He should be out there when it makes sense for him to be out there. There are some packages where there are simply going to be players with more appropriate skill sets. The bottom line is that he had his most productive season as a pro, played in every game for the first time as a pro and has an OC who says he wants to get him more involved next year. I don't see much to complain about there, especially in June.

Harvin can be a star and a playmaker without being on the field for every down or in every scoring situation.

Goal line packages...yes. Red zone packages...no. Though I see your point, I contend that the offense is better with Harvin on the field (outside of obvious goal line, short yardage stuff).



Sure there are. You know as well as I do that there are plays in the red zone apart from jump balls. Harvin is dynamic and has the ability to score in the red zone. I don't think you're disagreeing. Even if he's doing an underneath route, it should give someone else a better opportunity by drawing coverage (he's not a midget and is a great option to have in those situations too). And I'm not so sure there is a better blocking WR on our roster (though if memory serves Jenkins is adept at that). But I agree that there needs to be a better balance. One where the pendulum swings further onto the side where Harvin is involved.



The other side of the coin is: what could Harvin have done by playing, say 70% or more of the offensive snaps? Sure, the more snaps he plays the better chance he has of being injured. But that goes for every player on the field. Who knows, by playing more offensive snaps in 2011, Harvin could have helped turned a couple of those close games into victories. Obviously you don't want to play an injured player the entire game. But if healthy, I'm on the side where you have a guy that's one of your best offensive weapons. He's dynamic. He wants to play. Play him. I don't think he should be treated much differently than any other player, especially given that he's only missed three games in three years. Not exactly Sidney Rice.



It sure looks like the better he gets (the better the stat sheet) the more he's feeling entitled (if that's the right word). Then again, it shouldn't be so shocking to us. This is commonplace in the NFL. I think we got a bit spoiled with how classy and professional AD is (regarding his contract, even if this isn't about Harvin's contract, which is probably is at least a little bit).

trade him for a legit # 1 or a good CB. He's a threat when he gets the ball but getting him the ball with his size is a problem. A slot reciever with small size wants to whine?

Harvin is 5'11. He's:

- 2" taller than Welker
- 2" taller than Steve Smith
- 2" taller than Lance Moore
- 2" taller than Jacoby Ford

- 1" taller than Santana Moss
- 1" taller than Antonio Brown
- 1" taller than DeSean Jackson
- 1" taller than Kendall Wright

- The same height as Greg Jennings

- 1" shorter than Marvin Harrison
- 1" shorter than Mike Wallace
- 1" shorter than Victor Cruz

When he's on the field, a good QB should be able to get him the ball.

1. Show him more money. He's way underpaid. Likely all problems go away.
2. He may be shorter than many players, but he sure as heck does not "play small." He takes hits with the best of them and delivers punishment.
3. I see no rationale to leave your ONLY WR difference-maker on the sidelines in ANY red zone situation, especially with such a weak offense overall.
4. Go Vikes! This is a small matter. Alan Page did not get along with Bud Grant very well, to the point he left for the hated Bears. Bud Grant said his job was to make the malcontents perform, if they could play. Leslie's job is to get the most out of Percy. If he can't, Percy is not the one who has to go.

So because he is "short" he cannot whine a little?

I'm not, although if I remember correctly, he was on the field in more red zone packages as the season moved forward so I'm not sure this was much of an issue beyond the first third or so of the 2011 season. It would be interesting to see some actual numbers on it.



I think the key words there are "if healthy". As you said, Harvin was injured so it's hard for me to be critical of the coaches for limiting his time a little so that they could keep him productive without getting him so banged up that he became completely unavailable. IF he'd been healthy, maybe he would have been on the field for 70% or more of the offensive snaps. Since Musgrave's stated intent is to get him more involved, this seems like a non-issue to me unless Harvin, when healthy, is seriously under-used in 2012.

For the sake of perspective, Harvin had 139 touches on offense last year, second only to Adrian Peterson. He had 16 kick returns on top of that. Those numbers, and the productivity that accompanied them, were career highs for Harvin so I think the Vikings realize that he's one of their best weapons on offense and they will probably try to get even more out of him this season.



