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

[bobthenailer]

System: PS3
Game: Madden 11
Roster: Custom (I will be releaseing it shortly, includes CAPs of most 2011 rookie QBs)
Draft Classes: Daniverson's 2011 Draft Class/My own 2012-2014
Sliders: Custom
Quarter Length: 15 minutes + 25 second run off


2011 Minnesota Vikings Regular Season Team Schedule
Week 1: Vs Chicago Bears Sunday, September 11, 1:00pm Loss
Week 2: At St. Louis Rams Sunday, September 18, 4:00pm Win
Week 3: Vs Oakland Raiders Sunday, September 25, 4:15pm Win
Week 4: Vs. Detroit Lions Sunday, October 2, 4:15pm Win
Week 5 At Green Bay Packers, Sunday October 9, 1:00pm Win
Week 6: At Chicago Bears, Sunday, October 16, 8:30pm Win
Week 7: At Denver Broncos Sunday, October 23, 4:15pm Win
Week 8: BYE
Week 9: At Carolina Panthers Sunday, November 6, 1:00pm Win
Week 10: Vs Atlanta Falcons Sunday, November 13, 4:00pm Loss
Week 11: Vs San Diego Chargers Sunday, November 20, 4:15pm Win
Week 12: At Detriot Lions Thursday, November 24, 12:30pm Win
Week 13: Vs Green Bay Packers Sunday, December 4, 1:00pm Loss
Week 14: At Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, December 11, 4:15pm Win
Week 15: At New Orleans Saints Sunday, December 18, 1:00pm Win
Week 16: Vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday, December 24, 1:00pm Win
Week 17: Vs Philadelphia Eagles Sunday January 1, 1:00pm Win


No franchise has been as snake bitten as the Minnesota Vikings. Fielding some of the greatest teams professional football has ever seen, only to ultimately fall short of their goal of winning the Super Bowl, again and again and again. From the fierce teams 1960s and 70s with the purple people eaters, to the electric teams of the 1990s all the way to the 2009 team that almost made it all the way. Never in professional sports has a team come so close, so many times, only to taste bitter defeat.

The 2010 season was a disaster for the Minnesota Vikings. After making a deep playoff run the following year and coming within inches of going to the Super Bowl, the Vikings were ready to go all the way in 2010. Veteran QB Brett Favre was convinced to play one more year, but soon it was obvious that 2010 would not be anything like the last year. Star wide receiver Sidney Rice's absence, regression of the offensive and defensive lines, injuries to the secondary, the infamous Randy Moss trade and the loss of veteran running back Chester Taylor to free agency created a perfect storm around the 2010 Vikings. After a blow-out loss to their arch-rival, the Green Bay Packers, Head Coach Brad Childress was fired and Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier, a member of the celebrated 1985 Chicago Bears championship team, was promoted to Interim Head Coach.

Frazier lead the team to finish the season 6-10 (3-3 in games he was head coach) but also managed to pull off the biggest upset win of the regular season, defeating the playoff bound Philadelphia Eagles 24-14. Largely because of this victory (in a game the Vikings were predicted to loose by more than 14 points) Frazier was appointed as the permanent Head Coach and given a 3 year contract. Frazier has inherited a team fraught with personnel shortfalls which has finished last in their devision.

Wasting no time, Head Coach Leslie Frazier and the front office staff have started to assemble what they hope will be a championship caliber team, starting with the coaching staff. Starting with Mike Singletary (Frazier's old teammate from Chicago and a close friend) and new Offensive Coordinator Bill Musgrave, Frazier's job is to turn the corner and to take a team that is down and out and bring them back into the sun.


NOTE: I am going to try to keep this Franchise as realistic as possible, I am using my own roster which has a few additional players I have added and I am attempting to accurately represent all player contracts. I will also try to be realistic with personnel moves and re-singings. I plan to detail the off-season personnel moves and the 2011 NFL Draft (which will use DanIverson1973's 2011 draft class). I am also going to summarize training camp to decide who will make the team. Also I plan on following the mock draft from walter football (http://walterfootball.com/draft2011.php) wherever possible. I do plan on making my own personnel decisions for the Vikings though, and I may make big moves in free agency, which has so far been characteristic durring Zygi Wilf's ownership of the team.

