The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: A 2011 Minnesota Vikings Franchise

[bobthenailer]

Super Bowl XLVI, February 5th, 2012: Cleveland Browns vs. Minnesota Vikings

After a very, very long season the Vikings had arrived in Indianapolis to take on the Cleveland Browns in the Super Bowl. For some of the older players, like Kerry Collins it had almost been too long. One week seemed to melt into the next, game after game, play after play, hit after hit, it all took its toll. By this time in the season, just about everything ached. As Collins was getting suited up in the locker room, he had already decided that this would be the last time he played professional football. He had just turned 39, and despite some of the ups and downs he had been through this season, enough was enough, it was time to walk away while he could still walk. It was painfully apparent that he wasn't going to be able to function at a professional level much longer. The short weeks and rain games he had played this year had showed him that. Still, despite all this, he was going to go out on his own terms and walk away from the game after this. Better than being wheeled out on a cart he thought. He'd made enough money.

This Super Bowl, even before it had started was going to be one for the record books. This would be the first time two 1st year coaches faced each other, and would be the first year since 1989 that a rookie coach would win. Leslie Frazier's competition from Cleveland was Pat Shurmur. After Frazier had been named AP Coach of the year there was some controversy over why Shurmur had not been picked. In more than a few ways what he had done was even more than Frazier had for the Vikings. Shurmur was just wrapping up his first year in the organization along with his assembled-from-scratch coaching staff. In 2010 he had been the Offensive Coordinator for the St. Louis Rams. Frazier had been on the Vikings since 08 and had held on to quite a few of the staff members so its not like it was an entirely new team. Also, the defense that he had taken over in 2008 was principally and philosophically the same, whereas the Browns had installed both a new offense and a new defense. That said, going into 2011 the Vikings had certainly had more issues, not having a starting QB on the roster and losing their best WR. Both teams were kind of dark horses on the way to the playoffs, especially the Browns when they had defeated the Colts (who had come just one game away from hosting the Super Bowl at home.

The Browns were a very good team all around, Colt McCoy had settled in as the apparent new franchise QB, Seneca Wallace was still his backup and even Jake Delhomme was still on the roster in the 3rd string position, but at age 37, his role on the team was closer to assistant QB coach. Physically he didn't have a whole lot in common with McCoy (other than having a similar build, McCoy was weaker-armed and a good deal quicker than Delhomme had ever been) but he'd worked with the kid for about 2 years, and Delhomme's role was valuable enough to keep him on the roster. The rest of their offense consisted of an offensive line that was better than most, especially the interior. The Browns also had some decent tight ends and a really good WR corp. One of Pat Shurmur's first personnel moves was the signing of Mark Clayton who had played for him in St. Louis. Shurmur had been a big reason the Rams acquired him in the first place and he liked what he saw in the talented yet so-far underachieving WR. Aside from Clayton, the Browns had Josh Cribbs, Mohamad Massaquoi and Brian Robiskie. These guys were all younger so they would be competitive for the foreseeable future. At Running Back, Shurmer had the 1-2 punch of Peyton Hillis (who was cut form the same cloth as Toby Gerhart, and was possibly an even better power runner) and Monterio Hardesty, who was a speedy change of pace guy. Lawrence Vickers, one of the best FBs in the league was their lead in blocker. This group of players, playing in Shurmur's West Cost Offense, and had helped amass a 11-5 record in the regular season.

On the other side of the ball was Dick Jauron's new 4-3 defense. One of the biggest additions here was Jamal Williams playing DT. Williams had been cut from the Denver Broncos and was 35 years old. The team would have to soon find a long term replacement but for now Williams would bring it. There had been cuts to get down to a good fit but, between D'Qwell Jackson, Matt Roth, and Scott Fujita the Browns had a really good Line Backer Corp, and this was further backed up by a great young crew of Defensive Backs. Sheldon Brown, Joe Haden, and rookie Patrick Peterson were starting CBs
and newly acquired Brodney Pool started at FS, alongside 2nd year T.J. Ward at SS. This crew could pass rush, they could stop the run, and they could cover as good as anybody. This secondary was going to be a force for years.

