Minnesota Vikings Fail to Sign Sidney Rice, Rice Signs with Seattle

Sidney Rice agreed to a five year 41 million dollar deal with 18 million dollars in guarantee with the Seattle Seahawks. We don't know how much the Vikings offered him, but we know that it had a lot less guaranteed money for Rice.

I don't blame the Vikings here. The Seattle Seahawks threw a ton of money at Rice, but he has never played a full season aside from the magical 2009-2010 with Brett Favre. I would have loved to keep Rice, but paying him that much money would have meant not being able to sign Adrian Peterson to an extension. We had no choice but to not sign him.

This signing makes sense in other ways for Rice as well. He is reunited with Darell Bevell, who is the offensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks and was the offensive coordinator for the Vikings during Rice's tenure with the team. Rice is also reunited with Tarvaris Jackson, who started for Vikings for two seasons.

Look for the Vikings to sign a wide receiver either today or tomorrow. There are rumors that they are in hot pursuit of Packers receiver James Jones and they could target Braylon Edwards. It will be interesting to see who they sign because they are in desperate need of signing someone.

Donovan McNabb, Practically the New Quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings

I don't want to jinx it, but it looks like Donovan McNabb is on the verge of becoming the next quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. The Minnesota Vikings and Washington Redskins have come to a preliminary agreement that will send Donovan McNabb to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for two 6th round picks.

All I have to say is wow. Talk about a huge swing for the fences move by the Vikings. Don't get me wrong, I love the move, but I thought I was about to watch a 5-11 season, but am now possibly going to watch a playoff team. This changes everything for the Vikings in terms of hope for next season. Watching Ponder as a rookie would have been fun, but I would much rather have McNabb.

I like this move a lot for Ponder. Ponder would have been able to run a conservatively styled offense this next season, but why not let him learn from McNabb? McNabb has much more experience and Ponder won't be under as much pressure to succeed early.

The next course of action for the Vikings? They must sign Sidney Rice. I know they are competing with the Seattle Seahawks for his services, but they absolutely have to sign him. Without him, I don't like the Donovan McNabb trade nearly as much. If we want to win with McNabb, he's got to have all the weapons at his disposal.

NFL Lockout is Over, Vikings Set to Begin Training Camp

The NFL Lockout is finally over everyone and there is plenty of things to talk about when it comes to the Minnesota Vikings. There is going to be plenty of activity before the Vikings check in for training camp on Sunday. It should be a whirlwind of five days.

As many as 15 Vikings were seen checking into the Vikings facility, Winter Park this morning. Players who checked in include Percy Harvin, Cedric Griffen, and Rhett Bomar.

This free agency period is going to be absolutely nuts for the Vikings. They have 16 unrestricted free agents. Sidney Rice figures to be a hot commodity in free agency and the Vikings will have a lot of competition to sign him. I'm worried about their chances because the Vikings have so many needs and I'm not sure they will be to throw the top dollars at Sidney Rice that other teams will be able to.

Can this Lockout End Already

Alright so the lockout almost ended on Thursday. This is really starting to get on my nerves. The players and owners have decided on all of the key issues already, they are just trying to win the little things that don't really matter. My question is this, why can't they just start training camps? They are clearly going to finish this deal, it's only a matter of time. Let's get this show on the road so we can get Christian Ponder ready for the season opener. We definitely have no better options, unless we sign someone during the free agency period or make a trade. I would be fine going into this season with Ponder, only if he has enough time in training camp to be ready for NFL games.

Lockout Not Over Yet

Yesterday around 3 30 eastern time, the owners agreed to a proposal that would end the NFL Lockout 31-0, the Raiders didn't count. The players were supposed to vote on it last night around 11 pm eastern time, but decided not to. The players have until Wednesday to vote on this deal and get it passed. The fact that they haven't already signed off on the deal means that the players likely won't sign this deal.

One thing about this that I find interesting is that it was a real interesting move by the owners. They pretty much chose a deal that had a lot of the right pieces of deal that the players wanted, but put a couple of different things in the deal that the players didn't like. They then quickly passed the proposal that they liked just to put pressure on the players.

I've got a feeling that this proposal won't go through without modifications. I'm guessing the lockout will end sometime next week. It doesn't seem like the players like this deal at all.

Mark Dayton Discusses New Vikings Stadium Briefly

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton labeled the bill for a new Vikings Stadium in Arden Hills was "incomplete and unsatisfactory". Members of the Vikings organization are getting extremely upset that the State has done little to act on this bill since it was created. The state has been busy with budgeting and trying to figure out it's financial crisis before it worries about a new stadium for the Vikings. Dayton also said that he is worried that it will be hard for the state to fund a new stadium because it is having trouble paying off bonds.

A lot of that was bad news, but here's some good news: Dayton did say he would call for a special session with legislation if there is a Vikings proposal that he feels can help the state and is worth agreeing to.

Adrian Peterson Backs Off on Owners

Early in the lockout, Adrian Peterson compared the NFL's use of players to "modern day slavery". Since then, he has backed off on those comments. When asked if there would be hard feelings towards the owners once the lock out ends Peterson had this to say:

“Not at all, it’s business as usual," he said. "You never get what you want, but you can get close to it. So I’m sure that’s what it’s going to end up being.”

