Vikings New Year Resolutions

The Rams have fired Steve Spagnuolo.

Expect the Vikings to have competition to get him. I would bet the Eagles and a lot of other teams want to sign him as their defensive coordinator.

Come on Vikings! Let’s get Spags.

Not real sure we need to be that concerned about Kluwe – we could do a lot worse there. But pretty much agree with most of your other thoughts. Spagnuolo would be great, and you’re right there will be some competition there so hopefully they will act fast to make that come to fruition. My own secret plan is to become a Packers fan and a Cardinals fan for just next year, which would instantly propel the Vikes to to Super Bowl victory and the Cubs to a World Series championship! I could never actually do that but I know it would work! Have a great New Year MB!

I’ve got a little bias for sure, but unless you can get Scifres or Lechler we’re pretty much squared up at punter. Let’s just put this in perspective by saying, if Kluwe were in any other uniform in the NFC North, you’d hate the crap outta that guy.

All your other resolutions are pretty dang good tho…except I’ll just bring up the Singletary question. I don’t have a horse in this one, but the Niners are lookin good right now, and they’re pretty much the squad that he was putting together.

Granted Harbaugh’s a super fun coach who’s had really good results, and Singletary was a grim taskmaster fired for having a bad record, but the Niners have sucked for years and years. (thank you retribution gods)

He might not be a good coach, or even a serviceable one, but there’s something there. Mebby he’s just got a good eye for personnel…or some other unknown quality, but he did change that team into something close to what it is today. I doubt he’ll get let go, since he got brought in by Fraiser, and they were both on a pretty good team back in the day. I don’t know if this is a good thing or bad, but it’s…interesting.

Wow this is getting long, sorry. Just one more thing you said:

We’ve got Gerhart to carry the load

This was the nicest thing to come out of the end of this season. They finally started really using this guy (cause they had to), an he’s good.

I don’t know if Del Rio is with another team yet or not, though.

Hiring him as GM would be the worst move the team could make. Let him handle the contracts and that is all. He does not even decide who gets a new contract either. He just works the numbers.

First, I like the optimism. It doesn’t come easily to me… being a lifelong Vikings fan and all that. It’s good to see someone feeling the warm glow of future promise rather than the moldy stench of this past year.

Here are my nits:

The new GM obviously needs to keep Coach Frazier. This isn’t even a discussion.

I can understand supporting Frazier, because I can understand that there are three opinions for every binary option. However, I can’t for the life of me figure out what was behind the statement, “This isn’t even a discussion.” Seriously? We have a head coach who had a HORRIBLE season. And it wasn’t a season in which he sort of kept it altogether while the team around him leaned on him for support. There were stories about player ignoring the playcalls of the coaching staff (indirectly substantiated by Sapp soon after arriving). There was the loss to the Bucs or Lions because Frazier had a brain fart and opted to go for it inside of kick a field goal. There were the hopeless back-and-forths of indecision Frazier exhibited on the sideline during the game. There were the crazy personnel decisions (e.g. Berrian, T. Johnson, McNabb at 2nd string instead of 3rd, etc.) And on top of it all, Frazier had the assistant of Special Assistant to the Head Coach Mike Singletary. I like Frazier as a person. I don’t like him as a head coach. I can see argument for keeping him and for letting him go. I don’t buy that “this isn’t even a discussion.”

It is time to let DB coach Joe Woods go. It is just time.

Why does Frazier get a pass when Woods gets the ax? Think about the team we played with this year. Or secondary was playing 2nd and 3rd string guys virtually all year. Griffin has clearly left his best years behind him. Cook was in jail and then managing his legal defense. Winfield (whose best years are also behind him) was injured. Abdullah and Sanford both missed games. Sapp, who wasn’t on the team until late in the season, ended up being the best guy in the secondary. Additionally, our linebackers seemed incapable of helping the secondary protect against the underneath stuff all season. I’m not a Woods fan. Frankly, I didn’t even know his name until you mentioned it. I just happen to think that perhaps he has the best excuse of anyone for why his unit didn’t perform well this year.

Bring in a punter to challenge Kluwe.

My first thought when I read this was that you were confusing Kluwe with Longwell. However that can’t be it because you specifically mentioned “punter” in your post. I’m not sure how we can improve over Kluwe. The last mistake he made that I can think of was his repeated punts to Kim Kardashan’s ex-boyfriend in New Orleans in 2008(?). Generally he’s been pretty awesome, and it’s a well known fact that he is the best off season texter in the NFL. What’s your beef with him? I curious to know.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing what happens in the offseason. (Oops. That was a moment of uncharacteristic optimism getting away from me.)

“Bring back all our veterans who are under contract and all our young players who were with the team this year and bring everyone into camp”

Come next year, this sort of sais lets not really rebuild and again repeat what we did last year…Im up for positive optimism but Im also honest with myself . If we see a majority of the vets we have now wearing purple next year, it will be because we failed in an oppertune draft and FA.

We sure needed some rays of hope around here. And hey I actually agreed with most of your list. Most of it.

1. Agreed. And it should be #1 priority. Hopefully they get the Arden Hills locale. I would love to go to Minny and tailgate with all my DN bretheren one day.

2. Done.

3. 50/50. I think he is staying, but he should be on a short leash. He’s inspiring to listen to, but sometimes I question his decisions. The team played hard until the end of the year so I like that.

4-8. Agreed.

9a. I like the idea, but I worry who we can actually attract here. The last few WR FA’s haven’t worked out so well. I would re-sign Shank to a 2 year veteran minimum contract. It is highly likely that several vets will not return. Tyrell Johnson, Ced Griffin, Anthony Herrera, Camarillo, EJ Henderson could all be on the way out.

9b. If Kalil is there, take him. If not trade down and draft Martin.

10. Finally someone agrees with me. Anything negative or constructive criticism is generally seen as blasphemy around here. But you are right. Field position is huge in the NFL and sometimes Kluwe doesn’t come through. Although he has improved his directional punting as of late, I say challenging him wouldnt hurt. I would add challenge Longwell to this list as well.

Sucky news. He did tear his MCL. Good health to Toby. http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_19667536

He has plenty of time to recover. But I fear this will make the Vikings target another RB in the draft (unless the dude we got off the Chargers practice-team got skills).