I can’t even hammer Brett aka Hamlet for the game. I think he’s gonna be fucked this year because losing Sidney Rice for at least 8 weeks is gonna really throw the team off. Why the Vikes made no move or didn’t get TJ Whoseyadaddy I have no clue. Who are the wide outs? Benard Berrion gave the bears what little he had the second half of the super bowl season. Berrion never could run anything but a fly pattern and now he can’t outrun everyone. His hands suck… so add in losing a great receiving third down back and replacing him with a rookie who can’t pick up the blocking scheme… add to it losing your main downfield threat. Not lookin to hot for the Viqueens…
Why the hell not? He was captain checkdown, missed on his passes, threw a stupid interception, wasn’t on the same page as his receivers, and was rusty. How isn’t that Brett’s fault?
Sure his WR’s aren’t the best in the conference, let alone the NFL, but Brett certainly deserves to get the hammer too. Maybe I’m just bitter from all the years listening to Favre apologists.
I can’t understand why neither the Vikings nor the Redskins went and made a Godfather offer to San Diego for Vincent Jackson while his absence was still only going to be three games. OK, sure, whatever, Jackson is a whiny jerk, but he’s better than anything the Vikings have left on their roster and he’d be the best guy on the Redskins, too. He’d match up really well with Donovan McNabb. How is he still a Charger?
That said, Favre was not good yesterday. I’m sure he’ll get better, but if Childress is genuinely making strategic decisions in order to cater to his quarterback’s need to throw the ball around, then he’s the worst coach in the entire sport, and the Vikings are in deep trouble. AP is either the best or the second-best running back in football; he needs to get more than 19 carries in a close game against a major conference rival.
He’s asking for $50 million dollars, with $30 million guaranteed. No team is interested in paying him that much. And, if you believe his agents (I don’t), the Chargers wanted more than the teams that want him are willing to give even if he cuts his price for a one year deal.
The Vikings’ receiving corps is not an excuse, with or without Rice. Berrian, Harvin and Camarillo combined for 2,000 yards last season (Camarillo’s came elsewhere, admittedly). Throw in Shiancoe, and you’ve got a decent receiving corps.
Throw in the fact that defenses are focusing on the best running back in the league, rather than the pass, and there’s no reason they can’t produce.
Jackson is nuts. He’s had two 1,000 yard seasons, and hasn’t broken 1,200 yards or 10 scores in any season. I own him in the Dynasty fantasy league, so I hope he wises up quick, but he’s not getting $30 mil guaranteed anywhere.
Vikings fan here. The replay on the OPI clearly showed Shiancoe running directly into the defender and then breaking after the contact. That call was correct.
I think Kleinsasser caught the ball and (by my recollection) was surprised that the initial call of a catch was overruled by someone behind the play. What sucked was that it stalled out that drive.
I’ll 2nd the Bengirls’ fan’s notion that Favre and his receivers could’ve used him in training camp this year.
Next week we get Miami - here’s hoping the Dolphins’ playbook is still in Camarillo’s head.
The Kleinsasser catch was a missed call. Otherwise, the officiating was fine.
Hey!
Here’s the thing, though: it’s easy to point and laugh at the $30M guaranteed thing, but that’s what he was asking for at the beginning - a negotiating position from which he would (presumably) have moved. Near as I can tell, what happened here was:
- Jackson said, “hey, I’d like five years, $50M, including $30M guaranteed.”
- The Chargers replied, “fuck you, here’s 1 year, $3.5M, take it or leave it.”
- Jackson said, “wow, that’s not much. I want a longer-term deal.”
- The Chargers replied, “fuck you, here’s 1 year, $600K, take it or leave it.”
The Chargers (as far as I can tell) made no effort to work with Jackson or negotiate with him. He may not be “worth” $30M guaranteed, but he’s sure as hell “worth” more than 1 year at $600K and honestly, he’s probably “worth” more than $3.5M in guaranteed money.
I’m not usually on the player’s side in situations like this, but my reading of this situation is that San Diego decided to hardline Jackson and give him less than he could have gotten elsewhere thanks to the weird confluence of events that made him a restricted free agent. That’s within their rights, but I don’t see how it makes Jackson a bad guy or a character problem because he wants a bit of financial security that other teams would probably offer. Sure, he started from a crazy place; lots of players do that. Darelle Revis started from a crazy place and negotiated with the Jets until they found a mutually acceptable option; the Chargers just told Jackson “fuck you.”
