I have a question for the fine readers of DN:
How are you feeling about free agency so far?
So far, I'm kind of ambivalent about the moves. I LOVE that football is back, and we're talking normal football stuff, but losing Sidney Rice has been kind of a drag on the chaos that has been the first few days. Let's recap where we are:
Tarvaris Jackson was signed by Seattle, but the trade for Donovan McNabb is final. The quarterback poition for the Vikings is better today than it was a few days ago. Sidney Rice is now a Seahawk, Devin Aromashodu was signed. The wide receiver position isn't better than it was a couple of days ago. The Vikings are also reportedly in the mix for Braylon Edwards and/or James Jones, late of the Jets and Packers respectively.
The release of DT Jimmy Kennedy was made official yesterday, and when he first announced it via the Twitter, it was mildly surprising. I surmised, as did many, that it might have been a pre-cursor to re-signing Pat Williams for a one year deal. Instead, the Vikings signed Saints NT Remi Ayodele. With Williams' age and dropping production, that's a net plus for the Vikings.
Ayodele has started 29 games over the last two seasons with the Saints, and has registered 39 tackles and 2.5 sacks over that time frame. According to this tweet from Vikings beat guy Tom Pelissero, Pro Football Focus has him rated as only the 50th ranked DT in the NFL, but 25th against the run, which is an area the Vikings need to address.
S Madieu WIlliams was officially released yesterday as well. Eric summed up our feelings perfectly about this.
Today, look for the VIkings to try and shore up the WR position, hopefully they'll get a deal with LB Ben Leber done, and oh, yeah: none of the rookies have been signed. With the new CBA rookie wage scale, there haven't been any problems with other teams signing their picks, so look for the Vikings to start getting those deals knocked out today.
So grab a cup of coffee, and keep it right here on The Daily Norseman. If you're looking for us on the twitter, you can follow us here:
DN can be found @DailyNorsemanSB, SB Minnesota is at @SBNation Minnesota, my rantings of 140 characters or less can be found @purplebuckeye, Kyle can be found @KJSegall, and Eric tweets the twitter @eric_j_thompson.
Enjoy your Friday, and SKOL VIKINGS!