Doug Farrar, NFL1000 Lead Scout for Bleacher Report, recently kicked off his Week 1 quarterback rankings. Since the season will start all players and teams with a blank slate, Farrar specified that the ranking was done based on “past performance, offseason movement and player acquisitions, and future projections” rather than game-to-game performance.
Farrar listed Vikings QB Sam Bradford at No. 6 overall heading into Week 1. He said that it was “unclear” what the Vikings were receiving when they traded for Bradford last September because of the passer’s “injury and inconsistency” over six NFL seasons – but Farrar was impressed by Bradford’s 15 games in Purple. He wrote:
Despite an indifferent running game, and without a top-flight group of receivers, Bradford set a single-season NFL record with a 71.6 percent completion rate in 2016, completing 395 of 552 passes for 3,877 yards, 20 touchdowns and five interceptions. The low pick rate and high completion percentage would indicate that Bradford had a lot of success with short passes, and that’s true.
But he also posted the third-highest quarterback rating on passes 20 or more yards in the air, completing 23 of 47 such throws for 754 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. The deep ball wasn’t a primary component of Bradford’s game — it was more important to get him working in a new system and extending drives with completions — but he’s no risk-averse Alex Smith, and given his overall deep accuracy, don’t be at all surprised if he heaves the ball downfield more in 2017.
http://www.vikings.com/news/lunch-break/...11912846=1

If you don’t believe in things like Football Gods or karma, you might have some difficulty explaining the timing of Dalvin Cook making his NFL debut on the same night that Randy Moss is inducted into the Minnesota Vikings’ Ring of Honor. 
The rookie is beginning his first chapter of a potentially great career in the very building on the very day and at the very time that the legend will close his incredible odyssey in purple. It’s just too cosmically perfect to be coincidence. And that’s not even to mention that Adrian Peterson will be in the house. 

Cook and Moss are bonded by a shared experience: Their other-worldly college careers were immediately followed by draft-day anguish. Cook was rated by some as the best running back in a historically good class, but slipped down the board to the second round over “character concerns,” just like Moss had 19 years earlier. 
http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2017/0...lvin-cook/

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was reminded early on in training camp that a team called the Green Bay Packers has pretty much ruled the NFC North since it was created in 2002.
There have been 15 NFC North titles awarded. The Packers have won nine of them. Yes, it does help to have a Favre followed by a Rodgers.
Since 2010, Green Bay has won five of six North titles. The only break came in 2015, when Zimmer and his ornery, third-ranked scoring defense went into Lambeau Field and won 20-13 in the winner-take-all season finale.
But back in late July, a reporter in Mankato wanted Zimmer to explain to the fans what he has done to convince them he is trying to keep the Packers from always winning the doggone division.
“Well,” Zimmer said, “I think we’re continuing to get better players.”
Then, the defensive-minded coach reminded the reporter that he has a decent track on that side of the ball. “I think we’ve probably been the best defense in this division for at least three years now,” Zimmer said. “So I think that’s a good start.”
http://www.startribune.com/can-the-vikin...442945153/

• Saints at Vikings (-3.5)Never bet against spite. And Adrian Peterson will have plenty of spite going for him on Monday night when he returns home to Minnesota to play against the only other team he's played for during his illustrious NFL career. The Vikings have a stout defense but Peterson is otherworldly when angry and he will run for 200 yards against Minnesota in a winning effort for New Orleans.
  Pick: Saints +3.5
  

For the past 8 to 10 years our defense has had a couple guys out there that were the field generals of our defense,  now with the retirement of Greenway and the apparent replacement of BRob by Hunter,  who is going to be that guy to get the huddle to settle down and focus on their execution when things start to unravel a bit?  As i was thinking about the preseason it seemed that the D would be fine once their emotions got settled,  but they just seemed over hyped and lost focus early.  In the past there were a couple vets to handle that on the field,  hopefully we see Griff, Linval, Harry and/or Rhodes step up and become that voice of experience early and often.  its not a matter of scheme,  its not a matter of coaching or talent,  IMO its a matter of discipline and leadership on the field that separates the good teams from the great ones.  ( and a franchise QB doesnt hurt either

at what point do we hand them a check and tell them its their last one?  this shit infuriated me in LA and other gulf states and this one is no different.  Yes I have empathy for the people that are suffering,  but for the love of Christ lets not pay them to stay in harms way.  Let put stipulations on these repayments to make sure that they rebuild in areas that dont need to be covered by flood insurance.  Move them the hell out of harms ways once and forever.  Make the land a national park or something else that can not have houses on it.  (obviously this does not apply to all those affected by this hurricane,   but there are so many that are affected many times a decade that it really needs to stop.)  