While not having all the splash that some of the other high powered AFC teams had (coincidentally some of the teams that the Browns had beat) they were going to be a formidable opponent for the Vikings to face. This game was going to be about execution, short, quick passes, and blocking so that the team could get AP into position to make the yards that would keep them on the field. Then and only then would they be able to grind their way to a victory. The D would also have their hands full, the secondary with the receivers, and the d-line with the Browns blockers who would spend a major part of the game trying to free their power back so he could blast down the field and make 1st downs.

The deep ball wasn't exactly one of McCoy's strengths, but Frazier made it a point not to underestimate his ability here and made sure all his DBs knew how important it was for them to stay with their man or keep aware in their zone. They had to fight the little plays and stop the big ones.

There was a lot of anxiety in the tunnel, only a few of them had been to the big show before. Kerry Collins, Steve Breaston, Steve Hutchinson, and Ryan Longwell were that few, but luckily they were some of the players the others looked to for leadership. Kerry Collins wasn't the same presence as Brett Favre durring big games like this, he wasn't quite legendary. He was gritty and intense though, he was going to get it done. This was IT for most players as they walked into the bright lights and commotion at the end of the tunnel, to play in the biggest game of their career. Even Collins, as he got to the end of the tunnel, couldn't help but think "I don't want to loose another Super Bowl."

________________________________________

Spoiler

The game started out back and forth. Neither team was able to really make anything happen on their first drives. On their next possession the Vikings were just able to get into Field Goal range, Longwell putting it through from 45 yards out and 8 minutes later from 44 yards out to close out the quarter. The Vikings were keeping Peyton Hillis contained, but the same could also be said for what the Browns were doing to the Vikings. Ahtyba Rubin and Jamal Williams were putting a lot of pressure on Sullivan and Pouncey, sometimes to the point that D'Imperio had to go in and plug the leak. For all of that the Vikings had forged a lead. On their next possession Kerry Collins had gone deep down field to find Greg Camarillo. Deep passes to Camarillo were not easy, he wasn't a fast guy, and if Collins just put as much behind the ball as he could he would over throw Camarillo for sure. As it was it was looking that way anyways, until Camarillo made a leap and came down with the ball. He probably had the best hands on the whole team. In the next few plays, AP got into the endzone on a delayed handoff. The score was Vikings 13, Browns 0. After the Browns again came up short on 3rd down, Collins was starting another drive. Manny Arceneaux was on sort of an up route and had a little bit on his man, Collins put the ball his way, and it went right into the hands of Patrick Peterson, who had just baited Collins into the INT.

Colt McCoy took advantage of this field position, gaining some yards before dropping a 41 yard bomb to an uncovered Mohamed Massaquoi. He had found a hole in the zone and the closest man was E.J. Henderson who didn't have the speed to run him down. 13-7 Vikings. Once again the Vikes were able to drive into Cleveland territory, but just as they were getting close to the red-zone Collins got sacked on a blitz. The Browns D-line broke through up the middle and sent Scott Fujita on the blitz. Collins held on to the ball but lost almost 10 yards. Longwell was able to put it through once again, this time from 47 yards out. 16-7 Vikings. The Browns finally got things going though, driving down to near the goal line, before McCoy found Hillis in the end-zone for a 6yd TD. At the half the score was Vikings 16-Browns 14.

At half time, Frazier went over some adjustments that he wanted to make. So far he was keeping Gerhart out of the game, mainly because he was worried about the big guy starting out to slow and getting steam-rolled up the middle by the Browns pass rush. The other thing he wanted to do was to get Winfield blitzing in some situations, as old as he was, he was still faster than any Vikings Linebacker and if done properly he could maybe even get a turn over, even if Winfield wasn't that big, neither was McCoy. With that it was time to star the second half, by kicking the ball off to Cleveland.

More deadlock followed for most of the third quarter, until near the end, McCoy got the Browns up the field and managed to find Massaquoi in the end-zone. He had broke to the inside and evaded Curtis Brown. Brown was probably the most talented CB that Frazier had but even in the Super Bowl he was still making rookie mistakes. To try to put some distance between them, Shurmur went for the 2 point conversion. After the ball was snapped, Colt McCoy pulled off the play fake, and turned to his right to find Lawrence Vickers running along the goal line. Brian Robison saw all this and as McCoy got the ball off, Robison was airborne. Vickers turned to try to make the catch, but just as the ball got there so did Robison. After the collision Vickers had not been able to make the catch, the two point conversion was no good.
Still, the Browns had been able to wrestle away the lead. On the way to the 4th Quarter it was Browns 20-Vikings 16.

