Wednesday Open Thread: January 24, 2018

We’ve reached the peak of the week, it’s all downhill from here.

I’ll be scarce again today, my give-a-damn is still broken. If anyone gets ignorant, please shoot me an email & I’ll be happy to dispatch them. If you’re here from another team, be cool & you’ll have no issue. If you come here to be a jack a**, you won’t be here long, now is not a good time to test boundaries.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Chris Doleman is having surgery today to get a brain tumor removed, per Chris. My thoughts & prayers are with him. There are some players who are so good at what they do that they stand out from the rest, Doleman is one of those players.

Chris says that the door to the Super Bowl is still wide open for the Vikings, and I agree whole-heartedly.

Ted gives us a glimpse at Zim-Tzu as he tries to pick up the pieces.

The Mike Zimmer Foundation is receiving a ‘flood of donations’ from Philly. I like this trend in sports.

Ted talks about the NFC Championship hangover. It’s a hangover alright, one for the record books.

Pat Elflein is to have surgery on his left ankle, per Chris. I hope he heals quickly and comes back strong, Elflein was one of the main cogs in our O line’s miraculous one-year turn-around from 2016 to 2017.

News and links from elsewhere:

From the Pioneer Press, Coach Zimmer is already on the hunt for a new offensive coordinator and net year’s starting quarterback.

The Strib says the Vikings are in win-now mode and shouldn’t be afraid to ‘go big’ at QB. I don’t really agree. While I think the Vikes are a competitor now, they didn’t build a team to just make a splash & hopefully win a title, it seems their goal is to build a solid team that can be a consistent competitor. I doubt they have any intention on making some blockbuster trade or signing. The team doesn’t need an elite QB, they need a smart QB who can guide the ship while the defense supplies the power to move the ship.

Daniel Jeremiah at NFLN has his top 50 prospects in the 2018 NFL draft.

From ESPN, the Browns GM has a metric for evaluating QBs: “Do they win?”. Oh boy, another fan of the QB winzzzzz stat. Does this mean they’ll be calling Manziel to come back? He won a lot in college.

We come to today’s media selection.

Here’s one for you, I love me some Red Soveign.

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

-No discussion of politics or religion
-No feeding of the trolls
-This isn’t a male version of The View, so leave the gender hatred at the door
-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 get someone fired or in serious trouble with their employer
-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 Drano. In the immortal words of Frank Drebbin, “Sure, it’ll clean you out, but it’ll leave you feeling hollow inside”