Peterson also predicted that the lockout would end within the next couple of weeks, which is great news for the fans. He says that the owners really want some football.

Joe Webb has Been Working Out with Favre

Joe Webb has been working out with Brett Favre according to an interview on the University of Alabama- Birmingham website. Webb had this to say about working out with Favre:

"It's great to have a person like that as my contact," Webb said.

This is awesome. I like that Webb is working out with Favre because he really does understand the game. There is something about this that I worry about though. Favre has that natural feel for the position that I just don't think can be taught, either you have it or you don't. I'm pretty sure Webb doesn't have it but we'll just have to see. Either way, I think this is still good that Webb is doing this and he has a lot to learn from Favre.

Roof of Metrodome Finally Raised Again

They finally got the roof of the Metrodome back up on the Metrodome today. It's pretty funny looking back to think that they thought that they would be able to get it up in one week when ended up taking well over six months to fix. The roof cost 18 million dollars.

They had four guys hooked up to cables floating around the roof to make sure that the inflation was going smoothly. The inflation went very smoothly, in fact, it went much smoother than expected. The whole roof was inflated within 45 minutes when it was expected to take much longer than that. Stadium officials said that it was a very good day and that everything went perfectly as planned.

The Metrodome is now ready for the Vikings season opener and the officials of the dome said they are ready for the Vikings if they are will to play there.

St. Paul Won't Go Along with 50 Cent Tax for New Stadium

Every single member of the St. Paul city council told the Minnesota Vikings that they are against a county wide tax to fund a new Vikings stadium.

The current plan for the Vikings stadium would have 350 million coming from the tax they opposed, 400 million from the owners, and 300 billion from an unknown source of revenue.

Pat Harris, a member of the St. Paul City Council, had this to say about the tax:

"There's no return back to our community. ... It doesn't make sense for St. Paul."

It's going to be so hard for the Vikings to get a stadium right now. Think about it, the state is having trouble funding schools, police stations, and other government operated businesses, so how can we expect them to get really excited about a new stadium right now? Poor timing Vikings, poor timing.

My advice: Dig a little deeper into those pockets Zygi, you're not going to get a whole lot of money from the state.

Update on NFL Lockout: Taking a Break

The NFL and the NFLPA have decided to take a break from labor negotiations this Friday. They met for a couple of hours Friday morning after a 15 hour negotiating session the night before. DeMaurice Smith, head of the players association didn't give us a very good update on the whole siutation:

"We'll continue to meet next week, and the goal is to get a deal done," Smith said on his way out.

Oh really DeMaurice, I couldn't have seen that one coming. Of course you'll meet next week to negotiate, you do that every week.

According to sources, the revenue split is still a major issue for both sides. In order for a deal to get done and for there to be games next season, they will have to decide on a revenue split.

Ponder Wishes He Had a Little Money

Here's a quote from Christian Ponder from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

"Guys are hurting for money right now," Ponder, the 12th pick in the first round, told the Associated Press. "It's a crazy time, especially with the uncertainty of when we're going to start and get some money in our pocket."

Alright Christian, this sounds a little bit ridiculous. Thankfully the Startribune article pointed out that Ponder likely wouldn't have any money right now anyways since most top picks sign right before training camp anyways. Ponder, I'm so so sorry you have to live life like a normal person for the next three- four months, but you are about to make millions of dollars very soon! Stop worrying about money and worry about football. They go hand in hand. Play great football, make a lot of money.

Adrian Peterson Rated 3rd Best Player in the NFL

The NFL Network held a top 100 rankings in order to make up for the lock out. They did tons of player profiles on the NFLs top players and had people rank them. They have no transactions to talk about, and no training camps to talk about.

The NFL went through with the rankings and the Vikings Adrian Peterson was rated the third best player in the entire league. He was rated just behind Peyton Manning, who was rated number one, and Tom Brady, who was rated number 2.

The thing I liked most about this is that Peterson was rated ahead of Tennessee Titan running back Chris Johnson. Some argue that Johnson is a better running back than Peterson but clearly this thinks differently. Not only was he rated lower than Peterson, but he was listed as the 13th best player in the league, meaning Peterson is significantly better than him.

Vikings Quiet Talks of New Stadium...For Now

With the State government shutdown because they can't agree over a state budget, the Minnesota Vikings have quieted their pursuits for a new stadium. They understand that a state budget is much more paramount to the health of the state's economy is much more important than a new Vikings stadium.

This does not mean the Vikings are done trying to get a new stadium. Here are a few issues remaining that the Vikings need to erase in order to get their stadium.

Price. I feel like this is the biggest issue. The state wants them to build an 800 million dollar stadium, the estimated cost of a new stadium is 1 billion dollars. Vikings owner Zygi Wilf has agreed to contribute 407 million to the stadium.

Location. Arden Hills has been hotly discussed, but there is a lot of opposition as well. Recently the Vikings have discussed building a stadium on the site of the Farmers Market.