One of the things that we're banking on as fans of the Minnesota Vikings is that quarterback Christian Ponder is going to be markedly better in 2012 than he was in 2011, and it really does make sense to think that he will be. He'll have a better protector on his blindside, he will still have the benefit of a pretty good rushing game (with or without Adrian Peterson, though obviously the former is better), and the team has upgraded the weapons around him.

But we've been saying that forever. . .now, somebody else is saying it, too. That somebody is K.C. Joyner, ESPN.com's Football Scientist. In his latest column, Joyner identifies some quarterbacks from what he deems to be "low-tier teams" that could be in line for a big leap in 2011, and #7 tops his list.

Joyner puts the blame for Ponder's lack of success in 2011 on the lack of a real downfield passing attack, which is something I'm pretty sure we all had figured out already. He points to players like wide receiver Devin Aromashodu, who was targeted on 56 "vertical" passes last season (passes that travel at least 11 yards in the air), and rewarded the team by posting the second-worst yards/attempt among receivers that were targeted on at least 50 such passes.

The two members of Ponder's new supporting cast that he identifies as being of the most help are wide receivers Jerome Simpson and Jarius Wright, both of whom should be able to help stretch the field for Minnesota. Simpson ranked quite highly last season in yards/attempt on passes that traveled between 11 and 19 yards in the air, according to Joyner, which will help Ponder a lot, but the surprise comes from Wright.

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So, the Sporting News. . .which I guess is still a thing. . .has put together their rankings of the NFL head coaches from top to bottom. To say that they're unkind to Minnesota Vikings' head coach Leslie Frazier is a bit of an understatement.

Of the NFL's 32 head coaches, Frazier is ranked at #27. Coaches 28, 29, 30, 31, and 32 are all making their NFL debuts, which means that Sporting News has Frazier ranked as the worst returning head coach in the league this season.

The site put together some incredibly insightful commentary on Coach Frazier as well.

If his second year doesn't go better than his first year, there probably won't be a third year.

With that being the case, I guess it's a good thing for Leslie Frazier that the Vikings will be better in 2012 than they were in 2011. The concern is whether or not they'll be better enough for Frazier to keep his job.

Is it time to give Percy Harvin a new deal?

I have been looking at the current Vikings players and their contract status. I am not going into detail about the current cap number or any of that business as it is very difficult to come up with an accurate number. Right now the free agents for 2013 will be Phil Loadholt, Asher Allen, Jasper Brinkley, Jamarca Sanford, and many of the free agents we signed to one year deals this year like Jerome Simpson, Geoff Schwartz, Jerome Felton, Zachary Bowman, Chris Carr, and a few others.

The most important player is Percy Harvin. I think it is time to get a contract extension done. I think it should be done before the start of the season too. He is signed through 2013 but is only going to make 915K this year and 1.55 mil next year which is woefully underpaid based on his performance.

Why is that you say? Why shouldn't the team wait and see if he can "do it again" and then offer him a new deal?

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Buried in this column about how awful the Minnesota Twins have been thus far in 2011 is an interesting little bit from Sid Hartman. . .the man who, apparently, is wholly and solely responsible for the Minnesota Vikings getting a new stadium.

There is still a good chance that E.J. Henderson will sign with the Vikings once he agrees to a contract paying the linebacker quite a bit less than the $6.7 million he was paid last year. Henderson still is demanding the same pay he got last year.

Now, don't get me wrong. . .we all love E.J. Henderson around here. The guy has proven that he's a warrior and has gone through a hell of a lot during his career with the Vikings.

But E.J. Henderson isn't getting $6.7 million from anybody to play football this year. He sure as heck isn't going to get it from the Minnesota Vikings.

Will Henderson the Elder be back in purple next season? That remains to be seen. . .but if he is, it will be at a significantly reduced price tag, and he's likely going to have some serious competition for the middle linebacker spot.

The Minnesota Vikings have just announced the dates for their 2012 Training Camp, and the team is going to be hanging around Mankato for a bit longer than they might have normally been accustomed to.

According to various sources, largely coming via the Twitter, the team will report to Training Camp on July 26. They will then stay at camp all the way through August 16. That means camp will end just prior to the Vikings' second pre-season game rather than before the pre-season opener. The Vikings have not done that since 2008.

Apparently the length of training camp last year was an issue with some folks:

There was frustration from some in organization that stay was so short last year. Clearly, they want to maximize time this time around.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 16, 2012

Guess it won't be an issue this year.

