Kick Ass Offense

The Minnesota Vikings will play a nationally televised preseason game against the Jets in New York in August, highlighting the team’s 2007 exhibition schedule.

The game will be on FOX on Friday, Aug. 17, at 7 p.m. The Vikings will also play at Seattle on either Aug. 24 or 25. Their preseason home games will be against St. Louis (Aug. 10 or 11) and Dallas (Aug. 30). Specific dates and times will be announced later.

The NFL is expected to release the regular-season schedule later this week.

The Broncos are seeking the opportunity to work against another team this year in training camp. The ideal situation is to work against a team in the days before Denver’s first preseason game. The Broncos worked out at Houston for a couple of days in 2005 before playing the Texans there.

The Broncos may open the preseason at Minnesota or San Francisco. Vikings coach Brad Childress and 49ers coach Mike Nolan said they would be open to working with the Broncos. The NFL likely will release the preseason schedule in early April.

There are potential logistical problems at both San Francisco and Minnesota.

“If we had all the locker room and field space, I’d love to do it,” Nolan said. “It’s not impossible, but it could be difficult. It’d be a great to get the extra work, and it would be fun for fans to see two teams out there working.”

Ultimate Standings: Fan Satisfaction Rankings

Thank god for Matt Millen, Al Davis and Isiah Thomas otherwise the Vikings would be dead last among all sports franchises in ESPN’s fan satisfaction poll. Out of 32 NFL Teams the Vikings ranked 30th. Out of all 122 sports franchises the Vikings ranked 119th.

Former Minnesota Vikings receiver Koren Robinson will have to serve 90 days in jail for fleeing police last August, a prosecutor said.

Robinson was sentenced in Nicollet County Court on Tuesday for leading officers on a high-speed chase from St. Peter to Mankato during Vikings training camp.

Assistant County Attorney Paul Tanis said Robinson will be on probation for three years. He’ll also have to do 80 hours of community service and pay a $1,500 fine.

Robinson is now with the Green Bay Packers.

Tanis said Robinson is to report to the county jail by March 1, although he can arrange to serve the 90-day sentence in Wisconsin if he choses to do so.

Robinson can also serve the sentence at the same time he serves 90 days for violating his probation in a separate drunken-driving case in Kirkland, Wash., last year.

Robinson showed remorse in court Tuesday - saying he’s been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and trying to avoid alcohol.

Forbes magazine recently ranked NFL teams in order of value with the Minnesota Vikings coming out at the bottom, due primarily to their home in the much-maligned HHH Metrodome. “That’s simply because of their stadium,” Senior editor Michael Ozanian said. “They have one of the five worst stadium situations in pro football.” Forbes puts a $658 million sticker price on the purple, while the beleaguered Washington Redskins topped the charts at $1.26 billion. The Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots were the other two teams breaching the billion-dollar mark. The Vikes were ranked 30th last year, but Arizona and Atlanta increased sponsorships and ticket sales, leaving the purple in the cellar.

If numbers made the difference in the performance of a team, the cost of coaching staffs would reach staggering amounts. More does not necessarily translate to better. Quantity does not beget quality.

Indianapolis and Chicago, for example, got to the Super Bowl with 16- and 15-man staffs (sans the head coach), respectively. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the 19-man staffs of Houston, Denver, Atlanta and St. Louis watched the playoffs, along with Minnesota’s 22-man colony.

Imagine that. Twenty-three men on the coaching staff, including the head coach, and the Vikings still won just six games in 2006. Talk about not getting your money’s worth.

Of the 12 teams that made the playoffs this season, the New York Giants had the largest staff of assistants with 18, followed by the 17-man staffs in Baltimore and Seattle. The New Orleans Saints’ staff of 20 included four coaching assistants (youngsters learning the ropes).

Source: Scout.com

Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf is among a small group of NFL owners complaining about revenue sharing inequities in the league. Wilf claims that due to rising labor costs the Vikings are running at a negative cash flow. The small market owners want a greater share of the revenue from the high revenue teams. As a tax-payer in Minnesota it is nice to see that Zygi is seeking handouts from the likes of Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft in addition to those of us in the 7 county metro area. Read the full story on MSNBC.

Offensive Players

Quarterbacks franchise tag=$12.615 million
Quarterbacks transition tag=$10.182 million
Off. linemen franchise tag=$9.556 million
Off. linemen transition tag=$8.267 million
Wide receivers franchise tag=$7.613 million
Wide receiverstransition tag=$7.040 million
Running backs franchise tag=$6.999 million

Running backs transition tag=$5.981 million
Tight ends franchise tag=$4.371 million
Tight ends transition tag=$3.612 million

Defensive Players

Defensive ends franchise tag=$8.644 million
Defensive ends transition tag=$7.701 million
Cornerbacks franchise tag=$7.790 million
Cornerbacks transition tag=$6.766 million
Linebackers franchise tag=$7.206 million
Linebackers transition tag=$6.493 million
Defensive tackles franchise tag=$6.775 million
Defensive tackles transition tag=$5.554 million
Safeties franchise tag=$4.490 million
Safeties transition tag=$3.984 million

Special Teams

Punters franchise tag=$2.078 million
Punters transition tag=$1.926 million
Kickers franchise tag=$2.078 million
Kickers transition tag=$1.926 million

The Vikings will introduce Leslie Frazier as their new defensive coordinator at a 2:30 p.m. news conference this afternoon at Winter Park. Frazier replaces Mike Tomlin, who was hired by the Steelers as the head coach.

The latest Minnesota Vikings stadium financing plan appears dead before it even arrives at the state Capitol, judging by Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s dismissive take Monday on the possibility for a metrowide sales tax.

Pawlenty said a seven-county sales tax increase for stadium construction “isn’t going to fly.”

“The Vikings have themselves in a real pickle,” Pawlenty said.

Word that the Vikings were exploring a broad tax surfaced over the weekend. At least one top legislators said the Vikings have scheduled a meeting with him for this week.

Vikings vice president Lester Bagley said the sales tax idea isn’t the only one the team was considering. Bagley said he understands Pawlenty’s cool reaction to the metro tax.

“At some point he is going to have to help us find a solution to this longstanding issue,” Bagley said. “He has long told our ownership that he wants to work with us to solve the Vikings stadium problem to keep us healthy and in this state.”

The franchise had been pursuing legislative support for an Anoka County stadium. But the team’s relationship with Anoka leaders broke down late last year. Owner Zygi Wilf is now looking at building on the site of the Metrodome.

The stadium could cost as much as $900 million to build, but the team hasn’t settled on a financing plan.

Last year, the Legislature authorized new stadiums for the University of Minnesota football team and the Minnesota Twins baseball team. The Twins plan is being paid for mostly through a higher Hennepin County sales tax.