Writer's Block

With little news happening in Viking-land since the departure of Matt Birk and a few other semi-notable but not exactly earth-shattering re-signings (Heath Farwell and Benny Sapp -- and who the heck is Karl Paymah?), and with not even a Jay Cutler rumor to throw around any more, I've had a hard time coming up with ideas for new blog posts.

(I do have something interesting in the works, but the details are still being hashed out and I'd rather not talk about it in the meantime. Yeah, yeah, I'm such a tease.)

Fortunately, other bloggers aren't having as much trouble finding new material as I am. Here's the best of what I found:

* Advanced NFL Stats wonders what the NFL will be like without a salary cap, which could be the case in 2010.

* Pacifist Viking makes fun of Peter King's feelings about the Vikings quarterback situation, which really isn't Favre that hard when you Favre consider King's other Favre opinions on the matter. Favre.

* Luft is just as bored with the Vikings' off-season as I am, but at least he's more loquacious than I am about it.

* Finally, if you want to see the worst way to try and get a pro athlete to sign a card for you, check out Pat Neshek's February 27 entry on his blog. C'mon, buddy, it's not that hard to use a computer and substitute name and position, even manually. I do it all the time in cover letters (which might explain why I'm still looking for work).

Jared Allen, Pet Neshek, Jon Kitna...and a porn star?

* For those still concerned about the possibility of Jared Allen being suspended for a whole season if he fails another drug test/has another DUI, don't be. Not only is the press about him positive, but SI.com reports that, if he stays out of trouble until September, Allen's previous failures will be wiped off the record, giving him a clean slate and a fresh start. Considering that his original four-game suspension in 2007 was reduced to two games, it seems that the NFL front office already has a history of being lenient with Allen, who's seemed contrite enough about his early mistakes. Adam Jones could learn a thing or two.

* During the draft -- while Green Bay was selecting Brian Brohm, I believe -- one of the analysts on ESPN commented that, with Brett Favre's retirement and the uncertainty at quarterback for most of the teams in the division, Jon Kitna was "clearly" the best quarterback in the division.

This didn't sit well with me. Kitna has put up some decent-looking numbers, throwing for over 4,000 yards each of his two seasons with the Lions, but that's been due to the Lions' ineptness at the running game. It's the same reason the Vikings' pass defense looks worse than it is -- because teams never run on them. With those 4,000-yard seasons have come more interceptions than TDs each year, 28 fumbles, and a league-leading 114 sacks.

Now, I'm no fan of Tarvaris Jackson, but let's compare the two. Kitna had 561 pass attempts in 2007, compared to Jackson's 294 -- nearly double. Counting sacks among dropbacks, we come up with 612 for Kitna and 311 for Jackson, an even closer match. In fact, let's double Jackson's numbers to put him more in line with Kitna. Here are the results:

Player	Comp	Att	Yds	TD	Int	Sack	SackYds	RushYds
Kitna	355	561	4068	18	20	51	320	63
Jackson x2	342	588	3822	18	24	38	140	520

For 2008, Kitna's passer rating was 80.9, compared to Jackson's 70.8, so he wins that round. But if you take Jackson's mobility (fewer sacks and better rushing numbers) into account, it's a lot closer (and my Total Yards per Attempt statistic does just that, and ranks Jackson as slightly better, overall, than Kitna). Neither one of them are Brett Favre, but at the very least, you couldn't call either of those quarterbacks clearly "better" than the other.

* Sad news about Twins relief pitcher/blogger Pat Neshek, who suffered a partial ligament tear in his elbow and is likely done for the season. On the one hand, many will blame Neshek's funky delivery for his developing elbow problems. Me? I think it came from ripping open too many baseball card packs.

* And, to close on a lighter note...Candy Cummings: porn star or Hall of Fame baseball player?

Tuesday humor and miscellaney

A few things that I've picked up over the past couple weeks and thought I should share with you all:

* First of all, read the fourth comment on this post. Absolutely priceless. Being in ALL CAPS just makes it better.

* Over on Pat Neshek's blog, the Twins reliever (who's off to a rough start, with a 7.50 ERA after getting blasted in last night's loss) talks about when someone sends in an item and asks him to get a teammate's signature:

"Never ever ask another player to get something signed from another player. It happens...every week I get one of these and have to toss it. I guess in Junior High terms it would be like a guy trying to get the hot girl and using her ugly friend to get in with her...it's just not right."

C'mon, Pat, you're not ugly.

* Tired of hard video games? Try You Have to Burn the Rope. With an ending almost as long as Final Fantasy VI.

* Michael Silver's at it again. Not content with his random power rankings during the season, he recently penned an "Ultimate Mock Draft," where each team could pick any athlete. In theory, then, this list should go from best available on down, taking talent and age into account, and while I do believe Al Davis might be crazy enough to take Devin Hester fourth overall, does anyone still think Carson Palmer is the third-most desirable player in the NFL or that 34-year-old Walter Jones is #5? And injury issues, sure, but Adrian Peterson at #14 and LaDainian Tomlinson at #20?

Of course, instead of taking Dwight Freeney at #17, the Vikings would probably try to trade up to take Tarvaris Jackson.

* Former Vikings offensive coordinator and Rams head coach Scott Linehan thinks that going 9-6 as the starter of a team three years ago makes the Gus Frerotte signing "a good decision" for the Vikings. Good for the Rams, to be sure. Then again, considering how much credit Brad Childress assigns to a quarterback's win-loss record, he probably thinks Jackson and Frerotte are the next coming of Joe Montana and Steve Young.

* Finally, the fine folks who brought you baseball-reference.com, pro-football-reference.com, and basketball-reference.com have completed the sporting four-way with the launch of hockey-reference.com. Now, you too can look up who is #213 all time in goals scored in the NHL (Stan Smyl with 262) and find out what players share your birthday. Well done, but when will we see nascar-reference.com? You know it has to be coming...