SURPRISES
For me, the biggest surprise among yesterday’s cuts was Javon Walker. I thought he did enough in the preseason, given the Vikings lack of depth at wide receiver, to earn a spot.
Keeping Jeff Dugan in favor of Garett Mills was also a teeny bit of a surprise. Given Brett Favre‘s historic love for involving tight ends in the passing game, I figured they’d go with soft hands and speed over blocking.
I think we’ll be lucky if rookie fullback Ryan D’Imperio slips through waivers. The kid put together a nice preseason, demonstrating soft hands and athleticism. Good fullbacks are harder to find these days because colleges aren’t using them much, which is why the Vikes chose to make D’Imperio (a college linebacker) a fullback.
But, ughhhhh, that means another season full of Nafahu Tahi getting blown up, whiffing, or missing blocking assignments. I guess they figure it takes three or four years for a fullback to pull their head out of their ass.)
SHORING UP
The Vikings are keeping track of the waiver wire for potential additions, particularly at wide receiver and cornerback.
The chatter among the Vikings cognoscenti (he said, with a wink) is that the team is hoping they can sign Walker after the first week of the season so they can pay him week-to-week. The other option is signing T.J. Houshmandzadeh at a discount.
But Who’s Your Mamma is a slot receiver. What we really need is another guy who can stretch the field.
Our problem is that the players we cut are more talented than the players most of the other teams have cut, so we’re at a much higher risk of losing our cut players to another team rather than having them slip through waivers to land on our practice squad.
The primary candidates among our cuts of getting picked up–that I’d like to keep–include, I think, Javon Walker, Logan Payne, Ryan D’Imperio, Tremaine Johnson, Ian Johnson, Drew Radovich, Adrian Battles, Marcus Sherels, and Colt Anderson.
The waiver system rewards bad teams at the expense of good teams, so the Rams and the Lions of the world get first dibs on other teams’ cuts while teams like Vikings have to wait their turn until everyone with a worse record has a chance to pick someone up.
The bad teams tend to be bad because, in part, they have inferior talent evaluation personnel but that only accounts for a handful of teams. By the time we’re capable of claiming a player off waivers, they will have been scrutinized by a lot of people.
It’ll be slim pickin’s.
53 MEN
Here’s the depth chart for Your Minnesota Vikings:
Offense:
- QBs: Brett Favre, Tarvaris Jackson, and Joe Webb.
- RBs: Adrian Peterson, Albert Young, Toby Gerhart (I’d flip Gerhart and Young and keep Young for third downs only. But that’s me.)
- FB: Naufahu Tahi
- WRs: Bernard Berrian, Percy Harvin, Greg Camarillo, Greg Lewis, and Sidney Rice (PUP)
- TEs: Visanthe Shiancoe, Jim Kleinsasser, Jeff Dugan, Mickey Shuler
- OL: Bryant McKinnie, Steve Hutchinson, John Sullivan, Anthony Herrera, Phil Loadholt, Ryan Cook, Jon Cooper, Chris DeGeare
Defense:
- DL: Ray Edwards, Kevin Williams, Pat Williams, Jared Allen, Jayme Mitchell, Jimmy Kennedy, Latroy Guion, Brian Robison, Fred Evans, Everson Griffen
- LBs: Chad Greenway, E.J. Henderson, Ben Leber, Heath Farwell, Jasper Brinkley, Erin Henderson, Kenny Onatolu
- CBs: Antoine Winfield, Asher Allen, Chris Cook, Lito Sheppard, Cedric Griffin
- Ss: Tyrell Johnson, Madieu Williams, Jamarca Sanford, Husain Abdullah, Eric Frampton
Special Teams:
- Ks: Ryan Longwell, Kluwe, punter
- LS: Cullen Loeffler
CUTS
These are all the cuts the Vikings made yesterday.
Offense:
- Ian Johnson (Running Back)
- Ryan D’Imperio (Fullback)
- Javon Walker (Wide Receiver)
- Logan Payne (Wide Receiver)
- Taye Biddle (Wide Receiver)
- Freddie Brown (Wide Receiver)
- Marquis Hamilton (Wide Receiver)
- Garrett Mills (Tight End)
- Drew Radovich (Offensive Tackle)
- Patrick Brown (Offensive Tackle)
- Chris Clark (Offensive Tackle)
- Thomas Austin (Offensive Guard)
- Adrian Battles (Offensive Guard)
Defense:
- Tremaine Johnson (Defensive Tackle)
- Mike Montgomery (Defensive End)
- Nate Triplett (Linebacker)
- Marcus Sherels (Cornerback)
- DeAndre Wright (Cornerback)
- Colt Anderson (Safety)
Special Teams:
- Rhys Lloyd (Kicker)
PRACTICE SQUAD
Teams will start to announce their practice squads after 11 PM CST tonight. Practice squads have a limit of eight members and those players will be able to practice with the team. Mike Wobschall of Vikings.com has all the deets on the practice squad.
PUNK ASS BITCH
Punk ass bitch Bobby McCray got his ass cut from the New Orleans Saints yesterday. You’ll remember McCray as the defensive end who was fined $20,000 for the illegal hit (which was ignored by the officials) he delivered on Brett Favre in the NFC Championship game.
Cue Nelson Muntz:
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