Notes from Vikings first preseason game

 The Vikings first preseason game, as many preseason games go, was boring. Mostly because it was unimportant, mostly because it took place on a Friday night in which we didn’t see Jared Allen, Kevin Williams, Adrian Peterson, Antoine Winfield, and others. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t things to take away from the game.

 Firstly, the QB situation. I’m not going to go into the Webb/Ponder debate (it speaks for itself, or just isn’t something that fans will ever agree on), but I would like to go into the more interesting debate of McLeod Bethel-Thompson. I had heard only bits and pieces about this guy, but after watching him throw the rock like a cannon (or a lot like a recent #4 the Vikings had at QB) I’m an instant fan. Unfortunately the debate seems to be between Practice Squad and cut. When it should be, when should we cut out loses with the Sage Rosenfels contract. Sure Sage brings in that veteran leadership that Ponder (okay and Webb) need to learn from, but still, how can the Vikings let that rocket arm go. It seems quiet apparent after that performance that someone is going to pick him up if we try to put him on our practice squad like what happened to John David Booty.

 The only other major topic to note is the re-move of Everson Griffen. His time as a LB was not very effective, so the team has decided they will move him back to DE and use him occasionally in the LB spot like they did on third down’s last year. My only hope is that they blitz with him when they do that. If you can recall last year, every time the Vikings did put him in at LB in their 3-3-5 formation, he dropped back into coverage, or seemingly every time. He’ll have to work extremely hard to compete with Robison (he won’t be competing with Allen).