Daily Norseman Mailbag #6

Gotta be honest.... was a little surprised there weren't any Adrian Peterson questions thrown at me this week. I mean, he entered a plea and a lot of people on Twitter seemed to think he'd be in uniform against the Bears this Sunday. I tweeted that I think the Wilfs are cowards and are letting Roger Goodell handle their dirty work for them. If he's reinstated by the league, they can tell sponsors he has served the appropriate punishment according to the league and now it's time to move on. If he's not reinstated (or you know, taken off the special exempt list), they can tell fans it's the leagues fault. Completely gutless. But I guess that's why Roger makes the big bucks. Okay, enough about that. Just had to throw that one out there. Thanks for indulging me. Onto the DN Mailbag questions for this week:

From @Taylor_Callais: 
Will Jay Cutler refuse to come out of the locker room for the 2nd half of the game?

Granted, Taylor asked this question the night of the game, but it made me laugh, so I had to answer it. I'm about 99.999% sure Jay Cutler wishes he had skipped the second half of the game, headed to Applebee's for a Perfect Margarita and some half price appetizers. This Bears team is a hot mess right now and if it hadn't been for the fact that they were getting massacred by the Packers, I would've really enjoyed that game. Also, I have a little bit of sympathy for Brandon Marshall. He busts his ass out there on the field and it seems like the rest of the team has straight up just quit. A personal shout-out to my friend Howard, who is a diehard Bears fan. At least you had 1985, my friend. Don't ever forget that.

From @purplepulseNFL: 
@DiMurphyMN will Teddy be benched if he keeps missing deep ballz?

No. I thought about ending my response after just the word "no", but I figured you deserved a better response than that. Look, Teddy is a rookie. He is still figuring all of this out. But he is smart, hard working, and is so cool under pressure. The deep balls will come. The timing is coming along. Just have some faith. The kid is the real deal.

From @StCloudNative:
Even if AP returns, shouldn't we still try to get Mckinnon lotsa carries to help w his development?

This response will FOR SURE bring some opposing viewpoints in the comments section, I am sure. But YES!!! McKinnon should still see A LOT of carries because he is the future. As much as people don't want to hear it, AP is the past. Even if he plays this season for the Vikings, he is gone next year. He's a PR nightmare, he's aging, and he's expensive. Like it or not, the Vikings are moving on without AP, so yes, McKinnon should still see a lot of playing time this season.

From @S_LYNGSTAD:
Vikes offer a 2nd round pick for Mark Sanchez. Who says no?

Now I'm starting to think you're just trolling me. Mark Sanchez??  Really? Because he has a couple decent games? Slow your roll, my friend. We have a quarterback. His name is Teddy Bridgewater. And he's going to be lights out. People really need to just calm the hell down about the QB situation here in Minnesota. He's a rookie. This is a complex system. He has made progress every week. He is extremely good under pressure and makes intelligent decisions. The deep ball will come. Have some faith :-) Oh, and in response to your second question:

Would you trade Teddy for Cam Newton? Question has been eating us up tonight.

Hell no. See above.

From @Birk3:
Do you see the Vikes possibly sneaking into the playoffs?

Hmmmmm..... good question. When I was covering training camp, I really thought they stood a good chance at a Wild Card slot. Then all hell broke loose with AP and Rudolph got hurt. Rudy comes back soon, maybe AP as well, and that changes things for this offense. McKinnon and Asiata have been filling in nicely, but AP brings a level of respect to the running game that they do not possess quite yet. The Lions' defense is really good, but their offense is suspect. They're beatable and have gotten lucky the last few weeks. The Bears are godawful. The Packers are decent. If we're going to get in, it'll be as a Wild Card. It could happen.

From @SotaSportsGuy2
Do you see The Vikings sneaking into the first round and drafting Maxx Williams? #DNMailbag

Considering the fact that he's a RS Sophomore, I don't think he's entering the draft this year, so my answer would be no. He's a total beast and will benefit from at least one more year in the Gopher program. That being said, I don't think the Vikings would draft him regardless. They have plenty of good TE's. They need to focus their draft picks on that atrocious offensive line.

From @dumbMNsportsguy:
#DNmailbag, What's worse, Wild PP or Jeff Locke?

Oh boy. You really know how to ask the hard questions, Phil. The Wild PP is beyond hideous. At the same time, there are simple solutions to it. First, take Koivu off of it. He's a liability on that line. The Wild have options. The Vikings do not. At least not without signing another punter. Which they absolutely should do, STAT. Like yesterday.

From @MiltownBucky:
@DiMurphyMN Does LeSean McCoy suck or does LeSean McCoy SUCK (for fantasy purposes of course, might be a great human being)???

LeSean McCoy SUCKS. All of the suck. Also, having the first overall draft pick in a FF league and drafting AP also SUCKS. OHHH! And playing in a 14 team money league ALSO REALLY SUCKS. No players available worth a damn. I considered drafting and starting myself at RB this week. THAT'S how ugly it was.

And the Weirdest Question of the Week honors go to:

‏@TheAdam_B
Would you rather fight a horse sized duck, or a duck sized horse?

Well, Adam.....kudos for the creativity in asking this question. Since I'm 5'3, I'll take the duck sized horse. A horse sized duck scares the hell out of me. Ducks are mean. A horse sized duck would be really, really mean.

And that closes out another Daily Norseman Mailbag. Thanks for reading and don't forget to submit your questions for next week with the hashtag #DNMailbag!

P.S. My apologies to Derek for missing his question. I favorited it because he had the hashtag wrong and then I forgot about it. My bad. Here are his questions:

From @KillebrewDj:

Thoughts on the greatest running back ever returning? Thoughts on Vikings cheerleaders?

My thoughts on AP coming back are not mixed. I personally do not want him playing for the team I cheer for. I am a mandated reporter for suspected child abuse as a teacher and I will tell you I would have absolutely reported those injuries as abuse. Whether or not AP understands that what he did constitutes abuse is irrelevant. Ignorance isn't an acceptable excuse in my opinion. I'll tolerate his return to the team knowing he'll be gone next year.

And I find the whole cheerleaders and FSN girls thing completely annoying as a female fan. Considering the fact that almost 50% of professional sports fans are women, I think we need to make some changes. Either get rid of them (which would be my vote) or else put some barely clothed, hot guys on the sidelines to appeal to the ladies. Let's see how the men like looking at them while trying to watch a game.

And now I'm out.........