2012 Minnesota Vikings Regular Season Team Schedule
2012 NFL Schedule

Sunday September 9, 2012 1:00PM Week 1: vs Tennessee Titans Win
Sunday September 16, 2012 4:00PM Week 2: vs Chicago Bears Win
Sunday September 23, 2012 1:00PM Week 3: vs Carolina Panthers Win
Sunday September 30, 2012 4:15PM Week 4: at Chicago Bears Win
Sunday October 7, 2012 1:00pm Week 5: at Green Bay Packers Win
Sunday October 14, 2012 1:00pm Week 6: vs St. Louis Rams Win
Sunday October 21, 2012 1:00pm Week 7: at Houston Texans Loss
Sunday October 28, 2012 4:15pm Week 8: at Jacksonville Jaguars Win
Monday Novembr 5, 2012 9:00pm Week 9: at San Francisco 49ers
Week 10 BYE
Sunday November 18, 2012 1:00PM Week 11: at Detroit Lions
Sunday November 25, 2012 1:00PM Week 12: at Indianapolis Colts
Sunday December 2, 2012 1:00PM Week 13: vs Green Bay Packers
Sunday, December 9, 2012 1:00PM Week 14: vs Arizona Cardinals
Sunday December 16, 2012 4:00PM Week 15: vs Detroit Lions
Sunday Deember 23, 2012, 4:05 PM Week 16: at Seattle Seahawks
Sunday December 30, 2012 1:00PM Week 17: at New York Giants

[bobthenailer]

It was a busy time at Winter Park. With all sorts of talk of an impending walk out, due to delays with the team owners negotiating a new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) with the NFL Players Association. Without a new CBA, Free Agency would be delayed this off-season. "Time to stop thinking about things outside of my control." Though Leslie Frazier as he walked to his office. He was set to meet with Rick Speilman, the Vice President of Player Personnel for the team, in a few minutes.

The two of them had much to talk about. The upcoming NFL Draft was going to be very, very important. Aside from the general state of disarray the team was in, 21 players, nearly half the team, were due to hit free agency. He was going to have to decide who to keep, and who to let go. About the only good news with the delay on the CBA is that it was going to give him and Spielman some time to figure out who they were going to try to re-sign.

Unfortunately that was just the silver lining to an ever growing black cloud. With a delayed free agency, the Vikes were quite possibly going to be deprived the opportunity of signing veteran free agents to fulfill personnel needs on the team. Frazier and company was going to be left with the unenviable task of figuring out what positions they could fill with guys they already had, and what position they should draft for. None of these positions was more important than Quarterback.

Brett Favre's arrival at Winter Park in 2009 had been momentous. He was going to be the magical missing piece that would bring this team a world championship. He and Frazier always got along, because Favre knew Frazier had suited up before, they could relate very well with one another. But Frazier knew, for all the good Favre did that year, the decision to sign him, along with reason it was necessary, were what put him and the team in the jam they were in right now.

In 2006, when his old boss Brad Childress had been hired as Head Coach for the team, one of his first decisions had been to identify that the team needed to draft a rookie QB. Daunte Culpepper wasn't coming back and Brad Johnson wasn't getting any younger. Most likely due to the time he spent helping to shape then-rookie QB Donovan McNabb into a franchise QB, Childress had found what he believed was the diamond-in-the-rough of the 2006 draft in the form of Tarvaris Jackson. Jackson, or T-Jack as his teammates called him, was an unknown African-American QB out of Alabama state. He was one of the most athletic players that Frazier had ever seen play the position, and had a work ethic that was second to none, frequently being the last guy to leave the gym or the film room. The problem with T-Jack was that for his five years on the team he just couldn't get it done. It wasn't for lack of trying, and it wasn't even for lack of knowing, he spent countless hours going over the play book. Tarvaris Jackson had the inexplicable problem of just not being able to connect the dots. He could read about it, and study it and practice it, he just couldn't DO it when he had to. He couldn't execute.

Since Frazier had come to the team in 2008, he had watched T-Jack repeatedly attempt to effectively play QB, and unfortunately he had also watched him repeatedly fail. Jackson's mistakes, and poor decision making while he was under pressure led to him being benched again and again. This wasn't even the biggest problem with T-Jack. The biggest problem was Brad's devotion to the guy. For five years, through failure after failure, benching after benching, T-Jack had always been looked on as the #2 guy and had always been part of the plan as the future of the Franchise. Childress had signed or traded for five veteran QBs including Favre during his five years as head coach, it was like a revolving door. Each of these players though had either been intended to back T-Jack up or at best (Favre) be an interim starter until T-Jack was ready to take over the team. This had been the plan with Brad Johnson in 2006 and was also the plan with Favre in 09. Everyone but Childress could see that T-Jack just didn't have that "IT" to play QB in the NFL. Thinking back Frazier remembered the very worst event of this whole situation, another contributing factor which helped create the mess that was the Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Depth Chart.

In early 2009, Rick Spielman had been able to swing a trade for QB Sage Rosenfels, an Iowa guy who had played for the Texans and the Dolphins. Sage had led some nice comebacks during the times he had been pressed into service, but was also responsible for some blunders, game loosing INTs and his dumb helicopter stunt where he tried to jump over two linebackers and ended up dropping the football. For all that, Sage had moxie to play the position, but he also had a mouth. He tried not to let it show when the cameras and reporters were around but when Rosenfels arrived for camp in 2009, he fully planned on becoming the starting QB, and was vocal about it. Frazier didn't know if Brad ever planned to seriously entertaining the notion of Sage at starter, because first he gave him fewer reps with the 1st team and then announced T-Jack as starter at the end of camp. Things came to a head though, after the first pre-season game Chilly received word back from Favre, who he had been trying to coax out of retirement all off-season that he would come to Minnesota and suit up in purple.

