Cook in particular became important when the Vikings lost depth along the offensive line with the departure of Artis Hicks. Frampton is mainly a special teams contributor, and doesn’t figure to get into the safety mix much.

Unless the Vikes do something else in free agency, it appears Cook, who spent last year on the bench after being a starter for a couple of seasons, will be the team’s primary back-up at tackle and center.

With any luck, the starters will remain healthy, keeping Cook and his false start issues off the field.

Per Sean Jensen, the Friday injury report lists the following players as questionable:  Anthony Herrera, Visanthe Shiancoe, Chester Taylor and Antoine Winfield.  Herrera continues to deal with the after-effects of a concussion (I hope Hines Ward isn’t too unsympathetic), while Shiancoe and Taylor nurse rib injuries (Shiancoe’s was suffered on the touchdown pass negated by Bryant McKinnie’s amusing illegal man downfield penalty).  Winfield, of course, is still trying to come back from a bad foot.

The list of probables is even longer:  Steve Hutchinson, Benny Sapp, Bernard Berrian, Eric Frampton, Bryant McKinnie, Adrian Peterson and Naufahu Tahi.  Obviously, “probable” means these guys will almost certainly play, but the fact that we’re talking about them here means they are all running at less than 100%.

Of all the questionable guys, Visanthe Shiancoe would probably be the most damaging to lose, given his red zone presence and big-time ability in third down situations (and the fact that Brett Favre clearly has 100% confidence in him, something I don’t think he has in Jeff Dugan and/or Jim Kleinsasser).

Anthony Herrera we can live without, because we have Artis Hicks, who is no drop-off.  Losing Chester Taylor hurts a little in the passing game, and takes away your contingency plan in the event AD starts going butterfingers all over the field.

And then there’s Antoine Winfield.  We’ve lived without him so far, but this is the week where missing him could really suck, considering the receiver talent the Cardinals line up.  And if Kurt Warner plays…well, our defense could be in real trouble.

Tonight’s all about guys winning spots.  The most important battle of course is John David Booty v. Brooks Bollinger for that #3 QB position.  Frankly, I don’t think Bollinger has much of a shot – he could play like Fouts in his prime and will still probably be odd man out.  I have a feeling Erin Henderson has a spot locked up already, especially with the IR-ings and cuts already made at linebacker, but I guess someone could still rise up and steal that spot.  Michael Boulware looks like he’ll be on the outside looking in at safety, with Eric Frampton taking that spot.  Martin Nance?  Offensive line?  Not much there to get excited about.  Let’s just get through this one without anything bad happening to anyone.

And oh yeah…punt returner.  That’s still way up in the air.  A guy like Jaymar Johnson has a chance to steal that role.