Luft’s Locker Room

Posts Tagged ‘Seattle Seahawks’

I was asked by a reader why this season’s Vikings free agency has been so silent.  I agree is has been nothing more than a whimper than roar [not that the Bears have been doing much of that either].  It has come in like a lamb but will hopefully conclude like a lion [not to be confused with the 0-16 Detroit Lions].  The remainder of the NFC North has been just as frozen and smelling of old Limburger cheese.  Why?

I cannot give you any sane reasons why the Vikes seem almost silent during this free agent period.  I don’t think it has to do with the economy, because any big name like TJ Houshmandzadeh couldn’t hurt ticket sales, but TJ almost seemed an afterthought.  I can only surmise that most available free agents this year don’t fit the “coming off of their first contract with plenty of potential” mode that the Vikings like so much.

To date, The Vikings signed Sage Rosenfels after two years of courting and no visits to back up pay.  Yes, he will compete with Tarvaris Jackson for the starting job (as of now), but a 3 year $9 million contract is only good back up money.

Speaking of 3 years and $9 mil, one of the first things the Vikings have done right so far was to re-sign Jimmy Kleinsasser, one of the very best blocking tight ends in the league.  Jimmy has been with the team since being drafted in 1999 and now that Matt Birk is a new Raven, makes him the longest tenured Viking.  His power and blocking abilities come in handy when lined up next to Ryan Cook and even Bryant McKinnie.  He has been part of the blocking scheme for 4 of the 5 highest rushing seasons by Minnesota backs.  Matt Birk can’t even claim that due to the season he was out with his sports hernia operation.

The only free agent that was brought in so far was TJ Houshmandzadeh, and even though the Vikings offered the veteran receiver the best chance at winning, he sided with the money.  He had proclaimed earlier that he would, so that, and being closer to his LA home shouldn’t have surprised us that he chose the Seahawks.  Do you really want a player that doesn’t want to be there?  You can say the same about Matt Birk and wish him well as he moves on to the Ravens.

Then today, we hear the good news that the Vikings re-signed their special team ace and #4 linebacker Heath Farwell.  Heath, like Jim, was allowed to test the free agent waters and visited the Pats and the Browns but felt like his place was in Minnesota.  He, like Jimmy wants to be here.  The Vikings ended up signing him to the richest special teams player contract in their history, a 3 year, $7.75 million that calls for $3.25 mil in guarantees.  With the release of Vinny Ciurciu, who wasn’t as good as Heath anyway, the need to have the special teams ace was all the more important.  Vikings fans everywhere don’t want to see a repeat performance of the horrible coverage teams from last year.

Karl Paymah is scheduled to come visit this coming up week.  He is a cornerback from the Broncos who started a couple of games last year.  He is a second tier free agent that fits that “coming off of their first contract with plenty of potential” mold.  We need depth in the secondary with not only Antoine Winfield getting older, but also with Darren Sharper not being re-signed.  Paymah, if signed, will fit that depth role and could hope to earn more though improved play combined with an unfortunate injury to Winfield or Griffin.  He will only be the second free agent to visit if he makes it past his meeting with the Buccaneers and Browns first, and definitely nothing to get excited about.

Hoping for excitement, that roar of the warrior right before battle may manifest itself in a blockbuster trade like last year’s to get Jared Allen.  The only hint of that may be in the rumors of the Vikings being interested in disgruntled Jay Cutler from Denver, but the theories on how to pull that off are not real plausible.  It will take a huge leap on the Broncos’ part to give up their Pro Bowl quarterback with no real alternative waiting in the wings.  Here’s hoping to their stupidity.

The other big name quarterback situation that the Vikings are watching is of Donovan McNabb in Philly.  If that relationship sours again, you might see a move by the Vikes to trade for Brad Childress’ claim to fame.

Another option may be the discarded Terrell Owens, but word from Vikings personnel guy Rick Spielman said the Vikings have no interest.  “We would never say never, but you can put the pieces together and the history with Coach Childress [in Philadelphia].”  Word had it that Chilly and T.O. had buried the hatchet and were getting along, plus with George Stewart being T.O.’s father figure and old receiving coach from his 49ers days, you have to wonder if a deal could actually work.  T.O. does make quarterbacks into legitimate stars (at least for the first year) as pointed out by my good friend Pacifist Viking.  But he is getting older, his production is dropping off and he doesn’t fit the free agent mold the Vikings like, but then again neither did TJ Who…

Like the rest of the NFC North, free agency has been eerily quiet.  Hopefully the draft will stir more excitement, but the Vikings having the #22 pick won’t net the team any blue chippers.  Let’s just hope we can get some quality starters at need positions and depth where it is needed.  Our favorite coach, Brad Childress will be on the hot seat after finishing the season with a 21% approval rating, so you hope he tries to make some move to ensure that the Vikes win the division again and make a long drive into the playoffs.

