Nothing Good Will Happen If The Vikings Continue To Play McNabb

Posted on October 6, 2011 by VikingsForever

0-4

Can’t say any of us saw that coming.

While there was a lot of skepticism about McNabb when he was first traded to the Vikings, the concern seemed to be more that we would just have another pointless, mediocre, 7-9 win season.  Close enough to the play-offs that McNabb would be a full time starter, but not quite good enough to make a run into the postseason.

The disaster that has been the first four games has been mind boggling. Though McNabb  is certainly not the complete cause of the problem, it’s not as if he is making the team better.

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New Kickoff Rule Is Not Helping The Vikings

Posted on September 3, 2011 by VikingsForever

Why does it seem that every time the NFL makes a new rule, the Vikings are one of the teams that are not helped by it?  I don’t really think there is some kind of crazy conspiracy against Minnesota sports. But with how the new kickoff rule is affecting us, it still seems like someone is out to get us.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article saying that the Vikings need to get a kickoff specialist. People were split about 50-50 on the idea. Most of the opposition to it was based on the fact that the new NFL rule putting kickoffs at the 35 (instead of the 30) would make it a lot easier for Longwell to get touchbacks.

With every team having finished four preseason games, there are enough stats with the new rule to see what kind of effect it is having.

The stats are uglier than Aaron Rodgers championship belt celebration.

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My 2011 Fantasy Football Receiver Rankings

Posted on August 30, 2011 by VikingsForever

A few quick notes before I get to the list:

The scoring system for this is PPR with .5 points for each reception. So players with a lot of receptions will sometimes be above players who have a lot less receptions but who get more yards and touchdowns. If you want to use this for a non-PPR league, just remember to adjust players up and down depending on whether or not they will have a high total of receptions.

Don’t worry too much about the order the players are within their tiers. The tiers are setup to have players of basically equal skill in the same group. The order I put the players is how I would draft them. There can be other factors in what order you would take players in the same tier such as bye weeks or wanting to match a receiver with your QB.

Alright here is the list:

Tier One

Roddy White
Larry Fitzgerald
Andre Johnson
Calvin Johnson
Hakeem Nicks
Greg Jennings

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Thoughts on the Viking’s Third Preseason Game

Posted on August 29, 2011 by VikingsForever

This was the first preseason game where I got to watch the whole thing all the way through. For being a meaningless preseason game it had some very exciting moments. As the starters played two and a half quarters, it was a good glimpse into what the coming season might look like, for better or for worse.

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McNabb for 2011 Comeback Player of the Year?

Posted on August 24, 2011 by VikingsForever

Yeah, that title sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Many people, including myself, thought that McNabb’s career was basically over after that whole debacle in Washington last season. I mean, McNabb was benched for Rex Grossman. Being benched for Grossman has to be one of the top ten reasons you can know your NFL career is over. You really don’t get much lower than that.

To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of McNabb. I’ve always seen him as overrated; good, but not good enough to ever take his team to a Superbowl championship.

When Minnesota first traded for McNabb, I was very surprised. I figured the Vikings would know better than to grab another old, worn out QB. My first mental picture of McNabb in a Vikings uniform sure wasn’t him winning the Superbowl for us. It was more like him getting benched for Ponder around week 6. That would not be nearly as humiliating as getting benched for Grossman, but still nothing close to making any sort of playoff run.

Despite all this, I’ve begun to warm up to the idea of having McNabb as our quarterback. Now, I’m not nearly as excited as I was about Favre, but I’ve begun to think that we may have a chance to get back into the playoffs. If McNabb get us to the playoffs while bringing his career back on track, him getting the comeback player of the year award might be in the realm of possibility.

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My 2011 Fantasy Football Runningback Rankings

Posted on August 23, 2011 by VikingsForever

My 2011 Fantasy Football Running back Rankings

There are many, many strategies for drafting running backs. Before I get into my rankings for this season I want to explain my main plan with running backs.

