fans and signing autographs. That might be more awkward than kampman in pass coverage

and:

Aaron Kampman refused to talk again about his switch to OLB. Packers even urged him to talk. There’s a problem there. Big time.

But I’m sure this will all be worked out by the start of the season.  Wrong.  The Packers are going to have to do something with Aaron Kampman, and that something is trade him.  Sorry the whole 3-4 thing is already turning out to be a disaster.  Should be fun watching AD run through the Green Bay defense like they were bop bags.