Monday Open Thread: May 17, 2021

Happy Monday, everyone!

I hope your weekend was relaxing and enjoyable. It was beautiful here, a perfect spring weekend. I don’t think I stepped foot in the house the entire weekend, other than to eat or sleep. The team signed a couple rookies, and plan to sign a couple other players after the mini-camp the team held over the weekend. Other than that, not much happening around the NFL, news-wise, which is what you want to see this time of year. Any news coming out now normally involves an arrest, or a player doing something dumb. Usually both.

Around the DN since our last open thread:

Kene Nwangwu signed his rookie deal, as did Camryn Bynum.

The Vikings plan to sign a couple of players from this weekend’s mini-camp. CB Amari Henderson is to be signed, and then.........I’m not sure if Chris’ keyboard malfunctioned or if this is his real name, but Vikings to sign OT Evin Ksiezarczyk. Can we come to an agreement? Can we just agree to call him the OT named Evin? It’s either that or we can call him alphabet, because I don’t have a clue how to even begin pronouncing that name, let alone ever spell it.

Other Vikings/NFL news and random oddities and annoyances:

The Bears shortened their off-season practice schedule by a week, according to SI. In the piece, they mention Tom Florio’s comment that only 38% of veterans are participating in voluntary team activities, which include Zoom meetings. This ongoing friction is a by-product of the previous two CBSs, in my opinion. The players union got the short end of both negotiations, through a combo of poor leadership at the head of the players’ table and the owners side being absolute jacka**es. Well, the owners got all they wanted, but now players are not going to do any more than the minimum required by the CBA. They’re also not wanting to risk being injured during activitie for which their pay is minumal, and risk missing games where they make the real money. I don’t blame them. Problem is, I think the injuries are going to be more frequent during the season, as players’ bodies aren’t prepared to handle the abuse.

More Bears news, HC Matt Nagy says that Andy Dalton will be the team’s presumptive starter heading into the 2021 season.

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

-No discussion of politics or religion
-No feeding of the trolls
-Take the gender hatred elsewhere, it won’t be tolerated
-Keep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)
-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 the cows, and settle in and join the party.