And I don’t get it, from any angle. What are the Chargers getting out of this situation? Pure spite? Why not trade him? It just seems so weird.
Right, but if you start out with a ridiculous demand, it’s not uncommon for the other side to basically refuse to negotiate.
I think, for their part, the Chargers may be pulling a Belichick, and deciding that one 6’5" wideout is as good as another, as long as he’s in the Chargers’ offensive system. Well, okay, but none of their other guys have Jackson’s combination of size and speed, as all the people drafting Malcolm Floyd in fantasy leagues will soon discover.
Where did you get the information that led you to that conclusion. I fully admit to not following the negotiations pretty much at all, but I hadn’t heard it going down like you describe it at all.
And, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Jackson suspended for multiple DUI’s? That kinda fits my idea of “bad guy”.
The Chargers offered him the maximum RFA tender, and then reduced it when he didn’t sign it before the deadline. That doesn’t mean they weren’t also negotiating a long-term contract with him.
No, but it doesn’t mean they were. Reducing the tender, to me, was a pretty clear “FU” to both Jackson and Marcus McNeil.
Look, I’m not Jackson’s lawyer here. It just seems to me that if the Chargers were interested in salvaging their relationship with Jackson and negotiating a long-term deal, they wouldn’t have slapped him in the face by reducing their offer to a relative pittance (same for McNeil, actually).
Which tells me that the Chargers aren’t interested in salvaging the relationship. Which in turn leads to the question - why not trade him? You don’t want him, others do; why not trade him?
Hamlet
Eh, I don’t have a good source. The foregoing is my subjective impression based on the reading I’ve done about the situation, and I am happy to be corrected by someone who knows more.
Well, yeah. But that’s a separate issue. He may be a jerk, but he’s not a jerk because he wanted a long-term deal. Wanting a long-term deal is not a jerk move; in fact, I sympathize much more with Jackson than with Revis, who signed a long-term deal and then held out because he wanted a better one.
IIRC, RFA tenders automatically get reduced to a pittance if the player doesn’t sign by July 30.
According to the Vikings flagship station, KFAN, inside sources are whispering that the Vikings are working on a “blockbuster deal” as we speak. The inside inside skinny is that it’s for Vincent Jackson. I wouldn’t call that “blockbuster,” but it’s probably accurate. The only deal I would really consider “blockbuster” would be Moss, but I think Jackson is a lot more likely.
From what I can tell (an a lot of this is inference), there is an element here that seems to be really personal. The story I heard on the ESPN podcast (I think it was the ESPN podcast) was that the Chargers were refusing all trade offers but also refused to negotiate with him in any way, and that’s just spiteful. I get that they don’t seem to feel they need him to have a winning season, and I am not sure that they are wrong considering who there opponents will be, but deciding to hold onto him and also not work toward signing him is just messed up.
The Chargers certainly play hardball. They suspended Antonio Gates when they had contract issues.
But they also generally pay their players who don’t raise a fuss. Nick Hardwick, Luis Castillo, LT, Gates, and others do get their paydays. But pissing off AJ Smith is not the way to get it done. Had Jackson signed his tender before the deadline, I’m pretty sure they could have worked out a longer term deal. But I can’t get pissed at the Chargers for wanting to get the best value they can for the guy.
There seemed to be a missed PI on the Favre interception as well.
They might not need him for a winning season, but they’re sure as hell going to need him to go anywhere in the playoffs. Gates could carry the passing game when they had a top-five rushing attack. No receiver can singlehandedly carry an entire offense.
The problem is that the longer he sits out, the less valuable he gets. Eventually he’ll be Javon Walker.
Vilma did touch Shiancoe prior to the ball being thrown by Favre, but I’ve watched it three times now and I’m not seeing any PI. I suppose you could really stretch it and say it was illegal contact or holding, but it seemed to be within 5 yards and it wasn’t a hold. If that kinda action gets a call in the NFL, they might as well just play 7 on 7 drills.