Club Members,
 
Team News:
I held off on writing this until we got through the draft and had a season schedule. Well – the information is in and here you go.
 
Please find a Pacific time schedule enclosed with this letter.
 
The Vikings draft: The Vikings traded out of the first round by dropping four spots. From what I read the Vikes had four players on the board that they coveted at the time. They dropped the four spots being guaranteed of getting a player they wanted and an additional draft pick. Again the Vikes showed smooth control of the draft – same as in recent years and this move was one of the better. The Vikings chose Chris Cook a cornerback from Virginia. The Vikes did go for depth at DB with the injuries to Antoine Winfield and Cedric Griffin with this pick. Because I expect both Antoine and Cedric to play; at least most of the season, this is a solid player that hopefully can develop before he’s needed on the field. Which brings up an interesting point – it appears adding depth was the primary focus of this year’s draft. A good trivia question would be: when was the last time the Vikings didn’t need to fill a position but, rather filled in depth at positions? I don’t know the answer – but I like being a big dog, it feels like Viking’s football.
 
With the Vikings second pick they took running back Toby Gerhart. Toby can be the second guy to help fill the hole left by Chester Taylors departure. Again – I think this was another good pick. Adrian is going to be the main focus when it comes to running the ball, but, Toby is a downhill runner and I expect him to see a fair amount of playing time this season.
 
I’m not that well versed to discuss the remaining picks – the Vikings took Everson Griffen, defensive end from Southern Cal, Chris Degeare, offensive tackle from Wake Forest, Nathan Triplett, linebacker from Minnesota, Joe Webb a quarterback from UAB, Mickey Schuler a tight end from Penn State and Ryan D’Imperio another linebacker from Rutgers. I hope the best for everyone and I think the coaching jobs are going to get harder this year. The competition to make the roster is going to be stiff this year.
 
Club News:
The club will be going back for the last week of training camp this year. I’m guessing (and I mean guessing) that we’ll be back at camp for Monday and Tuesday August 9th and 10th. Use this date for long range planning purposes only. I will firm this up after the Vikings have had time to plan their camp schedule. Once again Roger Goodell didn’t check with me first when the league planned the Vikings schedule. (The Vikings first pre-season game is on the road.) This means we won’t be going to a game the same week camp ends – as we like. We will be having our dinner, including Viking Alumni, when we are back and I’m in the process of arranging tours of the dome and Winter Park.
 
The Vikings are playing the 49ers the second pre-season game and the 49ers sound like they will work with us for group tickets for this game. If any of you are interested in going to San Francisco to see this game; either drop me a line or send me an email.
 
The Viking’s are opening the regular season on Thursday night at New Orleans and the Saints will not be working with us for tickets for this game. If you want to go to the season opener – try the NFL ticket exchange or use your favorite ticket broker. There isn’t any games (other than the two mentioned) on our side of the country this year and we won’t be attending an away game as a group. We may conspire to go back to Minnesota as a group (if we get enough interest) to see our team smack around an opponent. With that said the Packers and the Bears games will be difficult- do to the popularity of these games.
 
Go Vikes!