After the kickoff, on the first play from scrimmage the turning point was reached. Musgrave wanted to go for a deep pass right out of the gates. He had Harvin in the slot on an in route, Breaston and Arceneaux on the other side, one going in the other going out, and Shaincoe who was lined up for a simple go route. As Collins came up from his five step drop, he started his progressions. Harvin was covered on the left, Breaston wasn't into his turn yet and he didn't even get to Arceneaux. Shaincoe was tearing up the field, wide open. The Browns had one of their corners (Sheldon Brown) deep on the right side of the field. Atari Bigby, who had become their backup Strong Safety after being signed in the off season, was on the left. Brown saw what was up and was making his move to Shaincoe, if Collins could get the ball their first, they would have a big gain. Even if he couldn't it would take some kind of tip and juggle for this to end up as a pick so he figured why not, and put the ball up there. Brown also saw this and as the ball was coming for Shaincoe, he made his move. If he could make a play for the ball and come up with the INT, it would stop this drive and hopefully keep the momentum of the game on their side. Brown jumped and reached out but he couldn't quite get there. Shaincoe made the catch, and brown was on the turf so there was going to be some YAC. Just as he finished the catch though, Shaincoe saw Bigby coming right towards him. Normally Bigby was a sure tackler, but this time, maybe because Shaincoe was moving at a good clip. Bigby's attempted tackle sort of deflected off of him, barely causing Shaincoe to break stride. As it was, he went right up the field towards the endzone and he didn't look back. After he got in for the TD, he turned around to see Patrick Peterson, who had been on the other side of the field, much closer to line of scrimmage. The kid was very fast if he made it over here this quick. Another 5 yards or so and he would have got me. Shaincoe had run 75 yards. With just over a minute to go in the 3rd, Vikings lead 23, Browns 20.

As little sense as it seemed to make, to start the 4th quarter, the Browns, who were down by three, were running the ball. The scary thing is that it was working. The Vikings defensive line started to get tired, and it didn't help when Marcel Dareus had to walk off the field with a chest injury. They took him into the locker room, and he was going to have to take his pads off, so he was probably done for the day. Hillis was gaining ground. After they crossed the 50 and started to get closer and closer to FG range to tie up the game, Frazier decided to let Winfield loose on the corner blitz. It was very well timed for second down, because just as Winfield got over and went around the line, McCoy was dropping back to throw. Vickers and Hillis were running up the field on the play action, and just as McCoy was making his reads, Winfield was closing the distance. McCoy was winding up as Winfield got there. One of the surest tacklers in the NFL, Winfield could get just about anybody who was moving by wrapping up their legs. Once you do that their balance goes and they topple like a tree trunk. McCoy was stationary though, and just wrapping hip up wasn't going to do much. Nope, Winfield was going to knock him down. He hit him before he could release the ball, and McCoy was smart enough to tuck it in as he went down. As he spun, McCoy came down hard on his right elbow, with his right arm clutching the football. His teammates and Winfield beckoned for a trainer as an injury time out was called.

Seneca Wallace was up off the bench and on the field in no time. In the pre-season, both in 2010 and 2011, Wallace wanted the starting job, and wanted this to be HIS team. He'd gotten his chance but then an injury took it away from him. Now an injury was going to give it back. As an attempt to catch the Vikings off guard, he went to the pass right away and found Josh Cribbs 15 yards down the field. While this was going on, McCoy was getting checked out on the side line. Delhomme was taking this all in as well because as unlikely as it might be, if anything happend to Wallace he was going in. This was something that Jake Delhomme never even thought of before during his career. He always wanted to make it back to the Super Bowl but he never figured it would be as a third string backup watching the game from the bench. McCoy's shoulder was just bruised, it was a bit sore but he shouldn't have a problem throwing on it. After Wallace missed his next throw, McCoy went back into the game. He couldn't make anything happen though and after gaining a bit more yardage, the Browns had to kick. With 11:37 on the clock, Super Bowl XLVI was a tie ball game with the score 23-23.