Sage was promptly demoted to #3 QB and ran the scout team for the rest of the year. As the 2010 off season started, Brett Favre was once again thinking of retiring and absent from camp, it was Sage and T-Jack once again on the practice field. Another interesting development that year had been 6th round draft pick Joe Webb. Drafted as a Wide Receiver, Webb had played both positions at UAB and became the first player in NCAA history to rush for over 1000 yards and throw for over 2000 in consecutive seasons. During an early practice, Chilly noticed him throwing the football and wanted to see a little more. After seeing Webb run a drill Childress moved Webb to QB. Webb was quite possibly even more athletic than T-Jack but was bound to have some of the same problems with being unfamiliar to how things worked in the pros. As camp ended and the pre-season started, Rosenfels was given the majority of the playing time in the Week 1 game against the St. Louis Rams. Even if it was only pre-season Rosenfels wanted to do everything he could to earn himself the starting position at QB. Sage even had words with Childress on one occasion about how he wanted to run this play instead of that one. If Favre didn't come back Sage wanted this to be his team. Even if it was against mostly 2nd and 3rd stringers Rosenfels was lighting the place up, getting the ball where it was supposed to go, when it was supposed to be there. T-Jack, on the other hand was still making the same mistakes, struggling to read defenses correctly, not throwing where or when he was supposed to, hesitating and taking a sack, or breaking off into a run down the field when he had an open receiver he could have thrown to.

Ultimately Favre did come back for one more year, and, just before the pre-season was over Chilly traded Rosenfels, and Darius Reynaud (who the Giants really wanted and was just being thrown in to facilitate the trade), the Vikings punt returner and #2 return man, to the New York Giants for a 5th round draft pick. Disagreeable or not, Rosenfels had been the only QB who would be under contract for the 2011 season besides Joe Webb. Both Favre and T-Jack were in the final year of their contract. The excuse was that this had to be done in order to keep Joe Webb on the roster. Even though he was very raw as a QB, the pure athleticism shown by Webb would have been enough to get any other team to snatch him off the Vikings practice squad in a split second.

So to summarize, Brad Childress had traded away the only other credible QB the team had besides Favre who could have had a shot at playing effectively if Favre ever went down. This happened during the Week 8 game against the Pats. Surprisingly T-Jack did well, scored a TD and a 2 point conversion and broke off a big run, but it wasn't enough to pull off a win. Luckily Favre only suffered a minor laceration which was fixed with stitches. It was going to happen again though.

No more than 3 plays into the Week 13 game against the Buffalo Bills Favre was sacked during a rollout on a play-action pass. Due to a hard hit from behind by Bills Linebacker Arthur Moats, Favre had sprained a joint in his shoulder and was no longer able to throw. This caused him to miss a game for the first time in his career, breaking his starting stream at 297. T-Jack was able to step in and lead the Vikings to victory but he threw 3 interceptions in the process. The next game was a disaster in more ways than one. Due to heavy snowfall and quick freezing, the roof of the Hubert H. Humphery Metrodome collapsed onto Mall of America Field. The Metrodome was shut down for the rest of the year while the team and the city figured out what to do. In the meantime, the Vikings played what was to be a home game, at Ford Field in Detroit. The New York Giants run game was unstoppable, but T-Jack accidentally bumping into Adrian Peterson was the straw that broke the donkey's back. AP missed a game because of it and T-Jack had to be put on injured reserve because of turf toe.

After the seasonm when Frazier started making staffing moves he decided to let go of Kevin Rogers the QB coach and Darrel Bevell the Offensive Coordinator. They were both present for the good times in 2009 but they had also been part of the T-Jack experiment. The situation with Jackson at QB was not fair to anybody, not the team, and not even T-Jack himself since he was being put in a situation where he could not accomplish anything. It had been a major setback to the franchise and was the biggest reason why the team now didn't have a starting quarterback, and the major reason it occurred was because Childress had refused to admit that he had made a mistake. For what it was worth, at least Frazier had learned from what happened, and this event was probably the reason he was not given full control over the roster like Childress had. It was time to cut bait and move on. T-Jack was not going to be resigned for 2011, but that opened up another can of worms, who would be starting? Maybe Joe Webb?

Last year Webb had been forced to fill in for T-Jack at the end of the Week 14 game against the Giants. For Week 14 against Chicago, Frazier decided Joe Webb would have to start. Favre was still injured and the Vikings still didn't have a place to play. Both problems were soon fixed though, as a great effort was pitched in by volunteers to get outdoor TCF Bank Stadium shoveled out and ready to host the Bears. Before the game, after not being able to practice all week, Favre was able to suit up and start one more time. After leading the team down the field for a score, Favre was sacked and driven to the turf, suffering a concussion. Webb went in but was not effective for most of the game despite running in a TD himself. A lot of the reporters and talking heads were saying that Joe Webb looked nothing like an NFL caliber QB and that he had no future playing the position. In the meantime, Frazier had arranged to get veteran backup QB Patrick Ramsey signed and had him suited up for additional depth. It had crossed Fraziers mind to put Ramsey in but since he was a new arrival he probably knew less about the offense than Webb did.

