And got Brandon Albert. He’ll be our starting LT for some time so some definite value there.

Then with the other third round pick (Chiefs fans correct me if I’m wrong), we picked Jamaal Charles. He’ll be a good 2nd back for a while as well.

Considering we came away with Brandon Albert in the deal, I’d say it was fair to both sides.

by the time KC is ready to really compete Allen will be on the decline. He was a great talent and a respected drinker but he would have gone to waste here.

To begin with the reason he was traded was because our former GM (Carl Peterson) pissed him off and he said that he would leave as soon as he was a FA. So we COULD have kept him last year but then would have gotten nothing when he left. Believe me, he was missed sorely last year though.

Honestly, he wouldn’t have had enough impact last season to make a significant change in our record. Noone could, given the shitty coaching we had. So things would have turned out the same – our GM and HC get fired, Pioli and Haley come in and install the 3-4, which most likely would have made Allen fairly useless this year. So in the end, yes it worked out for us.

Of all the success factors that you normally hear mentioned alongside Cassel, Bellicheck isn’t normally one of them however, you know that he was instrumental in Matt’s success. In my opinion, I’m more concerned about not having all the targets that he had in NE like Moss, and Welker and others.
It is a great questions, and I really enjoyed your footer.

Good luck to all the Vikes this year.

PS I really miss Jared

So without the weapons I think we’re all aware his stats will go down. But, he’s only 27, and we want to build around him. So, while this year is important, we also want to ensure that he has the tools so that in year 3, 4 5, and 6 we’re contenders.

Our offensive line has changed very little from last year. We brought in Mike Goff to replace Adrian Jones at RG. Now, after the first preseason game, it seems the coaching staff is realizing that Damion McIntosh (often dubbed “Sackintosh” by Arrowhead Pride members since early last season) isn’t going to meet their needs at RT. I don’t think we have a clear upgrade at the position available, either.

So keeping our new “franchise” QB safe is certainly still a concern.

World class team killer, he is.

And we’re on the same page here. Like…exactly.

Are they related?

Nice story and small world (actually, not at all on the internet).

LJ, LJ, LJ…mixed reactions from most of us. I’d like to think he’s “back” but I don’t think we’re going to run an offense that can ever get him completely back. Best case scenario? LJ is good throughout the season and anything over 1,000 yards would be fine in my book.

complete with chicks being tossed down stairs and spit on, dudes being threatened in d-bag KC bars, and LJ talking about how "hood’ he is.

Oh on the field, so far he’s our only legit offensive weapon. If he doesn’t play well be in a prime position to have Tebow as our HB next year.

We don’t have the offensive line to produce 1700+ yards of rushing this season. Branden Albert shows promise, but he still has a year or two to develop. LJ might hit 1000 yds rushing this year, but nothing close to what we saw in ’05 and ’06.

It’s coming along. Most people are still concerned with Dorsey and Hali making the transition. If Zach Thomas can stay healthy we will have the leader on the field Herm’s teams never had. Reports from camp are that he has been a great teacher so far.

As for it being effective, it can’t get much worse than last year and any change is welcome, at least in my book.

Basically…we don’t know. They looked good on the first series last week, but then gave up a 94 yard TD drive.

It’s one of those things where it’s going to be a transition all year (and probably for a couple of years). I like a few of the pieces we have right now but there are still plenty of positions that will be eventually overhauled.

The defensive line seems to be doing OK. We picked up a pair of DE’s high in the draft so we’ll have to see if they can contribute during their R year and if Dorsey can be effective as a 3-4 DE rather than a 4-3 DT.

As far as linebackers go here are the issues:

1. Can Vrabel and Thomas stay healthy? There’s not much quality depth behind them (except possibly the kid we had playing ILB for Thomas durning the first game).

2. Derrick Johnson (our 1st round LB pick from 05) seems to be doing nicely in the new scheme. Can he finally live up to first round potential?

3. Tamba Hali (our 1st round DE pick from 06). Can he convert to a pass rushing LB? Not bad from what we’ve heard, but still a big question mark.

The secondary – no problems there. Probably the most stable and talented part of the team.

It kinda seems like older fans dislike it and younger fans like it for the most part. I’m a younger fan (22) and despised Favre when he was a Packer but always respected him as a person and player. I like the move overall as I think Favre offers more at the position than either Tjack or Sage. I see this as a high risk high reward sort of deal. If he can stay healthy I think he’ll lead us to a deep playoff run. If he gets injured hopefully we’ll have Sage as a backup and he can come in. I think under sage we would still reach the playoffs but would probably lose the first game just like last year under TJack.

If nothing else Favre will, and already has, help sell tickets and merchandise. Also he should be able to remove some heat from AD and possibly get a player out of the box for him.

As an OLD Vikings fan… It’s great to have a QB on the team that brings us some experience and PASSION.
It’s not ‘weird’ for me… watched the Vikes get picked apart too many times by this man.
I want my Vikings to put the best team on the field and I think this move does just that.

Yeah… he’s ‘old’… and I worry he can stay healthy. BUT… he knows how to win.

We were going nowhere with TJ or Sage. Brett is an upgrade. Maybe a fragile upgrade, but an upgrade.

Strength-Secondary
Weakness-That’s tougher. I’d go with the OLine still. The potential to be decent is there, so we’ll see.

haha sorry just a friendly jab back I actually hope you guys do good this year and make sure to beat the Bears! My cousin is a huge Chicago fan and he just thinks Cutlers going to be the saviour!

Most likely, one of those two will be leaving Vikingland soon. We may find out on Friday. Personally, I’d like to see if T-Jack’s poor performance last week was a fluke, or what we can expect out of him. He was injured last week so he has that excuse to fall back on.

I also want to see our secondary and LB corps start to jell a bit. We have a lot of young guys in the secondary especially and they need all the play-time they can get.

Last week the Special Teams looked outstanding, very different from last year. I want to see if that continues, or did they just get lucky against the Colts?

Finally…. we have too many WRs and too many RBs on the team… some of them have to go, and the heck of it is, this year we have a mighty fine crop of youngsters to consider. Hate to let any of them go, but the competition is going to be fierce over the next couple weekends. Keep an eyeball on Albert Young, Ian Johnson, and Antone Smith, I’m thinking that one of those three isn’t going to see the regular season in Purple. I hope there’s a way to keep those three, but the cutoff is merciless.