After the kickoff, on their next first play from scrimmage, Manny Arceneaux went down with an injury, it turned out he had dislocated his shoulder and would be out for the rest of the game. Despite all the problems earlier with the offensive line, Peterson was starting to roll, and D'Imperio was paving the way for him. Collins then found Percy who made a juggled catch after the ball was batted around a bit. After mixing in a few passes, AP broke out again and found the endzone. The Vikings now had a 7 point lead with 4:23 on the clock. On the next drive, as he tried to get his team in position to tie the game up again, McCoy was hit as he threw and the ball went right to E.J. Henderson. E.J. got as far as he could up the field but was tackled around the Browns 40 yard line. Frazier talked to Musgrave, and when the offense took the field, Toby Gerhart went out instead of AP. It wasn't that they were afraid that AP would fumble the ball, its that now, with the Browns Defense tired, they wanted to punish them with a fresh Gerhart breaking through the line and pushing as far as he could. Gerhart helped drive down the field until the Browns were out of time outs. One last first down, and then it was time for Collins to take a knee and kill the clock. For Kerry Collins, there was no better way to end his career.

Feb 5, 2012 - MIN at CLE
TEAM	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Minnesota Vikings (NFC)	6	10	7	7	30
Cleveland Browns (AFC)	0	14	6	3	23

Team Stats Comparison
MIN		CLE
431	Total Offense	292
152	Rushing Yards	71
279	Passing Yards	221
17	First Downs	14
37	Punt Return Yards	4
99	Kick Return Yards	152
567	Total Yards	488
1 (0)	Turnovers	1 (0)
9-14 (64%)	3rd Down Converstion	8-14 (57%)
0-0	4th Down Conversion	0-0
0-0	2-Point Conversion	0-1 (0%)
1/0	Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	2/1
1-10	Penalties	0-0
24:20	Posession Time	35:40

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		MIN	CLE
9:24	(MIN) R.Longwell 45 Yd FG	3	0
1:11	(MIN) R.Longwell 44 Yd FG	6	0
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		MIN	CLE
13:10	(MIN) A.Peterson 20 Yd run (R.Longwell kick)	13	0
9:26	(CLE) M.Massaquoi 41 Yd pass from C.McCoy (P.Dawson kick)	13	7
5:36	(MIN) R.Longwell 47 Yd FG	16	7
1:43	(CLE) P.Hillis 6 Yd pass from C.McCoy (P.Dawson kick)	16	14
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		MIN	CLE
1:19	(CLE) M.Massaquoi 11 Yd pass from C.McCoy (2pt. Conv. Failed)	16	20
1:02	(MIN) V.Shiancoe 75 Yd pass from K.Collins (R.Longwell kick)	23	20
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		MIN	CLE
11:37	(CLE) P.Dawson 20 Yd FG	23	23
4:23	(MIN) A.Peterson 18 Yd run (R.Longwell kick)	30	23

Minnesota Vikings Boxscore
PASSING	RATING	C/ATT	YDS	TD/INT	AVG
Kerry Collins QB	84.6	18/32 (56%)	294	1/1	9.1
RUSHING	ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Adrian Peterson HB	18	112	6.2	2	20
Toby Gerhart HB	5	44	8.8	0	23
BLOCKING		PANCAKE		SACK
Jim Kleinsasser TE		1		0
Steve Hutchinson LG		0		1
John Sullivan C		0		1
RECEIVING	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Visanthe Shiancoe TE	4	132	33.0	1	75
Percy Harvin WR	4	30	7.5	0	14
Greg Camarillo WR	3	54	18.0	0	42
Adrian Peterson HB	2	22	11.0	0	17
Steve Breaston WR	2	32	16.0	0	17
Jerious Norwood HB/WR	1	6	6.0	0	6
Ryan D'Imperio FB	1	7	7.0	0	7
Lorenzo Booker HB	1	11	11.0	0	11
DEFENSIVE	TACK	SACK	INT	PDEF	TD
Husain Abdullah FS	5	0	0	0	0
E.J. Henderson MLB	4	0	1	0	0
Cedric Griffin SS/CB	4	0	0	1	0
Kevin Williams DT	4	0	0	0	0
Asher Allen CB	4	0	0	0	0
Jaiquawn Jarrett FS	3	0	0	0	0
Antoine Winfield CB	3	1.0	0	1	0
Brian Robison LE	3	0	0	1	0
Letroy Guion DT	2	0	0	0	0
Vernon Gholston LE	2	0	0	0	0
Jared Allen RE	2	0	0	0	0
Chris Cook CB	2	0	0	0	0
Chad Greenway ROLB	2	0	0	0	0
Curtis Brown CB	2	0	0	2	0
Erin Henderson LOLB	1	0	0	0	0
KICKING	FGM/A	PCT	LONG	XPM/A	PTS
Ryan Longwell K	3/4	75%	48	3/3	12
PUNTING	PUNTS	YDS	AVG	IN20	TB
Chris Kluwe P	2	92	46.0	1	0