With a number of young players expected to play significant roles for the team this season, an extra week of Training Camp certainly won't hurt anybody. Considering the real lack of an off-season/pre-season in 2011, I would expect the Vikings to look much better coming out of the gate in 2012 than they did last season. You know. . .maybe not blowing so many huge leads in the second halves of games and such.

Tommy Kramer, erstwhile hero and villain for thousands of Minnesotans in the late 1970's and early 1980's, was elected to the college football hall of fame earlier today.

Kramer was a standout at Rice University, where he was a consensus All American on a losing team. He was the Vikes first round draft pick in 1977, and became a cult hero in his rookie season.

It was December 4, 1977. A home game against the then lowly San Francisco 49ers. The Vikes went down 24-7, Bud Grant brought Kramer in the fourth quarter, and he engineered the greatest comeback in Vikes history to that point, throwing three fourth quarter TD's to give the Vikes a 28-27 win. I still remember that game. When Sammy White hauled in a late bomb for the go ahead TD, I jumped so high on the couch I missed said couch coming down and splattered on the floor. My dad, after he made sure I hadn't killed myself, started whooping and hollering with me.

Yeah, the legend of Tommy Kramer was born.

Kramer was a guy you either loved or hated, and I loved him. He had a Honey Badger don't care attitude on the field, and would throw it into double or triple coverage. He could be terrible for 58 minutes, and then he was a first ballot hall of famer for the last two. He had a dip of Copenhagen or Skoal bigger than a football helmet in his mouth during post game interviews, and every week he just 'took what the defense gave us'.

Yeah, Kramer was maddeningly inconsistent, but man, if the game was on the line, and you needed a touchdown to win it, Kramer got it for you, more often than not. Does it matter that it was his three picks earlier in the game that got the Vikes down by 4 or 6 points with only two minutes to play?

No, no it does not.

Congratulations, Tommy.

Edit: Here is highlights of Kramer's coming out party, courtesy of the YouTubes. Kramer had a cannon for an arm, as you can see on his throw to Sammy White for the clincher:

Outside, freezing cold, awesome uniforms, and Tommy Kramer.

We interrupt whatever the hell it is that anyone is babbling about at this point in the stadium debate to bring you some actual football-related news. (Yeah, I'm a bit testy at this point. . .14 hours of political debate over two days will do that to a guy.)

It was reported on Tuesday that the Minnesota Vikings had former Washington Redskins linebacker Rocky McIntosh in for a workout. McIntosh spent the first six years of his career with the Redskins after being drafted in the second round (35th overall) of the 2006 NFL Draft out of the University of Miami (FL). He spent his first four seasons with the Redskins as an outside linebacker, and shifted to the inside in 2010 when the Redskins went from a 4-3 to a 3-4 scheme. He had a very good year in 2010, racking up 110 total tackles (73 solo) and two sacks. He struggled this last season, however, losing his starting job midway through the year.

I'm not sure if McIntosh represents a significant step up from Jasper Brinkley in the middle of the Vikings' defense (I assume they're looking at him as a middle linebacker, with Chad Greenway and Erin Henderson being pretty solid on the outsides), but he could provide decent depth, if nothing else.

The Vikings also signed former Minnesota Golden Gophers defensive end Anthony Jacobs. Jacobs was one of the handful of Gophers (along with DT Brandon Kirksey and WR Da'Jon McKnight) that was invited to the Vikings' rookie camp. Jacobs is a 6'2", 291-pound lineman that had 26 tackles, including six tackles for loss. He also had one sack and two forced fumbles.

So, in the midst of all this stuff about the stadium, I caught this coming across the Twitter feed.

To all in Viking Nation.Can't thank you enough for your cheers over the past 6 years!You've been awesome to me and my family. God Bless!

— Ryan Longwell (@4thandLongwell) May 7, 2012

A couple of the Twin Cities' bigger media sources have confirmed that Ryan Longwell has, indeed, been cut by the team. I thought he might have been announcing his retirement from the NFL, but he has been released.

The Vikings did draft a kicker in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft in Georgia's Blair Walsh, but the indications had been that the team was going to have a kicking competition between Walsh and Longwell during camps and things of that nature. However, that competition just got a whole lot more one-sided.

According to Tom Pelissero, Longwell was apparently as surprised by this as we are.

I'm told this was not in any way mutual. #Vikings told Longwell they're moving on. Surprising to say the least.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 7, 2012

Longwell joined the Vikings in 2006, and had a pretty decent six-year run with the Vikings, converting 86% of his field goals (135 field goals in 157 attempts). Once we get more on the impetus behind this, we will pass it along.

Thanks for the memories, #8.