The next week Joe Webb played the biggest game of his young career. Starting against the Philadelphia Eagles, in Philadelphia, after a blizzard, he was playing at one of the toughest places in the whole NFL. Frazier had helped devise a bold defensive plan which he hoped would help take some pressure off the Vikings' weakened secondary and regressed defensive line. Running Winfield on the Corner Blitz to put quick pressure on an even quicker QB worked almost to perfection. Michael Vick was sacked, and stripped of the ball twice. This defensive stand would have been all for naught though if Webb didn't have it in him to step up. Webb started by playing a very careful game, only making throws that he knew he could make, not leaving anything to change. This was helped by his mobility, rolling out on a few plays to connect with a WR down the field. With the game in the balance (the Eagles down by one score, just needing to get one good drive to put them back in the game) Webb completed a key pass to Percy Harvin on 3rd down, and started to open up for longer passes down the field. He didn't throw for a TD in the game, but he did rush one in for a score. Joe Webb played good football that Tuesday night and brought the Vikings a victory against one of the toughest teams in the league. From that point on Frazier knew that there was something to Joe Webb. Ironically, Webb may have been the very QB that Brad Childress was looking for when he found Tarvaris Jackson. During his University years, Webb was regarded as the best all around athlete to come out of Alabama since Bo Jackson. As athletic as T-Jack was, compared to him Joe Webb was a freak. If Webb could work a bit on his decision making, familiarize himself with reading defenses, get his throwing mechanics down pat so that he could have more touch on those longer throws, Webb could be every bit as dangerous as Michael Vick on a football field.

Frazier wasn't about to put all his eggs in one basket though. Even with Webb's great performance against the Eagles, Frazier wanted to give Webb at least some competition. After meeting with Spielman as soon as the team got back to Minnesota, they both agreed on the best available prospect. Rhett Bomar was signed off the New York Giants practice squad the next day. Frazier could remember being intrigued by Bomar's story and skill set. Rhett Bomar had played with Peterson in 2006 at Oklahoma. After some rookie jitters, he took his team to Victory in the Holliday Bowl. That was the pinnacle of his collegiate career though, in the off-season he was busted for "working" a phony job for a college booster and was kicked off the team due to the impropriety. Bomar transfered to Sam Houston State in Texas and after a year resumed his football career. Bomar was drafted in the 5th round but he could have gone much higher had he been able to stay at Oklahoma. Great arm strength, good football smarts and familiarity with the NFL offense, both from some of what he played in college and his years with the Giants, Bomar had a lot of upside for a guy signed off a practice squad. As Frazier knew though, he was there for a reason, Bomar was not good at dealing with pressure and was prone to make mistakes and commit turn overs (fumbles or INTs) once the pressure got to him.

So, after thinking back on his quarterback situation, as he waited in his office for Spielman to arrive, Frazier couldn't help but wonder. "What are the chances that we can make one of the young guys we have now work? Do we really need to draft a QB with our first round pick? Will he really be any better than the guys on the roster now?" He was going to have to discuss this with Spielman.

Note: Sorry for the long winded "Stream of Consciousness" (pun intended) I plan a few more of these, just to set the tone. I'm doing off season stuff and this is the kind of "frame-of-mind" I think Coach Frazier is in.

[bobthenailer]

Rick Spielman knocked on the door of Frazier's office. "C'mon in Rick, Sitdown." Said Frazier as he greeted Spielman. "Hey Les, how's everything? So today, I wanted to sit down and figure out what we're going to do with some of our free agents. We'll start with the easy stuff." Sounds good Rick replied Frazier, he liked the idea that they were going to make some progress. "So, lets start with a strong position, Running Back, We've got everybody under contract, with got AP, Toby Gerheart, Lorenzo Booker as 3rd down back and Albert Young who's an exclusive-rights-free-agent this year." A few days earlier they had started making their off season moves by re-signing ERFA Jaymar Johnson to a 1 year contract, so it was only logical that Young would come next.

