As the sun singed exposed skin and the aroma of the annual Vikings alumni cookout wafted over the practice fields, Latavius Murray watched his new team wrap up its final spring practice.
Standing there on the sideline at Winter Park, in his No. 25 jersey, his mind drifted elsewhere.
Back in upstate New York, where Murray spent the majority of his childhood, a tense murder trial was in its early stages in a powder keg of a courtroom. The victim of the November shooting in Syracuse was his best friend, Jonathan Diaz.
The trial brought painful memories rushing back. Murray was still trying to come to terms with his friend’s death seven months later. But he mustered a happy face at Winter Park while chatting with teammates. A couple hours later, when he sat down with a reporter at Bonfire in Eden Prairie, the mention of Diaz turned him somber.
http://www.startribune.com/latavius-murray-enters-vikings-season-pushing-the-pile-in-honor-of-late-friend/436072153/

The past 10 seasons the Vikings ran their offense through Adrian Peterson, a once-in-a-generation talent at running back. But this season will be different, and it looks more and more likely that the offense will be built around the talents of quarterback Sam Bradford, who had an effective first season with the Vikings in 2016 despite not arriving until just before the regular season began.
Bradford was able to post career highs in passer rating (99.3), yards passing (3,877), and completion percentage (71.6), which is also the highest mark in NFL history.
But for the Vikings and Bradford there still is some uncertainty, with him in the last year of a two-year contract, and injured former starter Teddy Bridgewater seeming to make strides every day. Bradford was asked how important it is to get an entire offseason with the club to improve the offense.
“Obviously last year was pretty unique, I have never been in that situation, and I don’t think many people have been in that situation,” Bradford said. “But just to be here this offseason, to be able to go through the program, go through the meetings, the installs, really sit down and learn this offense and what we’re trying to do, it’s a much better situation than showing up here however many days, eight or nine, before the first game last year and trying to learn everything on the fly.”
Bradford admitted that even though he put together good numbers, he didn’t have full command of the offense for some time.
“I think the later we got in the year the better I felt with it,” he said. “Obviously going through the change that we did kind of halfway through the season [the resignation of Norv Turner as offensive coordinator], having worked with [new offensive coordinator] Pat [Shurmur], I think that really helped me just because we have a really good relationship and I felt like we were able to communicate. Towards the end of the year I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on things.”

Long-term plans

When they aren’t spinning stories, what the veterans of the Twins’ 1987 and ’91 championship teams will tell you is that they had luck on their side.
They stayed healthy. They caught breaks. They were good enough and smart enough to take advantage of opponents’ mistakes.
The 2016 Minnesota Vikings experienced almost no luck.
Remember, on the morning of Oct. 23, they had forgotten what it was like to lose an NFL game. They were 5-0. They had won eight straight regular-season games. They were coming off a bye week in which Mike Zimmer earned comparisons to Bill Belichick and the Vikings defense to the ’85 Bears.
As the Vikings drive carefully through St. Peter’s speed traps for their final training camp in Mankato, the most pertinent question facing them is whether what they had accomplished to that point was fluke or template.
As of Oct. 23, they had beaten three teams that would make the NFL playoffs, and another that had won the conference championship the year before. They had won twice on the road and had opened U.S. Bank Stadium with a thrilling victory over They Who Shall Not Be Named.
Only a missed 23-yard field goal had kept them from advancing in the playoffs the previous season. They had the look of a budding power.
Then they collapsed, losing eight of their last 11 games, playing like invertebrates in a home loss to the Colts in December and eliciting predictable responses from fans who believe that early-season success is more tease than prelude.
So are the 2017 Vikings charged with banishing all memories of 2016, or with reviving the feeling the team had in mid-October? Was 5-0 a mirage?
http://www.startribune.com/souhan-no-rea...436062253/

This shows a lot, including how little time Teddy had from his already sub-par line, how he did show touch on some deep balls, and also how the Viking coaches were encouraging him to take more chances and throw balls up for his receivers to make plays.

We will do more film like this at camp this year.  With the All-22, you see the position of every player on the field at all times during a play.

Someone was asking about these earlier...

Interesting kid. The Vikings like him, but he's had injuries and been inconsistent. One thing that never gets mentioned is he's only 24 years old heading into this 4th year. He was EXTREMELY young when he was drafted. Zimmer mentioned that he loved his mentality and he's a bigger corner at almost 6' and 201 lbs. I think he can be very good depth at CB this year and probably make a step forward if he remains healthy. 

One famous play from a Viking game, that turned the tide in the Vikings favor.
This edition is a 1999 game with Dallas visiting the Metronome.

Just 50 seconds

Teens watch a man drown and die. They laugh and video tape his death. There is no law on the books they violated. 

MAKE ONE. 

I guess I will be going into a movie theatre this summer after all!

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dunkirk_2017

What a Richard, can only hope Sessions follows him out the door...