You're right, it's not unusual and we probably are a bit spoiled by AD. Whatever Harvin's issue is, I hope he and the team can settle it and move forward amicably.

I still think he should be the primary kick returner. Yeah there is risk of an injury, but for Pete's sake, these guys are playing FOOTBALL. You run at people full force and crash into them, while being slammed to the ground. Percy is probably as good as Devin Hester.

The more I read about this, the more it seems like Harvin is behaving like a petulant child and I'm beyond sick of seeing that sort of behavior from professional athletes. It must be nice to be in a position to blow off work and shrug off a $20,000 fine just because you're unhappy.

Jim

We "arm chair quarterbacks" have no idea about what the true "inside" information is pertaining to Harvin and almost any other pro athlete. That is one reason that message boards are interesting to see what the general feeling and opinions are from the average fans perspective.
I will take a guess. My guess is that the organization has seen this situation with Harvin brewing before the draft. That would be a good explanation for drafting Jarius Wright, who seems to be a Percy Harvin clone.
I would hate to see the vikes "lose" Harvin. He is, in my opinion far and away the best player on the vike's roster (factoring in AD's injury). I am hopeful that this situation works itself out but if it comes down to Musgrave or Harvin I would choose Harvin every time.

That's venturing into Dwight Howard territory. A player cannot dictate which way an organization goes. If Harvin is seriously that unhappy, to the point of not being talked down, so be it. Get what you can and do your best to compensate his abscence. We'll fire our GM! You can pick the OC! What's the point. I'm completely reserved to him leaving, I always had a feeling that he was going to be too big for Minnesota at some point. If he stays, that would obviously be great, but if not, we can't lament it perpetually.

My belief is that Harvin's biggest beef is that he is not playing more and feels limited with Musgrave's unproven offense. He sees the writing on the wall that this team's offense will feature two receiving tightends and rely heavily on the running game. I can't blame him for wanting more "touches" and my comment was that if it was a choice between Harvin and the unproven Musgrave I would take Havin. I would not entertain the idea of getting rid of the GM or HC to placate any player even if it is Harvin the Vike's best offensive weapon.

How's this different than Birk and Winfield complaining in the spring about prior issues with prior regimes? It will blow over.

He's a part of that running game and two TE offenses don't exactly exclude wide receivers. The Patriots ran the most potent 2 TE offense in the league last season and their slot receiver (the same WR position Harvin plays) hauled in 122 catches.



"TheCoolerOne" is right: the organization can't allow a player to dictate who they employ on their coaching staff but we don't know what Harvin's issues are anyway. It's all guesswork. I'm not sure why Harvin would have a problem with Musgrave. As I keep repeating, Harvin had his most productive NFL season last year in Musgrave's offense. He had more touches than ever before, more yardage than ever before and Musgrave says he wants to use Harvin more. Harvin gained 723 offensive yards in the last seven games of 2011. He was getting on the field, getting the ball and was a crucial part of the offense.

Despite his comments to the contrary, I have a very difficult time believing Harvin's professed unhappiness isn't at least partly about money. If it is about something else, perhaps it's just about the overall state of the team. Maybe Harvin doesn't want to be on a rebuilding team and wants to be on a contender right now.

I think it's important to keep in mind that AD's injuries (high ankle sprain before his torn ACL/MCL) likely had something to do with this, forcing Musgrave to lean heavily on Harvin, really his only offensive weapon. The offense pretty much ran through Harvin, as he spent time at HB in addition to his other duties. Had AD not been injured, I doubt his production (and offensive usage) would've been as high. Perhaps that's something that Percy is taking into account? Again, we're all just speculating.

I think the key in your response is that Musgrave wants to use Harvin more, even with a healthy AD (though, limiting AD coming back from major surgery and going to Harvin more just makes sense). If Musgrave can run the 2012 Vikings like the 2011 Patriots, using Harvin like Welker (Carlson and Rudolph as Hernandez/Gronk to create matchup problems), I'm not sure there'd be much complaining from the team or fans, providing Ponder improves and everything goes according to plan. However, this comes with the caveat that Harvin is used in "base" packages as often as Welker, and especially more red zone situations (though I agree he seemed to be on the field for more of those the latter half of the season).