Frazier thought about Young, he was a young undrafted guy who Childress had brought in in 2008 just as Frazier was arriving as Defensive Coordinator. Albert had been on the practice squad for most of his time in Minnesota. He'd been able to crack the final roster in 2010 but got very little play time. It was hoped that he could be developed into a 3rd-down back replacement for Chester Taylor, who had scored a big contract with Chicago in the 2010 off season. When he could see a play happen, Young could throw a good block at an oncoming pass rusher to protect the QB, for watching and working with Taylor he had learned the routes and could catch if he had to. Young's problem is he wasn't particularly fast and he had had problems in the backfield when he had played last year not finding holes (there weren't many to find) and getting shut down behind the line. There had also been a troubling off season incident regarding himself and a massage therapist that had to be sorted out. "Well Rick, I think we should tender him a 1 year offer, and give him every chance to compete in training camp. I don't see him beating Booker as a 3rd down back but he should have every change to try. I don't want to get rid of the guy just cause Brad brought him in, I don't like the message that sends." Spielman knew that Leslie Frazier was a players coach, not that he would always take their side and let them get away with murder, but in the fact that he had been in their shoes, and had helped take an explosive team that was under a lot of pressure all the way to the top. "Yeah I can agree with that. You never know what could happen with injuries."

Spielman noted down what they would do with Young and moved on to the next issue. "So next we've got our RFAs, we have Erin Henderson (LOLB), Tyrell Johnson (FS) and Hussain Abdullah. Abdullah is going to be a little bit of a problem, as you know he did great last year but he's an undrafted RFA which means if we don't tender him high another team can make a run for him and not have to give us compensation. Abdullah should be our priority." "I can agree with that Rick, lets give him a 2nd round tender, he deserves it." replied Frazier. "Ok so we have Erin Henderson, hasn't played a whole lot but he's coming along nicely, he's also un-drafted so we could loose him if we don't give him at least a 2nd round tender, I'm thinking we could risk it though because so far he's really only been a backup, we also have other things to worry about at linebacker but we'll get to those later." Spielman wanted to try to save a little money here, it was all going to add up with the salary cap, if they ever agreed on a new one. "Well I suppose Erin is replaceable if anything happened but he very well could turn out to be a great linebacker, I just hope other team's don't see that." Erin Henderson had been one of the first players that Frazier had helped bring to this team, his older brother EJ was the starting middle linebacker for the team and when his kid brother didn't get drafted, Frazier and Chilly were the first two guys he came to see. The brought him in for a try-out and inked him that day. That had been almost 3 years ago, time really flies.

"So last but not least, Tyrell Johnson, I think we can stand pat on him, just give him the standard tender and if any team makes a move for him they'd have to give us a 2nd. Les, frankly if we bring in anyone else I'm a little worried on weather he even makes the team. " That had been a problem with Johnson, despite starting in 2009, Johnson had performed poorly, made mistakes, found himself beaten out by undrafted Hussain Abdullah in training camp the next year, and also suffered a knee injury which had cut down his playing time. To say Johnson was discouraged put it mildly. "Yeah Rick I think that sounds like a plan, I'll talk to the position coach and see what he thinks." said Frazier. "Well Les I guess that will wrap it up for now, lets go grab some lunch and we'll talk about the draft." replied Spielman as he got up. "Yeah its about that time." said Frazier as he was putting on his coat. He knew he was going to be in this office for a long time today so he may as well take a break and get some hot food, the office wasn't going anywhere.


Results of Meeting:

Albert Young HB, Exclusive Rights Free Agent: Re-signed for 2011
Husain Abdullah SS, Restricted Free Agent: Re-signed for 2011 with 2nd round tender (any other team who signs him will have to compensate the Vikings with a 2nd round draft pick)
Erin Henderson LOLB, Restricted Free Agent: Re-signed for 2011 with standard tender (any other team can sign Henderson without compensation to the Vikings since he was not drafted)
Tyrell Johnson FS, Restricted Free Agent: Re-signed for 2011 using standard tender (Johnson was drafted in the 2nd round, so any other team which signs him would have to compensate the Vikings with a 2nd round pick)



Edit: Obviously Madden doesn't have an RFA system but I am just including these personnel decisions as more background. More to come later.

[bobthenailer]

At lunch they didn't end up talking about the draft, they talked about their free agents instead, and ended up taking their food back to the office with them. They had figured out quite a lot.


Free agents who would not be offered a new contract and allowed to leave:
QB Tarvaris Jackson
QB Patrick Ramsey
FB Naufahu Tahi
CB Lito Sheppard
CB Frank Walker

Free agents they were on the fence about offering an extension
DT Fred Evans
SS Eric Frampton
WR Greg Lewis
WR Hank Baskett

Free agents who were not likely to resign
DE Ray Edwards
DT Pat Williams
LOLB Ben Leber

Free agents who were important to resign
WR Sidney Rice
PK Ryan Longwell
G/T/C Ryan Cook
DE Brian Robison

Spielman had also explained that Free Safety Madieu Williams would either have to renegotiate his contract and agree to take less pay or be released. Dieu was a great guy but the production just wasn't there. The same thing was probably going to have to happen with WR Bernard Berrian. Berrian had just vanished on key plays that he had to show up for. He had missed catches he should have made and had a very frustrating 2010. Spielman could not justify paying Berrian $3.9 million for that kind of contribution. Frazier had convinced Spielman to also keep WR Greg Lewis and Hank Baskett on strength. There was going to have to be a lot of competition at WR this year. If Sidney Rice couldn't be resigned they would have to find some way to replace him. Frazier looked over the WR roster

Percy Harvin
Greg Camarillo
Bernard Berrian
Jaymar Johnson
Jaquin Iglecias
Emmanuel Arceneaux
Freddie Brown
Greg Lewis
Hank Baskett

Along with who ever they drafted, OC Bill Musgrave would have to make a receiving corp out of this group. Iglecias came form the Bears practice squad, Freddie Brown had been signed last year after being cut from the Bengals practice squad, and Emmaneul Arceneaux had spent 2 years as a star in the CFL. Frazier was confident that someone in this group had it in them to be a play maker.