I think the overall answer to your question is that there weren’t the players available to make the noise with so far, or at least ones that the Vikings and Brad Childress were interested in.  Let’s hope something changes for the better.   Here’s to a roar sometime this offseason and hoping that your spring will be a little more exciting.

This was written to the AP story, Goodell says expanded NFL season good for quality over at The Sporting News.  It has caused quite a stir.  Here is my opinion:

Yes, the 17th game at a neutral or semi neutral sight [like Toronto for the Bills]. The NFL is a multi-billion dollar game that is looking for expanded markets. Here in the good old US of A they own the market, so why not get some of the pounds, euros, yen, etc. coming this way? We import oil, why not export football and get money flowing back?

“Bills owner Ralph Wilson Jr. had petitioned the league to play one home game in Toronto to strengthen its Canadian fan base.”

I read that and wondered if the Vikings might go north of the border for their 17th game of the season for the same reason? Say roll up to Winnipeg and play in the Blue Bombers stadium and strengthen our Canadian fan base. It sounds like a good plan plus would provide more opportunity for the fans up in North Dakota and northern Minnesota to see a game.

And just to keep things fair, the Seachickens could head up to Vancouver to play in the BC Lions’ stadium. That would give three NFL teams international homes away from home and would build up there Canadian fan bases.

You can have Dallas with a game in Mexico City, San Francisco can play in China or Japan. East coast teams can go to Europe, etc…

The talk is of expanding the season to 17 regular season games for each team, with one of them being played overseas, outside the US (Canada and Mexico). For those teams not going overseas, use some neutral site like a 100,000 seat college stadium halfway between two arch rivals. The idea is to spread the love of the game and subsequently increase the fan base, resulting in a growth in the sport and in revenues.

In my opinion this is a great idea! The only drawback is that as of the thinking now, the 17 game will replace one preseason game, cutting the preseason schedule to 3 games. Many people complain that the preseason is too long anyway.

The only game lost would be that one home preseason contest every other year. The season ticket holders buy 10 games now will complain that they only get 9 in the off years. They complain already about paying full price for preseason games where the starters may not even play and definitely mean nothing in the standings. Simple, for the cost of expanding, the clubs only charge for 9 games on the 9 home game season. They can also sweeten the pot by giving preference if the fan want to go to the “overseas” location or discounts on merchandise, complimentary Sunday Ticket or something. They can gift their season ticket holders with something special that could make the fan happy, yet still get the revenue increase from full 80 to 110 thousand seated stadiums and the increased merchandise sales from those new fans will more than make up for that once every other year loss of a preseason game.

This is the greatest sport ever invented, so why not make it even greater?

After waiting to late last night to watch the Minnesota vs. Seattle re-broadcast on NFLN, the insatiable thirst for Vikings football was wetted. It was good to see the boys in Purple pumped up to enter the field. The camera shots up the tunnel got me as pumped up as the players. Here are my first impressions.

Did anybody else notice the inflatable boat wasn’t fully inflated? When the team ran out, they had to duck or push up on the bow section to get through. Well, I guess it’s preseason for the stadium crew too.

First off, guys with the night off. Marcus McCauley (knee), Garrett Mills (ankle) and Brian Robison (leg) were unhealthy scratches. Pat Williams (elbow) was dressed but did not play, not because of his injury but because the coaches wanted to better evaluate Fred Evans in his place. Also, Madieu Williams had minor neck spasms and the coaches again felt it gave them a great opportunity to see our top draft choice, Tyrell Johnson in action. Both Pat and Madieu were missed, but I’ll get into that later. And the final healthy absentee [or I was blind and only saw him on the sideline] was Ryan Longwell, probably for the same reason, the coaches wanted to give Steven Huaschka visibility so that he may be picked up by another team.

After the opening kickoff, the Vikings launched an aerial assault not seen in these parts in the last couple of years. The first 11 eleven plays were passes with Jimmy Kleinsasser coming across the middle and catching the first for 13 yards and a first down.

