Williams Wall Update

Judge Gary Larson said today that the Williams Wall will be able to play during the appeals process of the Williams' testing positive of a diuretic. The NFL also cannot step up testing of them during that time. The linemen want a speedy trial so their will be a hearing on July 22nd. The NFL's request to put the state court matter on hold pending the league's appeal of federal claims -- a process that could take months.

Time to Knock Some Heads

What is a linebacker many would ask? It is second line of defense on the defensive unit. They are overseers of the field. The unit can see easily if it going to be a run or a pass and where the offense is going with the ball.

The Viking had their up and down with the linebacking corps last season. They had two key injuries last season. The first one was to Heath Farwell in the first preseason game and the other to EJ Henderson early in the season. Both were lost for the season.

50 Erin Henderson LB 6-3 244 Maryland

51 Ben Leber LB 6-3 244 Kansas State

52 Chad Greenway LB 6-2 242 Iowa

54 Jasper Brinkley LB 6-1 252 South Carolina

55 Kenny Onatolu LB 6-2 225 Nebraska-Omaha

*56 E.J. Henderson LB 6-1 245 Maryland

58 David Herron LB 6-1 239 Michigan State

*59 Heath Farwell LB 6-0 235 San Diego St.

BOLD is starter last season

Denotes finished season on injured reserve

Why were these two players so important to Viking at the linebacker position? Heath Farwell was the captain of the special teams unit and the Vikes did not have a identity all year. The unit looked like a bunch of chicken with their head chopped off running around back there at times last season.

During EJ Henderson absence the Viking struggled to find a replacement for middle linebacker. Chilly and company tried a variety of players and even brought in two former Vikes. The unit was stretched thin last season.

EJ Henderson was lost early in the season last year as well. He has been coming into his own as the Viking starting middle linebacker. He has great intuition for sniffing out the play and of course punishing the ball carrier when he runs in his zone.He is an exciting to watch as the general on the defense.He will knock some heads and hit the running back so hard that he make him see double. I already have EJ as the starting Middle Linebacker for Week 1.

As the Weakside Linebacker the Vikes have Chad Greenway out of the University of Iowa. He is entering his 3 year as a Pro. He missed all of his rookie season with a torn ACL. He led the Vikings last season with 150 tackles and 3^rd on the team with 5.5 sacks. Greenway has the speed and ability to chase down a running back in the flats or drop back into coverage with a wide receiver. Greenway has been progressing each of the last 2 seasons with the Vikings. It easy to say the he will have his starting role on the weakside at the beginning of this season.

On the strongside linebacker is Ben Leber. He does not make the bone crushing hits that many fans like to see from a linebacker from the NFC North. Leber is a smart player, he is a decent coverage backerHe is a reliable linebacker and can sniff out the play is tough to keep out of the pocket on a blitz. I just cannot see him losing his starting job. The other players that I see making the season are:

Erin Henderson

Jasper Brinkley(Rookie)

Heath Farwell

For the Vikings they have a quite the unit in the middle they will punish the ball carrier if they get past the 1^st line of defense.

McNair Found Dead

Former NFL QB Steve McNair was found dead yesterday in a condo in downtown Nashville Tennessee alongside a 20 year old woman. Police are still investigated the two death, but it looks like a double homicide. There are other reports saying that it it is a homicide-suicide. There are many question about McNair and the young woman.

McNair was a QB was respected on and off the field. He was better know as a passer than a runner. He broke the stereotype that a black QB is not a pocket passer. He passed for over 3100 yards in is NFL career 1995-2007.
McNair will be sadly missed by all fans of the game.

Line of Destruction

With Training camp coming up in less than a month, I figured that I would do an analysis of each unit on Offense, Defense and Special Teams. I figured that I would start with the Defensive Line. As of right now here are the members of the Vikings in the DL unit:

Num Player Ht Wgt College

61 Martail Burnett DE 6-3 262 Utah

69 Jared Allen DE 6-6 270 Idaho State

73 Jimmy Kennedy DT 6-4 320 Penn State

90 Fred Evans DT 6-4 305 TX State - San Marcos

91 Ray Edwards DE 6-5 268 Purdue

92 Jayme Mitchell DE 6-6 285 Mississippi

93 Kevin Williams DT 6-5 311 Oklahoma State

94 Pat Williams DT 6-3 317 Texas A&M

95 Kenechi Udeze DE 6-3 281 USC

98 Letroy Guion DT 6-4 303 Florida State

99 Otis Grigsby DE 6-3 260 Kentucky

96 Brian Robison DE 6-3 267 Texas

Players in BOLD were last years’ starters

With the danger of losing the Williams Wall for the first four games this season hoving over the Viking s heads since last season. It will be only a matter of time until all Viking fans and the NFL finds out the outcome of Williams Wall. Pat and Kevin Williams have been in the force in the middle since the Vikes acquitted Pat to pair up with Kevin. These two guys are the force in the middle to breaks down the opposing teams’ line to kill the play. Teams think that they have enough to content with in the middle with the monstrous Williams Wall every down for the Viking defense.

