MAWSE!!!

Adam Schefter reports via twitter:

Trade is done: Randy Moss to Minnesota for a third-round pick. Details on ESPN's Sportscenter at 9 a.m.

If you know me personally or have been following this blog for a long time you know that I have always been a big time fan of Randy Moss. Hell as a player I got to see first hand what he could do to a defense and how he made you prepare to play against him. Trust me, that wasn't fun at all.

But ever since his first game in Minnesota defenses have tried to find ways to shut him down and yet he still finds ways to put up numbers. Simply put he is the most physically gifted and impressive wide receiver that I have ever seen. I know because of his attitude that he isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I don't think you can name a person who can or has done the things he has on the football field. And I know the fact that he doesn't block all the time irritates folks but look at it this way, when Moss is on the field most teams are loath to play with 8 men in the box for fear he will..well.. Moss them. So in a round about sort of way he's blocking one guy just by being on the field.

Seriously.

But like all wide receivers Moss needs a quarterback. And not just any kind of quarterback either. He needs a guy with a strong arm AND who has some gunslinger in them. Think back to his best days in Minnesota and his first year in New England (we're going to skip that whole Raiders debacle). He had Randall Cunningham, Jeff George, a young Daunte Culpepper, and a Tom Brady who wanted to put up big numbers. Those guys would see Moss running into double coverage and still throw it up to him because they knew he would still go and make a play on the ball. Its only when Moss has quarterbacks who get nervous about getting picked off that his numbers drop off a little. That's what eventually happened with Culpepper and its also what happened with Brady since that magical 2007 season.

Now Moss gets to go to a Vikings team with Brett Favre that is starving for a play maker in the passing game. And one thing about Favre, he's not only a gunslinger but he will also feed certain guys the ball. If he stays healthy I would bet you there won't be another game this season where he catches fewer than three balls and that's probably a conservative estimate. Favre is going to find him, especially on deep balls.

Then you have to remember that Sidney Rice will be back in a few weeks. If he is truly healthy then that tandem of he and Moss is going to be hell on defenses. And that's before you get to the tight end Visante Shiancoe, the slot guy in Percy Harvin and of course that monster in the backfield, Adrian Peterson. Hell think about this for a few minutes, if Rice does comeback playing like he did last year will there have ever been an offense that was more talented at the skill positions?

If you can think of one please leave it in the comments. But make sure its not an answer that will make me clown you.

There are still some variables at play here. How long will it take Moss to learn the playbook and get a rapport with Favre? Can Favre stay healthy? What about the secondary on defense? But let me tell you, if I was a betting man Id bet big that the Vikings will represent the NFC in the Superbowl this year.

Oh and by the way, the Vikings play the Jets this weekend. What do you want to bet that Revis Island is still closed for repairs? LOL

And one more thing...

o/

That's Some Willie Beamen Type Ish

Evidently the Minnesota Vikings don't give a damn about Tavaris Jackson's career.

In the second quarter of the Vikings' 27-13 victory over Detroit on Sunday, Jackson was the up man for a punt by Chris Kluwe. The look came as a surprise to many. So what did Jackson think about it?

"Do I really have to cover a punt?" he said Monday when asked about his debut on special teams. "I guess the more you can do."

Jackson wasn't completely surprised because he had been taking part in special teams practices to prepare for the possibility of being used as the player who stands between long snapper Cullen Loeffler and Kluwe. The formation had three players stacked to the far left and three more to the far right. The ball was snapped to Kluwe but Jackson acted as if he was going to get it and then faked a pass to wide receiver Darius Reynaud, who was set up to the left.

As the punt left Kluwe's foot, Jackson ran down the field to cover. All the while he was watching his back. "Knowing that I'm a quarterback, I know they'll probably try to take a shot at me," he said. "It was different. A lot different."

Now I hear a lot of TV sports commentators talking about the risks to NFL quarterbacks when their team runs the Wildcat formation. Mind you in that scenario the quarterback is just flexed out wide and usually has next to nothing to do with the play. It not like the Miami Dolphins have asked Chad Pennington to stalk block the strong safety. And still these pundits bemoan the risk of injury.

Well I wonder what the hell they have to say about a team sending their second string quarterback in to run down and cover a punt.

Keep in mind here that Jackson started and won quite a few games last year and that its highly likely that he will start again in this league. That is if he doesn't separate his shoulder trying to tackle a return man because, in the immortal words of the fictional character Willie Beamon in "Any Given Sunday", a coach thought he had quick feet. I can't imagine Matt Leinart being asked to cover a punt and right now Jackson has the more promising career.

I can't imagine what they said to convince Jackson to go in and run down on punt team but I hope for the sake of good reason that his agent intervenes. The more I think about it the more I feel like this was a major sign of disrespect from the Vikings. And he doesn't have to be their crash dummy.

Piss Or Get Off The Pot

Someone please get this Brett Favre soap opera off my TV! He has made it so that even though I had huge respect for the guy and loved playing against him, I am not actively rooting for him to sign with Minnesota just so he can screw up their team chemistry and so he can face Green Bay again where he gets sacked 5 times or so and gets pummelled out of the game for good. What he is doing is wrong for the game and wrong for his legacy, and to the extent that the Vikings are enabling him, specifically their Head Coach Brad Childress, they deserve to have a total implosion this year so managment can clean house.

Update: Favre signs. My Viking hate begins in earnest now.