Cleveland Browns Boxscore
PASSING	RATING	C/ATT	YDS	TD/INT	AVG
Colt McCoy QB	113.4	15/24 (62%)	213	3/1	8.8
Seneca Wallace QB	75.0	1/2 (50%)	15	0/0	15
Mark Clayton WR	39.6	0/1 (0%)	0	0/0	0.0
RUSHING	ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Peyton Hillis HB	25	65	2.6	0	9
Montario Hardesty HB	5	4	0.8	0	6
Mark Clayton WR	3	2	0.6	0	5
RECEIVING	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Mohamed Massaquoi WR	7	122	17.4	2	41
Peyton Hillis HB	2	12	6.0	1	6
Josh Cribbs WR	2	37	18.5	0	21
Lawrence Vickers FB	2	12	6.0	0	8
Benjamin Watson TE	2	37	18.5	0	23
Brian Robiskie WR	1	8	8.0	0	8
BLOCKING		PANCAKE		SACK
Mike Brisiel RG		0		1
DEFENSIVE	TACK	SACK	INT	PDEF	TD
T.J. Ward SS	7	0	0	0	0
Brodney Pool FS	4	0	0	0	0
Sheldon Brown CB	3	0	0	1	0
Mike Adams CB	3	1.0	0	0	0
Patrick Peterson CB	3	0	1	1	0
Kaluka Maiava MLB	3	0	0	0	0
D'Qwell Jackson MLB	3	0	0	0	0
Scott Fujita ROLB	3	1.0	0	0	0
Jamal Williams DT	3	0	0	0	0
Atari Bigby SS	2	0	0	0	0
Joe Haden CB	2	0	0	0	0
Matt Roth ROLB	2	0	0	0	0
Ahtyba Rubin DT	2	1.0	0	0	0
Kenyon Coleman LE	1	0	0	0	0
Jacob Ford RE	1	0	0	0	0
KICKING	FGM/A	PCT	LONG	XPM/A	PTS
Phil Dawson K	1/1	100%	20	2/2	5
PUNTING	PUNTS	YDS	AVG	IN20	TB
Ryan Donahue P	5	214	42.8	1	0

[bobthenailer]

So after 51 long years the Vikings had won the Super Bowl and were wold champions for the first time. There would be parties, memorabilia and endorsement deals. Frazier tried not to let any of this get to the team, and soon afterwords he held his first meetings with the front office back at winter park.

Still celebratory, Rick Spielman touched on something very important which Frazier had been thinking a lot about. Collins had announced his retirement while he was up on the podium with the commissioner, he said he'd gone as far as he had planned to, and no matter who replaced him he was confident the team was in good hands, and would compete for the world championship again. What Spielman chose to focus on, and it had been something they had all been thinking about, was that the Vikings turnaround was quite a bit ahead of schedule. The way they had drafted and used free agency last year, they had been planning to have the team in contention within the next three years. Nobody had figured what would come together in 2011. The trouble was, this, together with Collins not quite early retirement, left the Vikings in a bit of a lurch. The plan had been for their veteran (Collins was picked out of a list of candidates, including the likes of Donovan McNabb) to play out a 2 year contract, at which time a new starter would be identified between Joe Webb, Rhett Bomar, and Greg McElroy, with the possibility of drafting another QB in 2012 if none of the three were making significant progress. Webb was probably tops among them, and did finish up a good game against Kansas City, but he was hardly considered ready to start let along become a franchise QB. On the other hand, if they brought in another stop-gap veteran, they would have to let go of one of their QBs on the roster, and if they drafted anybody they would probably have to let TWO QBs go since without Collins there would be absolutely no veteran presence on the roster. Also, since winning the Super Bowl, several of the veterans had talked of retirement and some would be hard to dissuade. Collins had already signed his papers and was gone. Jim Kleinsasser, Antoine Winfield and even Steve Hutchinson and Bryant McKinnie had been talking about it. This had been a great year, what else did they have to prove?