The Vikings also have Jared Allen that they acquired from the Chiefs last season. He showed the league that he was not a one year wonder last year. He was breaking up plays left and right especially in the second half in the season, when the Vikes needed it most. Allen ranked 5^th in the league with 14.5 QB sacks. I figure that these 3 have locked their starting spot already for the season opener.

The other side of the line from Jared Allen, at the other Defensive End position is somewhat in the air right now. The two front runners for the job would be either Ray Edwards or Kenechi Udeze. With all that Kenechi Udeze has been through the past year with his battle with leukemia and trying to win his job back as the Viking DE. Edwards has been pretty steady in his career with the Vikes. The past two seasons he has had 5 sacks each year and over 40 takedowns per season as well.

With Udeze, he has been sporadic with his play over his career, His first 3 full season (he injured his 2^nd season), he had 2 seasons with 5 sacks and a season with NO SACKS at all. He needs to show that he has more of a nose for the job to win it over Edwards. I feel that Kenechi Udeze will be the backup to start the season.

With these front four, the Vikes will be hard teams to run on all season as well as teams dealing with the pass rush. So not much has change from last season to this season. If the Williams Wall is gone for the first four game, it is going to be interesting on who the Vikes use to plug in those huge holes if needed.

It looks that their will be 4 backup that will be making the squad, the players right now I will be a Viking next are as follows:

98 Letroy Guion DT 6-4 303 Florida State

96 Brian Robison DE 6-3 267 Texas

90 Fred Evans DT 6-4 305 TX State - San Marcos

95 Kenechi Udeze DE 6-3 281 USC

Sage Is Going To Lose It

With football being in a down period it seems that reporters are just trying to stir up some sort of controversy. It seems like at least once a week somebody is asking Sage or TJ about Favre. More often it is Sage that gets the mic in the face. I think they are just see if they can get Sage tell the media what they want to hear. For instance, something like I think that Coach Chilly is just wasting his time trying to get a over the hill now sub par QB.
Sage plays is Joe Cool style. Time and time again he tells the media that Favre is not a part of the Vikes at this moment.Right at this moment, he and TJ are competing for the starting QB job. He is lives in the now and not what might be happening in Brad Test Labs.
I believe most people would go on a tirade with the over and over questions of Favre and what do you think. Sage will be Sage, as in what happens happens.

Chilly the Mind

When the Vikes brought Brad Childress in as the new head coach their were some things that were expect of him. The wants a more discipline coach and an offense of mind. So far Vikes fans have seen he can be a harsh coach not putting up with crap in the locker room or on field. He was brought in here from the Eagles to bring the passing game and offense creativity to Minnesota. The Viking have always had a steady running game. The passing game has been nothing but a struggle for Chilly and the Vikings.
Since his hiring, Childress has finish no better than 18th in the NFL in passing for the season. Since the Vikes brought over the offense wizard, he has shown that he is indecisive at times and not calling the right play for what the situation warrants.
Chilly is trying to acquire Brett"The Fairy" Favre to show more on the offense side of the ball. All Vikes really need is a quarterback that can keep the opposing defense honest on playing run or pass mode. The past 2 season, with the drafting of Adrian Peterson, he has had to face 8 or 9 men in the box. Still he won the rushing title last year(the first Viking to do so).
So it looks like Chilly is getting desperate on keeping his job, so this is why the persistence of going after Favre after the draft. What really is they going to fix, sure they are a Super Bowl ready team. They will be having the SAME problem come next season.

Favre Complications

With all this Favre chatter going on for quite some time now. Just makes a person wonder, which current Vikings’ QB will be gone by Week 1 when the Vikes take on the Browns.
I do not think that Sage Rosenfels will be done considering that the Vikes just acquired him from Houston this past March for a 4th round pick. The numbers that he has put up in his career are decent with limited playing time on par to subpar teams throughout his career. This may be a reason why his TD to interception ratio is so high almost 1:1. That is just a scary stat for fans to swallow with a team as good as the Vikes are right now. Rosenfels is a lock for the Viking roster. I just cannot see Chilly giving away this past year 4th round pick and just whisk away the player that you went to get with that pick before the start of the season. He is a more accurate than T-Jax and has better on the field awareness.
Now with the battle for the 3rd string QB job between Tarvaris Jackson and John David Booty. The only reason I give T-Jax the edge is because he has game “experience” over Booty. Booty has yet to play a regular season snap. This is all Chilly’s doing anyhow. When he drafted Jackson 2006, he claimed that he could take this raw talent and mold him into a NFL QB. Jackson has shown the fans he is injury prone and inaccurate when throwing the ball under 60 percent. I think that Jackson will be gone by beginning of the season if Booty shows the coaches more than he did last season.
So if Favre does come to the Vikes the real QB completion will be between Booty and Jackson, in my opinion.