IF Glen had picked me...

This is rough and some of the stuff might be wrong, but I've done a lot of research and believe that this is how my team should look come Friday morning.

Trade Miller for Camby, gain 2 million dollars in the process. Go with a rotation of Jefferson, Camby and Love at 4 and 5.
Trade Foye (3.5 Mil and qualifying next year) Gomes (3.8 Mil expiring) and Madsen (2.8 Mil expiring) and 18th to Washington. Washington Gives us The 5th pick and (maybe) Andre Blatche. With the 5th pick we select (1)Tyreke Evans or (2) James Harden.
Take the 6th pick and trade it to the Knicks for their 8th pick and Wilson Chandler. We Basically give them their choice of PGs, which is what they want and gives us a reliable SF in return. At 8 we make a choice about Stephen Curry, Jonny Flynn, Brandon Jennings and Jrue Holiday). Most likely Two will be gone. My guess is Knicks take Stephen Curry and maybe The Warriors go with Jennings. That is fine with me, I kind of want Flynn as my PG with Evans at 2. Feel free to add the 28th or either of the 2nd rounders if the other teams won’t quite bite yet. NY may need a 2nd rounder in return for Wilson.

Maybe package other 2nd rounder and 28th to move up to the early 20s for one more prospect. Austin Daye is my #1 target and will most likely be around, but Eric Maynor, Sam Young, James Johnson, a sliding Earl Clark or Gerald Henderson or possibly another Euro Stasher to go along with Pekovic for future reserves.
Do Not Pick up team option on Sheldon Williams. Do pick up Rodney Carney’s option.
A shade under 60 mil is the cap this year. As is the Wolves clock in at 50 mil, the Wiz at 75 mil and NY a shade under 70 mil. Dallas (at 22) is at 69 mil, New Orleans (21)is at 72 mil, Utah (at 20) is at 72 mil, Philly at 17 and already a stretch is 2 mil under.

Depth Chart looks like this by game 42
PG- Flynn (or other rookie)- Bassy
SG- Evans (or Harden)- Carney
SF- Wilson- Brewer
PF- Big Al- Senior Amor
C- Camby- Blatche

Bench- Brian Cardinal, Craig Smith, Bobby Brown and Austin Daye (fingers crossed).
That makes 14 and cost a bit over 46 million. We shaved 4 million and became way more competitive. The following year Camby and his 7.6 and Cardinal and his 6.7 mil come off the books, that is good trade bait.

Blatche has 2 more years at around 3 mil each, Chandler has 2 more at 2 and 3 mil. Love has got 3 going to 6 mil. Brewer has 2 going to 5 mil, but the last year is a team option. Bassy has one more at 2.7 And carney at 3.6 after the signing. Big Al and Love are currently the only people on the roster going into 2013

There is still hope

Bassy will be back

Frerotte is Frereally a Viking

Everybody knew that Gus Frerotte was going to become the Vikings' back-up quarterback, it was just a matter of finalizing the contract and choosing a number. Gus is an upgrade, but not by much. Kelly Holcomb and Brooks Bollinger had a combined sixty games played in the NFL while Frerotte has started in 82 games. He's also 36 which leads me to believe that he might have two seasons of game management and spot starting left in him.

The Vikings had better use one of their two 2nd round picks on a QB in case the Tarvaris Jackson experiment doesn't work out. Don't get me wrong - I no longer have a problem with him at QB considering he had almost no help in the receiving corps, but he still kind of reminds me of peanut brittle. I hear good things about Joe Flacco and it looks like Brian Brohm's and Chad Henne's draft stock is slipping enough for the Vikings to scoop them up some time in the second or (stretch) third round. All I know is that Bollinger need to be off my team by September. He should go become an assistant coach for his father.
As long as I'm talking about the upcoming draft I might as well say that I'm a little worried that the Vikings won't get a DE deserving of the 17th pick and I'm afraid that they might reach instead of take the 17th best player available. I know this is a different front office and they took Adrian Peterson when they already had Chester Taylor last year, but taking the violet messiah when he falls to 7 is much easier than taking Mike Jenkins or and O-lineman to replace Ryan Cook for when he replaces Matt Birk instead of reaching for Phillip Merling. All I know is the last time we reached for a player he ended up having rocks for hands and was only worth a 6th round pick from the jags.

