Wednesday Open Thread: February 17, 2016

Happy Hump Day, everyone. We're another day closer to football season......but it's still a LONG way off.

Here's the NFL's off-season schedule for the next month.

Yesterday: First day teams are permitted to use the franchise or transition player tags.

February 23-29: Clubs can contact and negotiate with agents of players who will become UFAs.

March 7: Clubs can contact and negotiate with agents of players who will become UFAs.

March 9: The 2016 league year and free agency period begins at 4 p.m. ET.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Ted looked at the possibilty of the Vikings using the franchise tag.

Thanksgiving just got much better, as the Vikings will be playing the Lions that day. It will be our first Thanksgiving game since 2000.

Arif posted his scouting report on Michael Thomas.

Supavike1 put together an off-season roadmap for the Vikings.

Vikings news from other sources:

From Yahoo Sports, the Broncos have hired Klint Kubiak as an offensive assistant. You may remember that Kubiak was the Vikings' quality control/assistant wide receivers coach in 2013 and 2014.

From Vikings.com:

Signature areas are taking shape at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Dennis Green is grateful for the opportunities he was given.

Around the rest of the NFL:

Luke Keuechly will undergo shoulder surgery for a partially torn labrum, per NFL.com.

This is interesting, DeAngelo Williams says he heard the only player who likes Belichick is Brady. There's also a copy of the letter he received when he was released by the Panthers in this story from NFL.com.

NFL.com reported that UCLA LB Myles Jack has not been medically cleared to fully participate at the NFL combine.

With that, we come to today's media selection. Since we had Sad Dog Diary yesterday, in the interest of equal time for both species of our furry friends, here is our old favorite, the Sad Cat Diary. Enjoy!

Again, we all know the rules, but in case someone is new:

-No discussion of politics or religion
-No feeding of the trolls
-Keep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)
-Speaking of which, if discussing a newer show or movie, please use spoiler tags 
-No pictures that could potentially get someone fired or in serious trouble at their place of employment
-If you can't disagree in a civil manner, feel free to go away
-While navigating the open thread, just assume it's sarcasm

With that, the beer light is on and the bar is open. Belly up & tie one on. Don't forget to tip your waitress, & try the tiger meat.