It can be a tricky spot to be in. When healthy, this is AD's team. Our offense runs through him, for good reason. He's a beast. But there's a way for both players to co-exist and, frankly, having two potent offensive weapons is a good problem to have, all things considered.



I hope this isn't true. If so, it's kind of a slap in the face to his teammates that he doesn't think he's on a winning squad. This type of attitude is typically seen in vets on their last legs, not a guy with two years left on his rookie contract. If this is the case, I'd have a really hard time liking/respecting Harvin (not that he needs my adoration or respect, of course).

I predict girl problems!

LOL

I bet that's it!

This all might boil down to pay after all. Jerome Simpson and Michael Jenkins are both going to make more money this year than Harvin will. This might be a good time to pay him what he is worth and extend his contract.

Unfortunately that's not how the Vikings (and many teams) do business.



If he's healthy, stops with the attitude and plays well this season, I expect him to get his extension in 2013.

Yeah I get the fact that not extending a player when he is not in his final year of his contract is the way that Spielman conducts business BUT I said that I believe that for Harvin this might be about the money. Again, he has missed three games in three years and has played through his heaqdaches and injuries. Until now has there been any news about his attitude? Sounds like some people are blowing this way out of proportion.

Not a lot, but some. There was the very public "disagreement" with Brad Childress that nearly came to blows. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5776770

Harvin was hardly alone in his distain for Childress, but it's probably not a good idea to punch your coach in the face. That's not exactly conducting yourself professionally.



Whenever a star players blindsides the organization by telling the media they want a trade, it's going to be talked about. Especially during the offseason. It's a story. We all know that with as big as the NFL as risen, it's going to be like that. Heck, OTAs and minicamps have storylines now.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_ ... -practices

IF that's accurate, then Harvin just started whining to the media without even exploring the possibility of a new contract with the team first.[/quote]

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Well what else would they say? "We've been stonewalling Harvin's agent for XX months now, so we expected this response"?

I have learned a lot in my 50+ years on this planet, and one immutable fact among a handful is:

WHEN ANYONE SAYS IT IS NOT ABOUT THE MONEY, IT'S ABOUT THE MONEY.

Even if his primary internal motivation is to "get on the field more and make more plays", you can bet it is skewed WAY more towards "if I lead the NFL in yards from scrimmage I will get PAID" than "if I lead the NFL in YFS it will help this franchise/my self esteem issues/keep me in shape/chakra my kharma".

You are saying " it's probably not a good idea to punch your coach in the face. That's not exactly conducting yourself professionally". Is what I call blowing things out of propotion. Sounds as if he did or almost did punch Childress in the face (not that that would have been a bad thing lol).

I guess I don't understand what you're saying. You're saying Harvin is blowing things out of proportion or the media is? How is the example of Harvin vs. Childress evidence of somebody blowing anything out of proportion?

If you're saying the media is blowing this out of proportion, I contend this isn't something like Santonio Holmes skipping an optional minicamp that the media jumps all over as another indication that he's immature and hasn't resolved things with Sanchez, etc. It's a legit story because Harvin's a star in the league and it was confirmed that he formally requested a trade, seemingly out of the blue to the coaching staff for reasons nobody seems to fully know. I'm seeing the media reacting the way it normally would?

I am trying to say that I read the article which said that a physical confrontation was avoided. That could be anything from pushing to striking someone. You intimated that Harvin had or was going to punch Childress in the face (that is where you are blowing things out of propotion). Maybe I am not being clear

When players have to separate a player and a coach because the argument was heating up into a physical altercation, I suspect a punch would be a logical next step had nobody stepped in. And I'm guessing it would have been to the face, but I don't have any proof that's where Percy Harvin targets old men in fights. Perhaps he'd go for the kidneys. Anyway, that's not too much of a stretch in my mind. I don't think saying that was blowing anything out of proportion given the reports of the incident. I suppose I could've said "I don't think getting into a heated argument that nearly led to a physical altercation with your head coach is a way to conduct yourself professionally." But I think you understood what I was trying to say.

Percy Harvin on Twitter

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Sounds like he's coming to camp and things are in the process of being smoothed over. Good sign.