up in fargo,   the govt went in,  bought the houses and said no more housing in the flood plane,  (not sure why its allowed in the first place but...)  anyway,  its time to stop this shit.  same for some of the other stupid things like building in the desert... there is no water there,  an essential element for life,  we are not supposed to live there.  or scraping down mountain sides for development and then acting shocked that they slide when the rains come... just plain arrogance and stupidity. 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/de...ar-AAr5Hrf

I say the same thing for any type of govt run programs,  if there are repeat payouts,  its time to change the game so that the payouts dont have to be made the next time for the same damn issue.  

farmers are farming acres that should have never been farmed and then when the low ground floods  or the arid ground gets killed by drought... Crop Insurance!  bull shit,  quit draining sloughs and quit breaking grass lands.

we keep giving subsidies to giant corporations in the interest of developing new technologies...why?  so the rich can get richer?  who is benefiting from the subsidies to wind power?  certainly not the public that see their power rates get hiked annually.  

no more please.  

sorry... rant over.  (for now)

How is everyone feeling with Shurmur's system now that he's had a full offseason to put in what he wanted? I haven't seen anything different
in preseason from what we saw last year. Clearly we struggled to score points with our Number 1 offense which has been consistent since Zimmer
took over. Has Shurmur been holding back on us and will unleash his creative genius on Monday night, or are we in for another disappointing offensive season that dooms this team to a sub 500 finish? 

Share your thoughts for some stimulating conversation. 

Velspár 2017
Welcome to the 2017 season of Velspár!  And welcome to those of you that are playing Velspár for the first time!  Glad to have you join!!  
Velspár, in old norse, means prophesying well or rightly.  And that’s just what we all are trying to do, each week during the Minnesota Vikings season.  Each week a set of questions will be posted at http://scottsabarber.wixsite.com/velspar (Hopefully by Wednesday)  The results will also be posted there.  Correctly predicting the questions will result in points awarded (based on the degree of difficulty) The person with the most points is that weeks winner.  There are no weekly prizes (yet) but the points earned each week will be added up weekly and there will be a prize for the person with the most points at the end of the season.  A beautiful hand crafted Velspar Champion Mug.  So put on your thinking horns and join in on Velspár!!

WEEK 1, THE SWITCH

I don’t know about you, but I’m not as optimistic about the 2017 season.  The Vikings run of 3-8 after starting out 5-0, probably has a lot to do with it.  Maybe it’s the end of the run of Training Camp in Mankato, end of the run of some tailgaiting.  The face of the franchise for the past 10 years, adrian Peterson switched teams.  I’m usually the most optimistic person in the room, but after those things and watching the pre-season performance and the fact that No team has won a Superbowl in their own stadium really doesn’t get my hopes up.  I will stir up some optimism  though and say maybe this 2017 version of the Adrian Petersonless Vikings can flip the switch and light it up on both sides of the ball.  I guess we will all find out on Monday night.  
It’s time to cook all those old ways and we are gonna roll with what we got.

Find Velspár week 1 here

Lol...What some teams will do


Major League Baseball has reportedly determined the Boston Red Sox used electronic devices to steal signs from the New York Yankees and other clubs over the past several weeks. 
Citing sources on Tuesday, the New York Times' Michael S. Schmidt reported the Red Sox "executed a scheme to illicitly steal hand signals from opponents' catchers in games against the second-place Yankees and other teams."
Specifically, Schmidt reported MLB opened an investigation into Boston's illicit activity after Yankees general manager Brian Cashman submitted a video to the league office that purportedly "showed a member of the Red Sox training staff looking at his Apple Watch in the dugout and then relaying a message to players, who may have then been able to use the information to know the type of pitch that was going to be thrown when they were hitting."
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/27316...ce=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial