In light of the injury to Antoine Winfield. . .anyone heard anything from ESPN on that yet, by the way? What's that? Nothing yet? Figured as much. He doesn't play for our opponents from last night, so he's a nobody and there's no reason to mention him.
Anyway, in light of the injury to Antoine Winfield, it's quite likely that we've seen him play his last down as a member of the Minnesota Vikings. Winfield has been one of my favorite Vikings since he signed with the team during the 2004 off-season, and it would be nice to see him go out on a better note than this, but here's the reality. Winfield is signed through 2013. He's scheduled to make $7 million in 2012 and $7.25 million in 2013. Apparently there's a clause in his contract that drops his salary to $3 million if he's a nickel corner rather than a starter, but there are two issues with that idea.
1) Winfield will turn 35 a month before the start of camp in 2012, and
2) Who in the hell on this roster is going to beat the guy out for a starting spot?
A $7 million salary for a guy that might be starting to break down and will be turning 35 in June might be a little too rich for a team that's in full-on rebuilding mode at this point, so it wouldn't be surprising to see him gone.
In more pressing issues, Husain Abdullah has suffered another concussion, making two for him this season already. I'd be absolutely shocked if we saw him on the field any time soon. . .and, let's face it, he hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire for most of the season anyway.
Add in the fact that Chris Cook is still in camp with the Minnesota Penal League, Cedric Griffin apparently can't run or tackle any more, and the Minnesota Vikings are still writing paychecks to Tyrell Johnson every couple of weeks, and it's really not a great situation for the Minnesota secondary.
On the bright side, if you wanted to see more of the youngsters like Brandon Burton and Mistral Raymond, I think you're going to get your chance.