Since they were talking about this, Frazier brought up that it might be a good time to have a look at the status of their roster, and what they wanted to do come free agency time. Here is what they came up with.

RFAs
Asher Allen CB
Rhett Bomar QB
Jamarca Sanford SS
Jasper Brinkley MLB

these were all valuable players, Asher Allen had played extensively from the middle part of the season on, Brinkley was surely a keeper, Bomar was still in contention for QB of the future, and Sanford had come back from injury nicely, but would have to compete to get his stating job back.

UFAs they would try to resign
Lorenzo Booker HB
Jim Kleinsasser TE
Greg Camarillo WR
Husain Abdullah FS
Chad Greenway ROLB
Adrian Peterson HB
Visanthe Shaincoe TE
Letroy Guion DT
E.J. Henderson MLB
Erin Henderson LOLB

Greenway was tagged last year, but because of AP's pre-season injury, the contract situation had been postponed until they could see where they were at in the off-season. It was thought that they could cut a very fair deal with Greenway, and possibly sign Kleinsasser and the Hendersons to similar deals if they were willing to give the team a high enough discount. Abdullah may go along with this as well since he was given his chance by Frazier, Camarillo was valuable yet old, and Lorenzo Booker was talented yet replaceable. That's where it was going to get difficult. Letroy Guion, even if he had not seen a whole lot of play time, was a very good 4-3 DT. There was demand for these kind of players. Visanthe Shiancoe was going to be 32, but he was still playing at a high level and had been for their Super Bowl win. Last but certainly not least was AP. Returning from injury more than half way through the season, he had been the winner of the Come back player of the year award. His knee still bothered him slightly, but he had given it everything he had to get the Vikings into the Super Bowl and then to win it. He was THE RUNNING-BACK and in the future would probably go on to break Payton and Smith's record for rushing yards. The future was uncertain though and soon to be 28, Peterson was going into his 6th year in the NFL. This was a very long time to perform at a prime level for a running-back and some were already predicting a drop-off in production. All of this had to be taken into consideration at contract time.

UFAs who would not be offered contracts

Hamza Abdullah SS
Jeff Dugan FB
Heath Farwell ROLB
Kenny Onatolu ROLB
Jon Cooper C
John Sullivan C
Jerious Norwood HB
Jaymar Johnson WR

Hamza Abdullah was a special teamer only at this point, his place would be taken by someone else, Jeff Dugan was too old and was on the bubble anyways now that D'Imperio and Cameron had established themselves. Heath Farwell and Kenny Onatolu wouldn't be coming back because with Ben Leber and E.J. Henderson also aging the team had to get younger here. Sullivan and Cooper would be on their way out too, Sullivan just wasn't cutting it, and it was hard to expect Cooper to be much better. The OL coach was considering more and more moving Pouncey to center and starting DeGeare at RG. Jerious Norwood was another tough one. He had been invaluable for the team, supplanting Jaymar Johnson as a WR, and being there to spell Booker if need be at HB (this was especially important while Peterson was out). For all the good work he had done, Norwood was soon to be 29 and would be declining some time soon, his flexibility would be missed though, but Spielman might take a run at him on the open market if he doesn't find anybody interested. Jaymar Johnson, even after being able to make the team had not gotten enough play time to be considered worth keeping. Going on 28 he had seen very little action in the NFL and unfortunately this did not look like it was about to change. Despite his work ethic, Jaymar Johnson was the most easily replaced WR on the team.

[bobthenailer]

The Vikings were moving into uncertain territory in the FA market.

