Minnesota Vikings News and Links: April 17, 2019

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

We’re inching closer to the downhill side of this week, and then it’s only one more work week until the NFL Draft is finally upon us. I don’t expect a whole lot of noise or surprise moves by the Vikings during the draft; no ‘move-up’ in the first round or anything, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they pulled the trigger on a trade either in the days leading up to the draft, or during the draft. They have an extremely talented roster, but it is also a roster that is starting to get a little older, and in order to continue to keep that roster talented, you have to rotate the stock. I think Zimmer and Co. are trying to build a consistent winner, they’re not trying to shoot the moon to win it all with no forethought of the future in mind (despite a couple of Rick’s decisions in the last pre-season, I’m still a little peaved about those). Who would I expect them to trade? I honestly don’t know, but there are vets like Everson Griffen who would bring a lot in a trade, and although impossible or extremely difficult to replace talent-wise, are basically at their peak as far as value in a trade. I would hate to see Griffen leave, and I’m not suggesting that they trade him, I just threw his name out there as one of several highly talented vets who are near or at the 30 mark. These guys are valuable to the team, but they are also valuable in a trade, and the GM of a team with a huge need at that position would pay a premium in order to secure the guaranteed talent of one of these vets. We’ll know in a little over a week if it will happen.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Everson Griffen seems to be doing well, and says he is ‘comfortable,happy’ now, after some personal issues last season, per Chris.

Similar to us die-hard fans, many of the Vikings players are ‘Vikings for life’, per Wludford.

Chris has the latest on the Vikings 2019 schedule and opponents, and also a rumor tracker where you can keep up with the latest noise being heard through the grapevine.

Vikings & NFL news from elsewhere, other sports news, & random oddities:

From Vikings.com, Adam Thielen spoke with the press after his contract extension, you can also hear from Dalvin Cook as well as Harrison Smith.

From the Sporting News, the Packers could be considering a quarterback in the early rounds of the upcoming draft. Wow, we haven’t heard rumors like this since........the early 90s? There were no rumors of them looking QB when Rogers miraculously fell to them in 2005, and they haven’t really looked since, although they did select Brett Hundley in the 5th round in 2015.

Odd story from CBS. In Florida, a guy got caught stealing $300 worth of stuff from KMart, which isn’t odd, until you learn that this same guy recently bought an $8 million island.

Riveting news from Montana, traffic stopped and the road was blocked last night by.......a beaver......dragging a tree across the road, from UPI.

We come to today’s media selection:

That last story gave me an idea for our media selection. Here’s some Primus, enjoy!

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 and tie one on. Don’t forget to tip your waitress, and try the chitlins.