[bobthenailer]

Next it was time to look at the defensive secondary. This was something Frazier particularly enjoyed because during his NFL career as a player he had been a corner back and at the beginning of his coaching career he had been a Defensive Backs coach. This was his area.

Despite their poor performance over the last two years since Darren Sharper left, the Vikings secondary was not as bad off as it seemed. One major short coming was the poor play by Madieu Williams. Missing INTs, whiffing on tackles, getting burned, Madieu just wasn't a starter any more. Aside from that, their was a problem at Corner Back. Loosing Cedric Griffin early last year to injury (he had torn the ACL in his right knee, just after rehabbing from tearing his left) and knee injuries to rookie CB Chris Cook forced a parade of backups at the position. Antoine Winfield was the one bright spot back there but Winfield was going to be 34 and was going to start to decline sooner or later. If he was going to continue playing he was going to have to be exclusively used in the nickel. The only other question at safety was Eric Frampton. Frampton was a career backup type player but he was useful on special teams though. Despite being a solid player he was replaceable, and would have to settle for nearly the same amount he was making now if he had any hope of staying with the team. There was also Jamarca Sanford, a promising young 7th round draft pick in 2009. Sanford had managed to get a bit of play time during 2010, played quite a bit on special teams, and looked to be improving. Frazier was thinking to himself that maybe Abdullah and Sanford would be the starting safeties for next year.

With Cook and Griffin recovered from their injuries, and some sort of replacement found for Madieu Williams, the Vikings' secondary was bound to improve. More importantly than the secondary though, and the basis of their entire 4-3 defense was the defensive line. Also due to injuries and some regression the defensive line, which had lead the league in sacks in 09 had slumped in 2010. Veteran Nose Tackle Pat Williams was 38 years old and was going to be retiring after 2011. Pat was not an every down player anymore, he was of most use on running downs, but he could still make plays. Kevin Williams was the rock that the whole line was anchored on, him and Pat creating havoc on the interior of the opponents offensive line. Together they made up the Williams Wall. Most Guards and Centers were no match for them. They could break through up the middle and make a QB run for his life. Sometimes they could get to him before he could even hand the ball off to a running back. Kevin was 30 though and had played through injuries most of last year. The other key element of the line was Jared Allen. Allen was a nut, he spent most of his time in the off season hunting animals with spears. He was also a force to be reckoned with at Defensive End, pulverizing Tackles and Tight Ends, Jared has also had an off year.

The biggest question on the defensive line was Ray Edwards. Edwards lined up at the left end position and was responsible for a number of sacks of his own. How much of this was due to his own talent, or due to the opponent concentrating on Jared Allen and the Williams Wall was up for debate. Edwards wanted to set the single season sack record, though he was one of the premier defensive ends in the league and was after a big pay day. After holding out for the entire 2010 off season program, Edwards had reported to training camp and signed his tender at the last moment. Edwards was not going to stay on this team without his pay day. That left Frazier looking for a possible Edwards replacement. He only had two other ends on his roster, one was a free agent, and one could possibly be suspended. Veteran DE Brian Robison was a back up and was also used as a situational rusher. Weather he could be used as an every down DE was unknown but Frazier liked what he saw. The other DE, fresh from an LA jail was Everson Griffin. Childress had drafted Griffin in the 4th round last year. He was a 1st round talent with a terrible attitude. Griffen was athletic, strong and fast but he had been slow to catch on and adapt to the Vikings play book and had only really seen field time last year after Ray Edwards had been injured. After the season was over Griffin went back to LA, where he had gone to school and was promptly picked up for drunk and disorderly conduct. After being released the next day, Griffin was pulled over at a traffic stop. Not having his license on him, Griffin attempted to flee and had to be tazed. Griffin was going to also be charged with felony battery against a police officer until the charges were dropped. This kid could be a problem. He was either going to have to figure out real quick that he wasn't going to last too long in the NFL if he did stupid things like this. Even after all of this, Griffin planned to hold a big super bowl party and bus everyone attending from LA to Vegas. Frazier had called him personally to express on him that this was not a good idea. Griffin was going to have Defensive Line Coach Karl Dunbar have some choice words with him once he arrived for training camp.