To save money (cap room) Lorenzo Booker would not be resigned either. C.J. Mosley was cut to free up enough room to re-sign Guion for 4 years. As expected, the Henderson brothers and Chad Greenway had signed reasonable contracts (4 more years for Greenway, 2 more for the Hendersons) and Greg Camarillo re-upped for another 2 years. Jim Kleinsasser had also agreed to saddle up once more, this would be his last year. After thinking about it Shiancoe has also agreed to come back for 2 more years. He probably could have gotten a better deal somewhere else, but the deal to stay with the Vikings wasn't entirely payed in $$$, being there was worth something too. It wasn't all rosy though, in an incident that had caused a big stir, AP had been franchised for 1 year, since the two sides had not been able to come together on a contract deal. For better or worse, Frazier and Spielman had attempted to keep their team largely intact. They wanted to pull off a title defense like no other.


Roster moves

Released C.J. Mosley DT

No offer made to

Lorenzo Booker HB
Hamza Abdullah SS
Jeff Dugan FB
Heath Farwell ROLB
Kenny Onatolu ROLB
Jon Cooper C
John Sullivan C
Jerious Norwood HB
Jaymar Johnson WR

Re-signed

Chad Greenway ROLB 4 years
E.J. Henderson MLB 2 years
Erin Henderson ROLB 2 years
Adrian Peterson HB Franchise
Jim Kleinsasser TE 1 year
Greg Camarillo WR 2 years
Letroy Guion DT 4 years



Again due to cap restrictions, the Vikings would not be making a lot of moves in free agency. However, they would pursue anyone that they thought could add to the team, but there would not be any huge signings.

FA moves

Signed Steve Maneri RT 2 year contract
Signed Preston Dial FB 2 year contract (was a PS player last year)
Re-signed Patrick Brown LT Practice Squad 1 year contract, changed position to RG

These moves enabled Chris DeGeare to become the starting RG, Mike Pouncey was going to start at Center, and be backed up by Ryan Cook. The team would wait and see how everything turned out after the draft.

[bobthenailer]

2012 NFL Draft

(sorry I decided not to recap the WHOLE draft this time, just my picks)

Round 1: Courtney Upshaw MLB. Alabama (transitioned to LOLB)
Round 2: Justin Blackmon WR, Oklahoma St.
Round 3: LaMichael James HB, Oregon
Round 4: Christian Scott SS, Texas
Round 5: Chris Owusu WR, Stanford
Round 6: Jamarkus McFarland DT, Oklahoma
Round 7: Austin McCoy P, Wyoming

(not sure why LaMichael James fell, but he will be my Norwood/Booker replacement)

[bobthenailer]

So the Draft was over for the Vikings. Their free agency had been almost something similar to what Ted Thompson was doing in Green Bay, except for the fact that some limited moves had been made. The pieces were now in place for the linebacker corp to be rejuvenated once Ben Leber retired and E.J. Henderson retired/moved on. Mike Pouncey would now anchor the offensive line at center, and Chris DeGeare would step up at Right Guard. LaMichael James would be the change-of-pace HB. Some other parts of the offensive line and defensive line would need seeing to in the next few years, but all in all most positions were pretty solid. The biggest question now was could Joe Webb lead this team. Was it the beginning of the Webb era, or would the Vikings be drafting in the top 10 next year?

[bobthenailer]

I meant to include this earlier

Black Monday
Bengals-Marvin Lewis fired
Even though it was not exactly his fault, Marvin Lewis was fired after a bad season because he had not been able to resolve the QB situation without Carson Palmer. J.P. Losman had been their starter.

Replaced by Jon Gruden. West Cost offense

Buccaneers-Raheem Morris fired
After nearly making the playoffs in 2010, the Bucs fell far in 2011.
Replaced by Marty Morningwig


Eagles-Andy Reid fired
Andy Reid had survived loosing countless NFC Championships, but after not making the playoffs in 2011 he was done.
Replaced by Jeff Fisher

Jaguars-Jack Del Rio fired
Again the Jags were not competitive, something had to change.
Replaced by Andy Reid

Redskins-Mike Shanahan fired
3-13 was not acceptable.

Replaced by Perry Fewell

[Rexis]

The Browns in the Super Bowl *faints*

Congrats on the victory in the BIG GAME.

[mnwildgophers]

Awesome to see the Vikings finally win it!

Your defense seemed to play well, how did the rookies perform?

Great recaps and extra reading. I'm really enjoying this.