Big Blizzard

MMQB on Tarvaris Jackson
Peter King talks about Tarvaris Jackson. Here's a quote from Jackson that shows he's an understanding fellow:

""I know what people are saying [...] 'The Vikings have a great defense, the best running back in the league, a great offensive line ... what about the quarterback?' The quarterback position -- every day of your life you're under the microscope anyway. I understand that. I'm very confident in my growth as a player in this system. But I know what's going on. People don't have any reason NOT to ask that question about me.''

Jackson just summarized most of my feelings about him: I "don't have any reason NOT to" question whether he's a legitimate quarterback. As I've written recently, I like Jackson, but the best I can do is hope that he's going to be good. I think it is at best a 50/50 proposition that he plays competent football in 2008, and so I think the Vikes should have done more to get a competent backup in case Jackson sucks. But as King points out, Jackson did really improve his completion percentage near the end of the season. But I'm a little leery: King likes Jackson's "moxie," which is frankly frightening.

Other Links
Dr. Z talks with Ron Wolf about Hall of Fame candidates, including John Randle, Cris Carter, and Randall McDaniel.

Access Vikings talks to Leslie Frazier about minicamp.

Kevin Seifert says goodbye at Access Vikings. It's all on Judd Zulgad to keep up a very good team-focused newspaper blog.

Pro-football-reference.com grades 10 years worth of drafts.

Antoine Winfield (Star Tribune).

Madieu Williams (Vikings.com)

The 2005 draft may have been the worst in Viking history: the team just waived Erasmus James (Pioneer Press).

Viking Update looks at the roster turnover of the past few seasons.

Can you even suspend your disbelief for this story? According to KSTP, Ray Edwards is going after the single season sack record (via Vikings War Cry). One of the things I love about the NFL offseason is the wild projections of what's going to happen next season. The future is limitless potential: running backs rushing for 2,000 yards, defensive ends getting 23 sacks, armies being greeted as liberators. As Willy Loman says, "the greatest things can happen!"

Vike Vision grades the defense.

At ProFootballTalk, Inspector Javert notes that despite recent labor/owner issues, the NFL isn't losing money (Florio gives all sorts of silly nicknames, so on this blog he'll get a suitable nickname).