Killing Time: Hall of Fame, Favre Fiasco, Training Camp and More

Lots of great stuff out there on the World Wide Web to look at, if you know where to look. And if you don't, well, that's what this post is for.

• Football Outsiders took a look at the Vikings' Hall of Fame candidates and Gonzo at Daily Norseman has a post discussing the various candidates. Aside from the obvious players (Randall McDaniel and Chris Carter) who have yet to be inducted, the oversight of Jim Marshall and Mick Tinglehoff is inexcusable. The fact those two aren't in is much worse than Art Monk not being elected until this year. Heck, Chris Doleman not being in is probably worse than Art Monk not being elected until this year. Or at least comparable.
  

• The Favre fiasco is gaining steam, with the Packers offering him $20 million to stay home and some semi reputable people starting to believe that he'll end up in Purple. While I would enjoy the reaction this guy would have to Favre running onto Lambeau Field in Purple on September 8th.
  

• Joe Posnanski has a great piece on Favre and his legacy. I think he's probably right about Favre not ruining how people will remember him, but what he is doing is making it hard for the media to worship him in the way that they have, which is perfectly fine with me.
  

• While the Vikings' schedule looks harder than normal (due almost entirely to having to face the AFC South, which had all of its teams finish with records of at least .500 last year), Jason Winter looked at the only other time that happened and found there was a drop off the next year, which is good. Also good? The fact that Payton Manning isn't scheduled to put on the pads until the final preseason game.

• Grant's Tomb answers the question--What if the Vikings had traded for Jason Taylor?

• If all you really care about is how the Vikings have looked at training camp, Vikings Valhalla has a ton of pictures for your enjoyment, and Skol Vikes has a wrap up of the first week of camp.
  

Killing Time: Training Camp

Lots of good stuff out there at the start of training camp (during which I will spend most of my time praying that no one gets hurt and that Ray Edwards heals quickly). One of the reasons that I've been having trouble coming up with posts (aside from a lack of creativity, a busy season at work and other reasons) is the fact that Vikings' don't really have a whole lot of questions on their depth chart that need to be answered in training camp. The Star Tribune listed the five biggest questions, and most of them won't be answered until the regular season (except, of course, for the McKinnie Question, which has been hanging over the Purple for so long without any action that I tend to forget about it).

The big question remains whether Tarvaris can become a league average quarterback, something that can't be answered until the season starts. There have been some good articles recently that suggest to me that we may be a little more worried than we needed to be. Football Outsiders' change over from DPAR to DYAR has boosted Tarvaris' ranking slightly. He's still replacement level, but he's young, and he's finally got a solid receiving corp around him (though, according to Football Outsiders, Berrian isn't that great of an acquisition, as he finished well behind Bobby Wade AND Sidney Rice in DYAR, DVOA and catch percentage last year). Can he make the leap to league average? I think so, but we won't know until the preseason games at the earliest.

Even if Tarvaris doesn't improve all that much, a reader of Cold, Hard Football Facts recently submitted an article that makes me more optimistic for the upcoming season. In it, he shows that, while success in the passing game (as defined by an advantage in Yards Per Attempt) is important, it is not as important as a successful running game (as defined by an advantage in rushing attempts and rushing yards).

Finally, FanHouse was able to come up with another training camp question: Aundrae Allison v. Robert Ferguson. The answer to me seems simple--keep Allison. He's younger, he's faster, he has a ton of potential and he's the most dangerous kick returner on the team. I wouldn't be surprised to see Childress fall into the "veteran trap" and give Ferguson the nod, especially now that he can turn to Maurice Hicks, another (inferior) veteran, to return kicks, but I hope that his goatee prevents him from making that mistake. One can only hope.