My goal going into a draft is to take two running backs back to back if it is at all possible. Usually you can’t pull this off if you are in the top 1-3 slots but it really depends on what positions are getting taking early. The running back depth isn’t very good this season. If you can get your two starters  in your first 3 picks, you will be doing fine.

I’ve seen some people carry 4-6 running backs on their roster. While this works when you have a big bench or can start more than 3 guys, I prefer to keep three solid guys and not load up on the position. Here are my rankings.

Tier One

Adrian Peterson
Arian Foster
Ray Rice
LeSean McCoy
Jamal Charles
Chris  Johnson

Peterson has always been in the top 5 in points for running backs in each of the last three seasons. There might be one or two guys that get more than him, but good luck figuring out who it will be. Peterson is the safest pick in the draft and a near lock for top 5 production. He provides the certainty that you want with a first overall pick.

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My 2011 Fantasy Football Quarterback Rankings

Posted on August 23, 2011 by VikingsForever

I thought about adding a clever intro, but then realized that you aren’t here for that so let’s get right into the rankings.

I’ll be ranking my top 24 quarterbacks in a tier system (more on using that here). I’ll be going with normal rules: 4pts for passing TD, 1pt per 25 passing yards, -1 per interception.

One note: I basically consider all the players in a tier to be of equal value as in they would be projected to get similar amounts of points. While the order in a tier does matter, it’s not really that important.

Tier One:

Vick
Brady
Rivers
Brees
Peyton Manning
Rodgers 

Vick has to be first, there is really no other option. He is the only player right now who can singlehandedly win a game for you. He is an injury risk, and you would want to grab a respectable backup to go along with him, but there really is no other competition for the top spot.

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My Thoughts on Saturday’s Pre-Season Game

Posted on August 22, 2011 by VikingsForever

My Thoughts On Saturday’s Preseason Game.

Just some observations from last night’s game when the Vikings beat Seattle by a score I can’t even remember because it really doesn’t count for much. Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of the preseason, but its football so it’s still fun to watch.

The Good:

  • Kick-off and Punt coverage looked really solid; I didn’t see any big, bad blown tackles. Longwell wasn’t kicking far but they made him look good with their tackling .
  • Our D-line was getting a lot of pressure on the QB, they missed a few sacks, but they were definitely making Jackson uncomfortable.

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Explaining the Tier Drafting System

Posted on August 21, 2011 by VikingsForever

In previous years, I’d always list all the players by rank. I would end up with a list of 150-200+ players. While in theory this works well, I always feel that it is much better to be flexible in a draft. Plus, it makes for a much more difficult list to set up. I’m not sure why I never used a tier system for my drafting before; but now that I have I can definitely say that for myself it worked a lot better than any of my previous strategies.

While grouping players in tiers isn’t an original idea on my part, this is my advice on how to setup and use that type of draft strategy.

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How Do You Feel About the Upcoming Season?

Posted on August 19, 2011 by VikingsForever

For all of us here it has been way too long without any real football (no, that preseason game doesn’t count). Each season brings its own expectations with it. 2008 was get to playoffs or be fired for Childress. 2009 and 2010 were both Superbowl or bust. This season looks to be about how the team is going to transition into a new set of coaches and QB’s. This makes expectations for this season a bit different than in the past few years.

Usually, we talk about wins and losses when we are discussing how good (or bad) we think the upcoming season will be for the Vikings. While that is fun, it doesn’t really say how we feel about the team.

For example, one guy could think that the Vikings will be going 8-8 and he would be happy with that because to him it would show they are improving.

On the other hand someone may think that the Vikings will also go 8-8, but wouldn’t be happy with that result as he would view anything less than a playoff spot as disappointing.

So instead of asking you guys how many wins/losses you think are team will get. I want to get a sense for how we all feel about the upcoming season. Here’s a brief description of these moods/views; some are rather self-explanatory, others, not so much.

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