I always hated swimming in lakes up here. Now I have a rationale reason not to...

http://www.twincities.com/2017/07/21/mus...sota-lake/

http://www.1500espn.com/vikings-2/2017/0...-articles/

Underneath Latavius Murray’s No. 25, a story of death and deep friendshipThe Vikings’ newly-signed running back lost someone close to him last year. He will be honoring his best friend by wearing No. 25.
Xavier Rhodes’ rise to shutdown stardom and the next stepThere aren’t too many true shutdown corners in the game, but Xavier Rhodes emerged as one last season. But his mentor says he can improve even more.
Why everyone believes in Teddy BridgewaterThe Vikings thought they had their franchise quarterback in place until he went down with a brutal knee injury. Some question whether he’ll ever return to the field, but the closest people to Bridgewater believe he’ll be back.
With Peterson gone, Diggs has a chance to become the face of the VikingsStefon Diggs has emerged as a No. 1 wide receiver but he isn’t yet a household name. With Adrian Peterson gone, No. 14 will have the chance to lead the Vikings’ offense this year.
Mike Zimmer and the evolution of a head coachAfter a rough 2016, the Vikings’ head coach says he’s learned a lot this offseason and is ready to grow as a head coach.
Is it time to make Anthony Barr a pure pass rusher?By the end of 2015, Anthony Barr was considered an elite defensive player in the NFL, but a down year in 2016 could force the Vikings to tweak his role in order to succeed.
How much does the Vikings’ passing game have to improve to be Super Bowl contenders?The Vikings’ passing game should be better this season, but how much better does it need to be in order to equal history’s Super Bowl winners?
How the Vikings can use Cook, Murray and McKinnonThe Vikings have a crowded backfield, but all three running backs have unique talents that offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur can use to improve his offense.
Vikings may have found Cordarrelle Patterson’s replacement in fifth-round pick Rodney AdamsMaybe the most intriguing pick by the Vikings was fifth-rounder Rodney Adams, who is a kick returner and playmaker.
Position by position: What we know about the 2017 Vikings after OTAs and MinicampEverything you need to know about the Vikings as we head into Mankato

Dont spend it all at once XR!

It should be any day now that Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes, 27, receives a five-year contract extension that could be worth nearly $75 million.


http://www.twincities.com/2017/07/22/cha...h-vikings/

The biggest question surrounding the Minnesota Vikings franchise as it opens training camp this week is who their quarterback will be going forward.
This season it’s Sam Bradford, 29, signed for $18 million, but settled for only this season. Ideally, the Vikings hope for a nice season, perhaps 10 victories, with Bradford playing well and remaining healthy. 
That scenario presumably would allow the Vikings enough confidence to extend Bradford’s contract. It also would mean general manager Rick Spielman and head coach Mike Zimmer could feel confident in their positions.
But if Bradford doesn’t play well, or gets hurt, and the Vikings don’t make the playoffs for a second straight season, Minnesota likely would have to deal with finding a new QB.
Regardless of the polite rhetoric coming from the Vikings about QB Teddy Bridgewater’srehabilitation, it remains uncertain that Bridgewater, although just 24, can come back from his horrific knee injury nearly a year ago.
There is also the uncertainty about whether Bridgewater could survive another debilitating knee injury even if he’s eventually deemed healthy enough to play.
If Bradford and Bridgewater prove to be ineffective, who then would become the Vikings QB of the future?
Faced with that issue, Vikings ownership would have to decide whether to entrust Spielman and Zimmer with making the quarterback choice going forward. It’s clear that Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf like Spielman and Zimmer. It’s also virtually certain the reason Zimmer is coach of the Vikings is Bill Parcells, whom the Wilfs have loved since he coached the New York Giants to two Super Bowl titles.
It’s also evident that it initially was Parcells whom the Wilfs wanted to coach the Vikings. But Parcells, 76, had made enough money and didn’t want to coach again.

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.