According to Pro Football Talk, the Vikings will be getting another CFL player. This one has quite the name and I hope that means his play on the field will be even better..:) Solomon Elimimian was the CFL’s most outstanding rookie.  He now has the title of most outstanding name on the Minnesota Vikings [...]]]>

VIKING SHIP AUDIBLE

According to Pro Football Talk, the Vikings will be getting another CFL player. This one has quite the name and I hope that means his play on the field will be even better..:) Solomon Elimimian was the CFL’s most outstanding rookie.  He now has the title of most outstanding name on the Minnesota Vikings roster.

Nothing is official just yet.

Especially [...]]]>

Especially with the amount of grief that I have been getting all week about the Vikings getting throttled by the Bears on Sunday Night. It would be perfect if the Vikes could upset the Packers on this coming Sunday.  Hey a Sconnie Vikings fan can be an optimist sometimes:)

Just think at the start of the season the Vikings did not want to admit that all of its fan knew that they were in rebuilding mode. This mode has officially is going to taken place starting on Sunday.

Just a couple quick roster move updates.

– Center Joe Berger (formerly of the Dolphins) was signed to the active roster and Center Jon Cooper was waived to make room for him.

– Defensive Lineman Cedric McKinley was signed to the practice squad. The Vikings had a spot open on the practice squad after activating [...]]]>

VIKING SHIP AUDIBLE

Just a couple quick roster move updates.

– Center Joe Berger (formerly of the Dolphins) was signed to the active roster and Center Jon Cooper was waived to make room for him.

– Defensive Lineman Cedric McKinley was signed to the practice squad. The Vikings had a spot open on the practice squad after activating Tight End Allen Reisner on Saturday.

The Vikings have filled their 8 man practice squad.  The members of the squad are:

I’m a little surprised by a couple of things.

First of all, the Vikings have 2 [...]]]>

The Vikings have filled their 8 man practice squad.  The members of the squad are:

WR – Manny Arceneaux

FB – Matt Asiata

WR – Stephen Burton

FB – Ryan D’Imperio

OL – Chris DeGeare

RB – Caleb King

DL – Cedric McKinley

TE – Allen Reisner

I’m a little surprised by a couple of things.

First of all, the Vikings have 2 full backs on the 8-man practice squad, but none on the 53-man roster.  I find that a little odd.  Do we need fullbacks in this offense?  If not, why keep 2 on the practice squad.  If we do, why don’t we have any on the roster?

Secondly, I’m a little surprised that Allen Reisner didn’t make the active roster.  Well, he did, initially, but he had to be cut to make room for another linebacker.

Image via Wikipedia

I’m a big fan of Reisner, not only because I’m an Iowa Hawkeyes fan, but also because I think he’s going to turn into a good tight end.  The Vikings have 2 tight ends in Visanthe Shiancoe and Jim Kleinsasser who are not only both over 30 years old, they are both in the final year of their contract.  Reisner will presumably be molded to take over for one of them.

But what makes the move surprising to me is that head coach Leslie Frazier and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave have commented about running 2 and 3 tight end sets.  They even demonstrated them a little during the preseason.

The Vikings only have 3 tight ends on their roster, though.  My first thought would be that if they were planning on 3 tight end sets, they’d want at least 4 TEs available to them, for depth and health purposes.

Hopefully Shiancoe, Kleinsasser, and rookie Kyle Rudolph can stay healthy!

I have a hunch, though, that Reisner will see the active roster before the end of the season.

The final cuts have been made, according to  Vikings.com

This is what the roster looks like at this moment. There is a couple of surprises to the roster this season.

QBs: Donovan McNabb, Christian Ponder, Joe Webb

RBs: Adrian Peterson, Toby Gerhart, Lorenzo Booker

WRs: Percy Harvin, Bernard Berrian, Michael Jenkins, Greg Camarillo, Devin Aromashodu

TEs: Visanthe Shiancoe, [...]]]>

The final cuts have been made, according to  Vikings.com

This is what the roster looks like at this moment. There is a couple of surprises to the roster this season.

QBs: Donovan McNabb, Christian Ponder, Joe Webb

RBs: Adrian Peterson, Toby Gerhart, Lorenzo Booker

WRs: Percy Harvin, Bernard Berrian, Michael Jenkins, Greg Camarillo, Devin Aromashodu

TEs: Visanthe Shiancoe, Jim Kleinsasser, Kyle Rudolph, Allan Reisner

OL: Charlie Johnson, Steve Hutchinson, John Sullivan, Anthony Herrera, Phil Loadholt, Jon Cooper, DeMarcus Love, Pat Brown, Seth Olsen and Brandon Fusco

DL: Jared Allen, Kevin Williams (suspended Weeks 1-2), Remi Ayodele, Brian Robison, Everson Griffen, Letroy Guion, Christian Ballard, Adrian Awasom, Fred Evans, D’Aundre Reed

LBs: E.J. Henderson, Chad Greenway, Erin Henderson, Kenny Onatolu and Larry Dean

CBs: Antoine Winfield, Cedric Griffin, Chris Cook, Asher Allen, Brandon Burton, Marcus Sherels

Safeties: Husain Abdullah, Tyrell Johnson, Jamarca Sanford, Eric Frampton, Mistral Raymond

Specialists: LS Cullen Loeffler, P Chris Kluwe, K Ryan Longwell

• OL Chris DeGeare, Ryan Cook, Heath Farwell, and Jeff Dugan. I am still kind of shocked with the Farwell parting, but I guess you have do more than play special teams well in the NFL any more.
• Vikings have 3 Centers this season. Will Cooper asked to play a Guard or Tackle?
• I just wondering if the Vikes will be interesting in Brandon Meriweather who New England cut earlier today as well?

So what are some of your thoughts on the Vikes 53 man roster?

Linebacker Ben Leber has been sitting at home so far this offseason.  His contract with the Minnesota Vikings was up at the end of last year and he hadn’t resigned with the Vikings or signed with anyone else yet…

Until this afternoon.

Ben Leber signed with the St Louis [...]]]>

Linebacker Ben Leber has been sitting at home so far this offseason.  His contract with the Minnesota Vikings was up at the end of last year and he hadn’t resigned with the Vikings or signed with anyone else yet…

Until this afternoon.

Ben Leber signed with the St Louis Rams today.

In my opinion Leber was a very good linebacker.  He was a player that us fans very rarely had to complain about missing a play or getting beat in coverage.  He rarely did anything spectacular, but he rarely made any glaring mistakes, either.

But, fortunately for the Vikings and us fans, as good as Ben Leber was he was the one starting linebacker that we could afford to lose.  The Vikings already have Chad Greenway and EJ Henderson to fill the other two spots, and Jasper Brinkley and Erin Henderson waiting to step up into Leber’s role.

I’ll miss Leber being a Viking, but it’s good that our Linebacker group won’t take too much of a hit.

The Minnesota Vikings have signed defensive tackle Colby Whitlock, an undrafted rookie out of Texas Tech.  To make room, they  released wide receiver Ryan Lincoln, an undrafted rookie out of Texams A&M

*Viking Ship Audible: Quickly keeping you up to date on [...]]]>

VIKING SHIP AUDIBLE

The Minnesota Vikings have signed defensive tackle Colby Whitlock, an undrafted rookie out of Texas Tech.  To make room, they  released wide receiver Ryan Lincoln, an undrafted rookie out of Texams A&M

Offensive Lineman Ryan Cook has officially resigned with the Minnesota Vikings.

I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of seeing Cook on the field.  I feel like he gets beat too often.  That being said, I’m not opposed to him being on the team.

Cook can play literally every position on the line if [...]]]>

Offensive Lineman Ryan Cook has officially resigned with the Minnesota Vikings.

I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of seeing Cook on the field.  I feel like he gets beat too often.  That being said, I’m not opposed to him being on the team.

Cook can play literally every position on the line if he has to.  His being on the team adds instant depth to our entire line.  Even if he’s not the best “every down” lineman, he can spell every guy out there and keep our guys fresh.

Also, I’m completely willing to give him (and everyone else on the line) the benefit of the doubt that maybe it was the blocking schemes used by Brad Childress that held back the offensive line.

Childress was a big fan of the zone blocking schemes that the Denver Broncos used in the late 90s (to HUGE success).

Denver’s scheme was to use smaller, quicker offensive linemen to creative movement on the line rather than the traditional idea of holding a block and creating holes.

Denver used it to perfection.

Brad Childress decided to try to use the same idea with bigger, slower linemen.

It never quite worked.

If the new scheme is better molded to the strengths of our current linemen, perhaps Ryan Cook will prove to be a better blocker.

All in all, with the recent cutting of Bryant McKinnie, it was probably a good move by the Vikings.

Apparently the news has broken that the Minnesota Vikings have cut ties with Bryant McKinnie.

That won’t come as a disappointment to some of you reading this, I’m sure.

Image via Wikipedia

McKinnie has had a rocky road with the Vikings thus far.  There have been some times [...]]]>

Bryant McKinnie is No Longer A Minnesota Viking

Apparently the news has broken that the Minnesota Vikings have cut ties with Bryant McKinnie.

That won’t come as a disappointment to some of you reading this, I’m sure.

Image via Wikipedia

McKinnie has had a rocky road with the Vikings thus far.  There have been some times where he performed like a great left tackle.  He’s a mountain of a  guy, and when he’s playing up to his potential he’s a great blocker.

But there have also been plenty of lows… holding out during his rookie year, getting benched in a 2009 game against the Panthers because Julius Peppers made him seem invisible, getting thrown off the Pro Bowl team because he didn’t show up to practice.

Sometimes it seemed like living the superstar life was more important to McKinnie.

Don’t look at this move as being too insignificant, though.  The left tackle is arguably one of the two most important offensive men on the team.  He blocks the blind side of the quarterback.  For a team to decide that they are going to cut the man who has been starting at left tackle for several years, there must be some serious issues.

I’ve read that McKinnie came to camp seriously out of shape and overweight, despite promises all summer that he would be showing up at his college playing weight.

He was also listed since the beginning of camp as having a “non-football injury”.  Depending on the nature of the injury, that might not have set well with coaches, either.

Fortunately Vikings fans don’t have to worry about the position TOO much.

Over the weekend the Vikings signed free agent offensive tackle Charlie Johnson who comes from the Indianapolis Colts.  Johnson played left tackle in Indy, and he must have done a pretty good job, because Peyton Manning has a way of always being on his feet at the end of a play.

Hopefully Johnson will prove to be an upgrade over McKinnie.