These days, there are two long-time Eagles whose names are out there: Brian Westbrook and Donovan McNabb.

Westbrook, being a free agent, can be had by anyone willing to pay him. Unfortunately for the former Pro Bowler, the market for his services seems drier than the Mojave.

Judging by Childress’ remarks, the Vikings do not view Westbrook as a top target either.

“I don’t know if we’re far enough down the free-agent trail here now,” Chilly said when asked whether there was interest in Westbrook. “He’s certainly a guy that’s on our board and on our list, as are others. Is there interest? Not right this second. Do I know of him and his skills and abilities? Absolutely. And I have a lot of admiration for what he has been able to do.”

Translation: Brian Westbrook, being concussion-prone, would only be considered as a last resort.

Then there’s Donovan McNabb who, thanks to Andy Reid‘s possibly overly-candid remarks at the owners’ meetings, is assumed by everyone to be on his way out of Philadelphia via trade.

Speculation is centered firmly around Arizona, Buffalo and – sorry Donovan – Oakland. The Vikings are not really in that mix, but that won’t stop people from bringing McNabb’s name up to Chilly.

Chilly’s response to a question about whether Donovan is on the Vikings’ radar was pretty succinct:

“Not as of right now.” Then Chilly added, “I’m not going to tell you that we won’t add another quarterback to our roster or another two quarterbacks to our roster depending on which quarterback shows up and which doesn’t. Or which couple or three show up and which don’t. That’s all down-the-road stuff.”

Translation: If Brett Favre wants to play, he’s our guy. If not, we’ve got Tarvaris Jackson sitting there with a third-round tender on him and no team wanting to sign him. So we’re pretty sure Tarvaris will be there as a last-second contingency if Brett happens not to get the itch.

I wonder, though, what Childress’ feeling about McNabb would be if Brett called him tomorrow and said he was hanging it up?

I’m guessing the Vikes would be on the phone to Philly in about four seconds flat. But, since Brett is 100% coming back next year, this is all moot.

Tomlinson will reportedly be in Winter Park to meet with Brad Childress and the gang on Thursday.  Chilly said in an interview at University of Minnesota Pro Day that he has already spoken to LT, and made sure the future Hall-of-Famer understands that, if he does sign with the Vikings, he will be a back-up to Adrian Peterson.

The Vikes’ interest in Tomlinson has seemingly signaled that they are not interested in Brian Westbrook, a man with Chilly connections but a disconcerting history of concussions.

Tomlinson’s interest in the Vikings seems to signal a few things as well:  that Tomlinson has found the market for his services less-than-vigorous, that LT at least thinks he can live with being a #2 back and, most importantly, that LT knows or at least thinks That Guy will be back as quarterback.

Moving from the running back situation to the cornerback situation:  the Vikings have avoided losing yet another top back-up by signing nickel corner Benny Sapp to a two-year contract.  The two-year deal shows how desperate the Vikes were to keep Sapp, who became a key cog in the defense last year, especially after Antoine Winfield got hurt.  The Vikes will still probably look around for another low-price veteran corner to cover themselves in case Cedric Griffin has to miss some time.

And the last bit of news:  the Vikings have moved to fix their occasional special teams coverage issues by signing Rhys Lloyd as a kickoff specialist.  Lloyd’s job will be to boom kicks into the end zone and hopefully help us avert disasters like the second half of the Bears game where every time we seemed to be getting back into it, the kick coverage broke down, giving the Bears field position.  If Lloyd sticks, it will mean one less roster spot for useless guys like Erin Henderson.

Artis Hicks left over the weekend, signing with the Redskins, who will give him a shot to start.  This leaves the Vikings without their top back-up guard and tackle.

The prospective kick-off guy, Rhys Lloyd, a former Gopher, was scheduled to meet with the Vikings on Monday.  No report on how that went so far.  The Vikes are apparently hoping a kick-off guy could help their weak coverage by putting a few more in the endzone than Ryan Longwell is capable of doing at this point in his life.

Then there’s that old cornerback they may be after, Phillip Buchanon, former Lion, whose 2009 highlight was chasing and catching Adrian Peterson on what looked like a touchdown, and forcing Peterson to fumble.  The Vikes could lose Benny Sapp, which would leave them with old Antoine Winfield, injured Cedric Griffin and green Asher Allen as their top three cornerbacks.

Scary.

Other rumors:  Willie Parker?  That’s been shot down by Judd Zulgad.  Brian Westbrook keeps coming up, but who knows.  All I’m sure of is, if the Vikes don’t come out of this free agency period with replacements for Taylor and Hicks and another veteran corner, they will have to be considered a notch worse than they were last year.