#-1: Vikings (Re-Entry!). This week's survey is gloomy, so that is partly why I'm throwing the Vikings back into the mix, as the team reports for training camp this weekend. Adrian Peterson will do that with a new, restructured contract. Under his old contract he was supposed to get paid around $15 million for the next two years. Thing is, they weren't guaranteed, and, well, you know what happened to All Day last season.
Under the new contract he will receive less money this and next year (how much exactly has not been disclosed, AFAIK), but both years will be guaranteed. So, despite threats from both the Peterson camp and fans who were so disgusted that he beat his son to the point his scrotum was bleeding, AP will be playing for the only professional team he has ever known for the next two years.
That will be a good thing, obviously, if Peterson still can run. This will sound gauche, but I'll say it anyway: With him on trial for the whole year, even though that makes him a year older, he has also saved a year on his legs. So what Vikings brass is banking on is that he can not only be productive, but possibly, once again, the best Running Back in the National Football League. I really have no idea if he can be that even if he didn't miss last year. But the front office would not have guaranteed an RB on the bad side of 30 years of age two guaranteed years if they didn't think he would be capable of producing.
And anything Peterson can do will help Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, in whose hands, everyone knows, he holds the future of the franchise. He slowly has gained his footing in the NFL, and many people believe he showed great maturity the last five games of the regular season. And that was without the services of a very good (presumably) RB in the backfield with him. Having Peterson be the focal point allows Bridgewater to avoid pressure, and it also allows some play action, which really could make Teddy a real weapon in the offense. This is supposed to be the balance that the Vikes want when they have the ball. We will now see if all the pieces are in place for the season.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -1). Uh-oh. They won the first game after Major League Baseball's All-Star Break at Oakland, but they haven't won since. Last (Wednesday) night's 5-2 defeat at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Angels Of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Angels Of ... gives the Twinks a 1-4 screening week. I can't pinpoint one specific thing in their current four-game losing streak (well, at least besides offense, defense and pitching), so I have to surmise that this is yet another case where an overachieving team loses all momentum after the All-Star Break. It's happened before; the Kansas City Royals when they were managed by Tony Pena. Unfortunately, the schedule for this team isn't going to get any better: After finishing out in Orange County this (Thursday) afternoon, they play the New York Yankees for three over the weekend and the Pittsburgh Pirates for a pair beginning on Tuesday. Both of them are in playoff position, although the club plays both teams at home, the first time in 11 days they are playing at Target Field. But I'm afraid they're going to be exposed as a bunch of youngsters that were punching above their weight but are now in over their heads. In other words, how we expected (and even hoped) this squad would be.
#-3: Lynx (Last Week: -2). OK, I predict that this team is now in serious, serious trouble. The injury bug they have gracefully avoided in previous seasons have bit hard this year. Seimone Augustus had arthroscopic knee surgery and is out till at least mid-August -- if not longer. Monica Wright had the same thing done to her right knee. And then Lindsay Whalen got poked in the eye and she's gone for the time being.
With Guards in traction, the Lynx have, for the first time in a long time, messed with their core and made a trade. Monday, the organization traded Wright, injury and all, to Seattle in exchange for backup Guard Renee Montgomery, a former first-round pick for the Lynx in 2009. Dan Barreiro on KFAN didn't understand the reason for the trade, either way, but I'll take a guess. The Storm are pitiful right now (as is half the Western Conference), so Wright will be a veteran on a rebuilding team. Meanwhile, Montgomery is a player who can play either the 1 or the 2, and most importantly, she's healthy. (I think the Lynx are not saying that the injuries to Augusuts and Whalen are a lot worse than reported.) So Cheryl Reeve and Co. are now scuffling with a Guard rotation of Montgomery, the recently-signed Anna Cruz, and Maya Moore.
And speaking of Moore, it'll have to be her team now more than ever. She has become the best player on the team for the past couple years, but with two of the Three To See injured, the club will now have to rely on her much more than ever. And I'm not encouraged by the results. They avenged their recent loss to the Chicago Sky by crushing them at Target Center Friday then registered a 79-72 win over the Tulsa (soon-to- be Dallas) Shock Sunday. But on yesterday's (Wednesday's) annual weekday camp game, they lost to Connecticut on a last-second jumper by Camille Little (her only points of the game, BTW), 78-77 in Overtime, ending a six-game losing streak.
The All-Star Break can't come soon enough; Moore will be participating in the Sunday afternoon game, but for obvious reasons Whalen and Augustus will not. But chemistry issues that probably contributed to the upset loss to the Sun persist through extended breaks. The squad starts the second half of the regular season Wednesday at home against Los Angeles. And pray that the players they need to come back will be closer to coming back.
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