Linebacker was a fairly stable position for the Vikings. Star Outside Linebacker Chad Greenway had been given the franchise tag to keep him for one more year. EJ Henderson was a solid Middle Linebacker. With a record setting recovery from a gruesome leg injury suffered in 2010. The big question at LB was Ben Leber. Leber had been with the team since 2006, and along with Greenway took care of things on the outside. Leber was 31 years old though and was beginning to show his age. He was an important part of the team but it was going to be difficult to keep him. Still, Leber, like Greenway was from South Dakota and was kind of semi-local so maybe he would be willing to give a home town discount. That would have to be discussed at contract time.

Now Frazier began to look at some of the backup players the Vikings had for depth. Behind the Williams wall you had DTs Letroy Guion, Fred Evans and Jimmy Kennedy. These guys would probably be situational guys, maybe even starters on other teams. Guion was the best and youngest among them and it was hoped that he would be able to step in if Pat Williams left. Fred Evans was also a force at DT but he was a free agent this year so if he was to be kept he would need to be resigned. That left Jimmy Kennedy. Kennedy had for a time been the #1 backup for the Williams boys but he to was starting to age. Injury kept him from most games in 2010. At Linebacker Frazier had Heath Farwell and Kenny Onatolu who were both special teamers, and Erin Henderson who had the best shot among them to become a starting LB. Competing with Henderson would be Jasper Brinkley, EJ Henderson's understudy who had stepped in for him during the 09 season. Brinkley was a bright up and coming young player and he would start somewhere sooner or later.

At CB the team had picked up a lot of depth. Aside from veteran backups Lito Sheppard and Frank Walker, they also had Marcus Sherels, a local who had played for the University of Minnesota Gophers, Simeon Castille fresh from the UFL, and Cord Parks who was a very fast track star if not quite a football talent. Parks could also be a return man but sometimes had trouble hanging on to the ball. Wide receiver and safety were the two positions where there would be the biggest off season competition for who would make the team.

[bobthenailer]

Frazier and Spielman had another session planned, this time at Rick's office. Frazier arrived there and sat down. "We need to figure out what we're going to do at Full Back. I know Adrian doesn't even really care weather we run him with a Full Back or not but we need someone to punch holes. Kleinsasser is too old to be put back to FB and I am not sure of D'Imperio is ready. He's a great kid, big and strong but I think he needs a little more experience." Speilman was prepared well in advance, and Frazier had predicted his next move when he had agreed to let Tahi move on. "I want Jeff Dugan and D'Imperio to compete for starter, Dugan can also play at TE and has good catching skills. Our offense is going to look a little like Atlanta's, not that Dugan is Ovie Mughelli or anything, but he can run those receiving routes and make the catch when we need to throw him the ball. That's not D'Imperio's cup of tea, he can bruise his way through the line but he used to be a linebacker in college, running routes and making catches are really something he has to work on."

After getting that sorted out it was time to talk about what could be their most needed position. The offensive line. "We need to do some work on the line, I think that Sullivan can stay at center but I'm worried about Herrera and McKinnie." Right Guard Anthony Herrera had been placed on injured reserve last year because of a knee injury and Bryant McKinnie had been woefully ineffective at protecting Brett Favre's blind side. Mose of the injuries Favre sustained could be directly attributed to McKinnie missing a block or getting beat. Of the remaining personnel, Steve Hutchinson, the rock that held it all together was getting old and had broken his hand last year, and Right Tackle Phil Loadholt was in a sophomore slump. "I dunno Rick, I think we might need somebody new at Center, Sully was beat up all last year and was just getting over powered and abused. We can't open up holes for our backs, any yardage they get usually come after they break through the D line on their own." Frazier replied. "Yeah we're going to have to figure something out because if we have to start a rookie QB back there, it won't be pretty. Well talk more about this when we get ready to plan for the draft."

"Ok how about our backup guys Rick, what do you think we should do there?" Frazier opened "Well, we've got Chris DeGeare who probably has a good shot to start at right Guard. We've got Patrick Brown as a backup Left Tackle, and we have Seth Olsen backing up Hutchinson at Left Guard. For center we have Jon Cooper, and at Right Tackle we've got Ryan Cook. His contract is up but I think we should bring him back. He's started at Right Guard, Center, and played Right Tackle on the spot. He's not an elite lineman but he's strong and versatile. I'd really like to see what he could do at Center next year. Cook is the only free agent among the whole crew so it shouldn't be too hard to resign him." Spielman also knew who he wanted on the line "Yeah I like how your thinking Rick I want to hold on to Cook too. I think you should talk to his agent about an extension."

[bobthenailer]

Thanks to an all night negotiation session, informally known as the "lock-in" where NFLPA reps and team owners worked towards an agreement, a lock out had been avoided. It was back to business as usual in the NFL and it was going to be busy. With Free Agency about to start teams were rushing to resign who they could before players hit the open market.

Free Agency for the Minnesota Vikings had gone mostly as planned.