“We had 10 scripted throws to start with, and we were going to throw it 10 times regardless,” Childress said. “We didn’t need to see Adrian as much, look at inside and outside zone plays. We get plenty of those in practice.” Also, “We wanted to watch our line protect. We wanted to watch Adrian factor into the protection game and the route-running part and obviously, the wide receivers.”

Tarvaris Jackson had demonstrated improvement from last season. Officially he was 8 for 11, 118 yards, 1 TD with an outstanding QB rating of 137.7, but that also didn’t include a pass completion early that was negated by an Anthony Herrera holding penalty, nor an incompletion when later where Sidney Rice about had his head removed on a pass interference call in the end zone. TJ was right on target.

T-Jack made good decisions most of his playing time. The only one that was questionable was a throw to Rice in triple coverage. He threaded the needle though and Sidney made a great catch. He connected with Bernard Berrian 3 out of 4 attempts [only 2 counted because of the holding penalty], one of which was when TJ was looking to hit Adrian Peterson on a screen out of the backfield. AP was covered so TJ ran to the left to escape pressure from the released rushers when keeping his eyes downfield like he is supposed to, spots an open Berrian and hits him in stride for what looks like a sure touchdown. B² stumbles and steps out on the 6 yard line, leaving Thomas Tapeh to catch his first touchdown as a Viking in front of his home crowd on the next play.

Out of the 3 incompletions, two were off target, and one, a nice deep ball to B² was long due to Berrian being “bumped” en route. Jackson was sharp and his 137.7 rating reflected it.

The first run wasn’t called until the 12th offensive play and it went to Chester Taylor. He would go on to score the Vikes’ second touchdown. Other than a fumble after a catch by Shaincoe, the first string O looked pretty good.

The defense on the other hand seemed to be giving up everything. Pat Williams was sorely missed in the middle. Morris seamed almost to be running at will and Hasselbeck was completing too many passes. The pass D didn’t look improved at all, with the exception that Jarred Allen is quick and pressured a lot. Tyrell Johnson had a couple of good hits and looked decent for a rookie. Fred Evans was handled himself though by the new Seahawk center on occasions and didn’t get the up field penetration we are used to from Phat Pat.

Heath Farwell was brought in early to get more playing time. He immediately made a good open field tackle. He then followed up by hitting Morris out of bounds on the opposite side of the field. His hustling was evident as was his desire to start and be a “real” linebacker and not just a special team ace. On the next play he had his right knee rolled up on. He laid on the field and was helped off. He was examined on the sideline and ended up being carted off from there. They suspect that he tore his anterior cruciate ligament, a season ending injury for our Pro Bowl level special teams’ ace and a guy in a contract year that was fighting for the #4 linebacker spot. An MRI is scheduled for last night or today.

Why is it, someone must blow a knee every year; Chad Greenway in 2006, Rufus Alexander last year, and now Heath Farwell. Zygi, the knee will be repaired and heal, but you won’t find another with a heart like Heath’s so please keep that in mind at contract time.

Gus Frerotte came in the second quarter and was respectable at 4 of 7, for 60 yards, and 1 sack.

What I noticed here the most was that Drew Radovich was playing left tackle behind McKinnie. He was doing a decent job until somewhere he hurt his left shoulder. The extent of which is unknown at this time. I was presently surprised by his play. What I was not surprised over was the play of Ryan Cook at right tackle. It was solid with no glaring mistakes or sacks given up. Marcus Johnson didn’t look that good following him up. The only penalties I notice were holding on Herrera and a false start on Kleinsasser [no excuse for that Jimmy].

The Vikes had it tied at half 17-17 despite the bad play by the defense and the turnover by Shiancoe leading to a Seattle score. The second half was basically garbage time. That may sound cruel, but this is a preseason game and the purpose is to see as many of the young players doing certain things as the coaches can fit into the game, it is not necessarily to win [which is a good thing].

In the second half, we continued to see lots of Albert Young at running back rushing, catching a team high 5 receptions and special teams returner.  He had some good returns in the first half, but not as good as Darius Reynaud and if he would have tried to juke the kicker versus run him over, his 53 yarder would have been a 97 yard return.  I’m sure he’ll get coached up on that.  Young had decent returns every time he touched the ball.  Later he spent virtually the whole second half as the Vikings running threat.  AD was done in 11 plays with no touches; Chester had been Chester and scored.  Maurice Hicks had some good runs, one of 30 yards running to the left over Radovich then cutting back.  He did as expected as the #3.  Tapeh got his TD and did well, but not so for Tahi, who looked slow and hesitant at times.