It doesn't really matter anyway. The Wilfs will probably end up moving the team to L.A. considering the state legislature refuses to allow the metropolitan sports facilities commission to look for other possibilities for a new Vikings stadium... money that would have been spent by the owners and not by our taxes.

Welcome to Minnesota, Mr. Hicks

In an effort to replace Mewelde Moore the Vikings have signed running back Maurice Hicks to the team. Hicks played for the 49ers last year and will play last resort in the run game and kick returner. Adding him as a kick returner makes me happy... I got pretty sick of watching Bobby Wade call for fair catches.

I'm not sure we'll see much of what we see in the video below considering we're got Purple Jesus running the ball, but its nice to know that he's got moves.

Oh yeah... did I mention that Hicks set the NCAA Division I and II single-game record with 437 rushing yards on 34 carries vs. Morgan State (10-6-01)? That might come in handy if one of our other backs gets a little dinged up during the season.

In related news I'd like ESPN to focus on football players that actually play football. He's gone.

Mewelde Moore to Teach Ben Roethlisberger How to Count

Former Vikings running back Mewelde Moore has agreed to a 3 year $4.95 million deal with the Pittsburg Steelers. Moore will backup "Fast" Willie Parker and Najeh Davenport, but will most likely see more time on the field than if he had stayed with the Vikings. I'm sure that Mike Tomlin was in the ear of the Steelers' GM telling him what a steal Moore is. I've always liked Mewelde and feel kind of bad that he was unable to get a larger role with the Vikings, though I obviously prefer Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor.

The Steelers also made Ben Rothlisbeger the highest paid player in team history with an 8 year $102 million contract extension. When asked for comment on the contract Rothlisberger replied, "Der... I like turtles."

Other Former Vikings who have found a new home include Spencer Johnson who is moving to Buffalo and Dontarrious Thomas who is now a member of the 49ers.

Da Bears Are Bery, Bery Angry at Berrian

I know I'm late on this one, but Bernard Berrian is now a member of the Vikings. It feels so good to steal one of the better members of a divisional foe's squad. Berrian is a speedster who can stretch the field while actually catching the ball. He'll be able to take the pressure off of the run game, and if all goes as I have it planned in my head he could be a big help in the development of Tarvaris Jackson as a QB and of Sidney Rice as a receiver. Jackson has never had a go to guy, Rice will benefit from extra coverage being thrown Berrian's way, and Purple Jesus will not see 9 men in the box every time he enters the game.

He's no Chris Carter or Randy Moss, but he's also not Troy Williamson. This team has a great defense that is aging, and if we want to take advantage of that defense we needed to pick up a quality veteran wide out. Berrian was 50 yards from a 1,000 yard season and hauled in 5 touchdowns. That's two more touchdowns than Williamson has in his 3 year career. I don't think well have a kick ass offense next year, but we might have a kick butt offense now that the passing game has a life.

On top of all of this we effectively squashed every ounce of offense out of the Bears. Who is their best receiver now? Devin Hester? Good luck, Rex. Maybe you should hand the ball off to... no, that didn't work last year. Maybe you should practice getting sacked and throwing the ball out of bounds.

Vikes on the move.

The Vikings are getting things going on the Defensive side of the ball early. They made their first free agency signing this morning. Hopefully more to come.

An all-night negotiations session with the Minnesota Vikings produced a deal that has made Madieu Williams a formal Bengal and now one of the highest-paid safeties in the NFL.
Williams, 26, agreed to a six-year, $33 million contract Friday morning after his agent, Ken Zuckerman, and Minnesota officials worked through the night to get a deal done. As both sides spelled out the final language of the contract, Williams headed to the airport Friday morning for a flight to Minneapolis to sign the deal.

link

Bernard Berrian is also reportedly coming to Minneapolis today to meet with the Vikings. Finally a local team spending some money on some talent that will significantly improve the squad. The Wilf's have given the team a go ahead to spend money. No matter how weird that guy looks, if he's willing to spend some money, I'm going to like him. Although, I think he's a little away from getting that stadium.

UPDATE: The Vikings have also signed former Gophers fullback Thomas Tapeh... looks like Tony Richardson will be playing elsewhere next year. Welcome back Tommy.