Roster changes
FS Madieu Williams released
WR Bernard Berrian released

Free agents not offered a new contract
QB Tarvaris Jackson
QB Patrick Ramsey
FB Naufahu Tahi
CB Lito Sheppard
CB Frank Walker
SS Eric Frampton
DT Fred Evans

Free agents who declined contract offers
DE Ray Edwards
DT Pat Williams
WR Sidney Rice

Re-signed Free Agents
K Ryan Longwell 2 year extension
RT Ryan Cook 2 year extension
LOLB Ben Leber 2 year extension
LE Brian Robison 4 year extension
WR Greg Lewis 1 year extension
WR Hank Baskett 1 year extension

Loosing Sidney Rice was going to be difficult but there was still hope that they may manage to resign him after he hit the market.

[bobthenailer]

Free Agency came and went. All in all Frazier was pretty pleased with how they had done. Spielman planned to make the Vikings a younger team, but that is not exactly easy to do in free agency. After much deliberation, most positions had been fixed or at least shored up before the draft. The team wasn't quite younger, but it was stronger.

FREE AGENT ACQUISITIONS

QB Kerry Collins 2 year contract
WR Steve Breaston 4 year contract
DE Vernon Gholston 4 year contract
DT C.J. Mosley 2 year contract
SS Hamza Abdullah 2 year contract

Notably, the team had not picked up anyone for the offensive line. They had talked to a few guys, but most decent offensive linemen who hit free agency have injury issues. There wasn't anybody that Spielman and Frazier could agree on who would justify what they would cost. The had good depth already and without shuffling everything around they couldn't fit another guy in. They did plan to draft a lineman or two but that would have to wait till they could see who was on the board.

Getting Kerry Collins had been another consensus decision. Frazier felt they needed someone with leadership ability, who not only could help a young rookie but the whole offense around him. They needed someone who had been there before. Other than Collins, Jeff Garcia (who was now 41 years old) Jake Delhomme and Daunte Culpepper, pickins were slim for a real experienced QB. Marc Bulger had quickly signed in Arizona, and Chad Pennington replaced him in Baltimore. Collins had worked with QB coach Craig Johnson before in Tennessee, and once the Titans decided not to resign him Johnson had gone right to Frazier, who had gone right to Rich, who had promptly contacted Collins' agent.

The only other veteran QBs available were going to cost draft picks or would become available too late. The Titans were stubbornly sitting on Vince Young, hoping to swing a trade for him. The same could be said of the Bengals with Carson Palmer. Donovan McNabb's situation in Washington was a little more complicated, his large contract made him un-tradeable, and Head Coach Mike Shanahan believed it was in the team's best interest (if not in McNabbs) to hold on to him till the last second, making it difficult if not impossible for him to catch on with another team and be prepared during the off season. McNabb was headed for a backup job somewhere. There was also Kevin Kolb, who Philly had been shopping, but they wanted too much for him so he would probably end up sitting on the bench until Michael Vick got hurt. The only other QB worth any consideration was Kyle Orton. His position in Denver was somewhat uncertain after the emergence of Tim Tebow but Tebow was not ready to start yet so Orton was going to kick things of in 2011 for the Broncos. Frazier and Spielman had come to the understanding that none of these guys were worth the 1st or 2nd round draft picks that their respective teams were after. Collins brought the most to the table so they decided to sign him.

The decision to go after Vernon Gholston had been another easy one. They needed a young pass rusher. Gholston was a young pass rusher. Problem solved. The reason Gholston was even available in the first place was because even after being drafted 6th overall in the 07 draft, he had failed to catch on to the Jets 3-4 defense. Everyone was hoping he would do better at defensive end in Minnesota's 4-3.

The Vikings had persued CB Richard Marshall and FS O.J. Atogwe but had been unable to sign either. Instead, just to add depth they signed Husain Abdullah's older brother Hamza. He would fill Eric Frampton's role as special teamer. The other moves made on defense brought old teammates home again. CJ Mosely had been drafted in 2005 and as a young player had stepped up when he had to fill in for an injured Kevin Williams. Mosley was traded by Childress to the Jets for QB Brooks Bollinger, who was a backup QB for 3 years. Mosely had only had modest success away from Minnesota but now he was hoping to come back and make a difference. The other returner had not been gone for very long at all. DE Jayme Mitchell had been traded to the Browns to make room on the roster for Randy Moss, who had just been acquired from New England. Mitchell barely saw the field in Cleveland and had not been resigned. Now he was back in Minnesota and ready to backup Brian Robison and Jared Allen. Once again the Vikings had good depth on the defensive line.

One of the biggest signings made was the one for Steve Breaston. After not getting an extension in Arizona, Breston hit the market but Minnesota gave him the best offer. With Sidney Rice gone, Frazier needed a #1 guy. While he may not have had the presence that Rice had (nor the Jump Ball skills) Breaston was fast agile, and had good hands even if he was a bit small. He would have to be the #1 WR with Percy lined up in the slot and an open competition for who could play outside at the #2 position.