Special teams looked okay. As said before, Young had a good day returning kickoffs and that maybe the way he earns a spot on the team. If not, an effort should be made that he at least earns a spot on the practice squad. Rookie WR Jaymar Johnson got into the act with a 22 yard punt return. Hauschka did everything asked of him, but his kickoffs were a little short. Chris Kluwe was booming his punts, 3 for a gross average of 53.3 and net of 42.7. Seattle averaged over 10 yards on punt returns and just under 20 for kickoff returns, especially with Heath Farwell out, this needs to improve.

The Achilles heel of the second half was turnovers. There were 3 more fumbles lost (4 total) all resulting in points scored, and Booty throwing a pick to go along with his fumble. 5 turnovers in total leading to 24 Seahawk points will be talked about for sure, but overall, the first and second stringers looked decent.

Some other odd thoughts:

• The first string O line did well at protecting T-Jack.
• B² has a pet python named Rosco and plays the drums. I didn’t know that.
• Jarred Allen said, “it feels amazing” to wear Purple. He was impressed by the crowd sized for a preseason game and said it almost felt like a regular season game.
• Should have definitely taken the over.
• The defense was looking way too porous!
• Losing the turnover battle always hurts.
• QB stats: TJ 8 for 11, 118 yards, 1 TD, rating 137.7. Frerotte 4 of 7, 60 yards, 1 sack. Bollinger 1 of 2, 8 yards, 1 fumble, Booty 9 of 18, 82 yards, 1 int, 1 fumble.

There will be another NFLN re-broadcast Tuesday night at 11PM. Next up, a trip to Baltimore to battle another bird team, the Ravens, Purple vs. Purple Saturday, 16 August at 6:30 PM.

Now I will return you to your regularly scheduled topic of the Minnesota Vikings. Brad Childress said all the right things during this whole Favre virus episode [before, during and after the tampering charge] and he and the team, especially key veteran members like Pat Williams are firmly behind Tarvaris Jackson to make what should now be an easier run at winning the NFC North. It all will start Friday night when the Seahawks come to the dome for the opening preseason game.

Friday night we will expect to see a somewhat healthy and strong Vikings team take the field. There is a possibility that coach Childress will have T-Jack in a little longer than just a couple of series. He will want him to demonstrate that needed improvement and progress in his play. After that, expect Gus Frerotte, Brooks Bollinger and John David booty in quick succession. Watch the receivers because that is where some of the closest battles are being waged.

On defense, we will be treated to seeing Jarred Allen and secondly Madieu Williams in action for their Purple debuts. The biggest battle on the D to watch will be for the nickel and dime jobs between Benny Sapp, Marcus McCauley, Charles Gordon and Tyrell Johnson. It looks already that Cedric Griffin has locked up the spot opposite of Antoine Winfield.

On special teams, the only item to look for is Vinny Ciurciu to make a splash. When he came to the Vikings he was known for his special teams play, but Heath Farwell continued to dominate in that department. Erin Henderson (younger brother of EJ) is looking for a job and just might bump Ciurciu out for the final LB position and either one will have to excel on special teams to earn it.

This will also reunite the poison pill swap of Steve Hutchinson and Nate Burleson, But that is water under the bridge. Water that took out that bridge that has a train barreling for it. Welcome to the preseason and tell me what you think.

And one last word:

VikeVision coined the phrase, the “Favre Virus” as she didn’t want it being contracted on the Minnesota side of the border. After what looks like only a mild case, it has moved on to infect New York City and the Jets. Of course, it will linger in Green Bay probably for years just like a bad case of malaria or gout.

I must thank it for happening because it generated so much material for my blogging. I know you guys were sick of it, but like watching that train heading straight for the bridge that it out, I couldn’t help but want to watch. Thanks for putting up with my curiosity.

I now look forward to all the psychological damage that has been and will be done to the Packers this season, especially starting in week 1. I also hope to see the Jets now do well and give the Patriots a scare, plus just to hear how well Brett is doing versus Aaron Rodgers and the destructive fallout from it in the land of cheese. Then if at the end of the season, Ted Thompson gets the axe, I will howl in laughter. Good thoughts aren’t they?