Vikings Message Board.Com

Offense

QB: 7 Christian Ponder 16, Matt Cassel, 4 McLeod Bethel-Thompson

HB: 28 Adrian Peterson, 32 Toby Gerhart, 44 Matt Asiata

FB: 48 Zach Line

WR: 15 Greg Jennings, 17 Jarius Wright

WR: 81 Jerome Simpson, 84 Cordarrelle Patterson, 14 Joe Webb

TE: 82 Kyle Rudolph, 89 John Carlson, 40 Rhett Ellison

LT: 75 Matt Kalil

LG: 74 Charlie Johnson, 60 Jeff Baca

C: 65 John Sullivan, 61 Joe Berger

RG: 63 Brandon Fusco

RT: 71 Phil Loadholt, 73 J'Marcus Webb



Defense

LE: 96 Brian Robison, 97 Everson Griffen

NT: 98 Letroy Guion, 90 Fred Evans, 91 Chase Baker

UT: 93 Kevin Williams, 95 Sharrif Floyd

RE: 69 Jared Allen, 97 Everson Griffen, 92 George Johnson

SLB: 52 Chad Greenway, 51 Larry Dean

MLB: 50 Erin Henderson, 57 Audie Cole, 56 Michael Mauti

WLB: 55 Marvin Mitchell, 59 Desmond Bishop, 54 Gerald Hodges

LCB: 21 Josh Robinson, 29 Xavier Rhodes, 35 Marcus Sherels

RCB: 20 Chris Cook, 24 A.J. Jefferson

SS: 33 Jamarca Sanford, 41 Mistral Raymond, 36 Robert Blanton

FS: 22 Harrison Smith, 34 Andrew Sendejo



Specialists

P: 12 Jeff Locke

K: 3 Blair Walsh

LS: 46 Cullen Loeffler

H: 12 Jeff Locke

KR: 84 Cordarrelle Patterson, 35 Marcus Sherels

PR: 35 Marcus Sherels, 17 Jarius Wright


http://www.vikings.com/news/article-1/V ... e173cf85ae

Except for Quarterback I'm really happy with the roster.

DarthBrooks wrote:Except for Quarterback I'm really happy with the roster.

Yippy! Yet another thread that'll be turned into a Ponder fueled civil war. Lets kick it off right! jeez man let it go for a minute.

Bishop can't crack the starting lineup thats sad, why did they even keep him?

Yay!!! We kept Joe Webb and Zach Line!

Now we just have to see how the rest play out. Do we really have enough depth at O-line?

PurpleHalo wrote:Bishop can't crack the starting lineup thats sad, why did they even keep him?

Quality depth. There's no telling if he won't be starting at some point this season. It's quite possible.

SLCVikefan wrote: Yippy! Yet another thread that'll be turned into a Ponder fueled civil war. Lets kick it off right! jeez man let it go for a minute.

Amen!

PurpleHalo wrote:Bishop can't crack the starting lineup thats sad, why did they even keep him?

Assuming he keeps doing good I don't see why he can't eventually take the spot from Marvin Mitchell. They are probably just playing it safe, seeing as he's coming off a big injury. And to be fair, I don't remember Frazier and company bringing Bishop to make an immediate starter. If anything they were primarily trying to see if he could stay healthy. Us fans kept hyping up Bishop like he was just suppose to come into week 1 as a starter.

And you never know, the depth chart could change again where Bishop is the starter. Im pretty sure they will look at personnel before Sunday. This is the unofficial depth charter. I think they still have a few more days of practice and anything could happen. But I personally don't see Mitchell starting all 16 games anyway.

tnvikesfan wrote: Now we just have to see how the rest play out. Do we really have enough depth at O-line?

That is a really good question. All I know is that they basically signed J'Marcus Webb as an insurance policy incase one of our starting tackles get hurt to prevent someone like Charlie Johnson from going back to the outside. We all know what happened when Charlie Johnson was moved to LT in 2011. Absolute mediocrity.

The defesinve depth chart is a big concern going into the regular season. What did Marvin Mitchell show that would make him better than Bishop or what didn't Bishop show? Mitchell has never been on anyone's radar. This is offset by the fact that on a nickel or dime down the issue is moot.

Josh Robinson starting ahead of Xavier Rhodes. Also begs questions. Robinson wasn't stellar in the pre-season, albeit scheme may have had something to do with it. So does that mean Rhodes is worse? That is a cause of concern for the secondary.

The injury situtation at DT is not a good sigh either. We might find ourselves having to crawl out of a hole come week 3.

Not sure if it is good or bad, but Matt Stafford will probably let us know where we are at with the passing denfense on Sunday.

WR is the same deal. Is JS really better than both CP and JW? If he is, then great, or is the he best of a bad sitaution? My thought is this one is more positive than negative.

All in all, this depth chart confirms the issues that have long been in the forefront.

mansquatch wrote:Not sure if it is good or bad, but Matt Stafford will probably let us know where we are at with the passing defense on Sunday.

Well, it's good that we'll know. But it could be very bad.

mansquatch wrote:The defesinve depth chart is a big concern going into the regular season. What did Marvin Mitchell show that would make him better than Bishop or what didn't Bishop show? Mitchell has never been on anyone's radar. This is offset by the fact that on a nickel or dime down the issue is moot.

Josh Robinson starting ahead of Xavier Rhodes. Also begs questions. Robinson wasn't stellar in the pre-season, albeit scheme may have had something to do with it. So does that mean Rhodes is worse? That is a cause of concern for the secondary.

I think it's probably indicative of the approach this coaching staff seems to prefer. They don't seem too keen on immediately thrusting rookies into full-time starting roles. They've done it a few times but generally speaking, they might believe a rookie benefits from the opportunity to learn the ropes for at least part of the season before being asked to handle the pressure of starting full-time.

To put it another way, I don't think starting Robinson necessarily means Rhodes is worse or that he's a disappointment. It may just mean Robinson has a better handle on the system since he's been playing in it for a year. He's a pretty talented guy too...

The injury situtation at DT is not a good sigh either. We might find ourselves having to crawl out of a hole come week 3.

Floyd will have to step up and start as a rookie even if that isn't the role the coaches initially envisioned for him. It's already time for him to prove he was worth that first round pick!

Not sure if it is good or bad, but Matt Stafford will probably let us know where we are at with the passing denfense on Sunday.

Yes, somehow I think he will. Of course, the Vikes d-line may let Stafford know where his revamped o-line is in their development too. I'm hoping we see a killer pass rush from the Vikes on Sunday.

WR is the same deal. Is JS really better than both CP and JW? If he is, then great, or is the he best of a bad sitaution? My thought is this one is more positive than negative.

My guess is that Simpson's role as a starter is will be temporary and that it isn't that significant anyway. I expect Wright and Patterson to get plenty of playing time.

It would be cool if those two receivers became a killer combo for Ponder. There's an Air Force base named Wright-Patterson. There has to be a cool way to connect all of that together!

Mothman wrote:

My guess is that Simpson's experience gives him an edge at this moment. I sure hope he can step up and be the WR the Vikings have wanted him to be.

Maybe there is also Wright's size to consider, though I'm not sure it matters that much in his case. Wright proved in college ball that he can play slot or wide out, and I expect the Vikings to move him around a bit as well.

Everyone knew Patterson was raw when he was drafted. But given his talent potential, I think he becomes a starter before the season is over.

Actually, one of my biggest WR concerns still has to do with Jennings remaining healthy.

Jennings' health is a concern of mine too, but even if he goes down I think the WR corp improved over the second half of last year with Wright being more experienced and Simpson being healthy. Add to that Pattersons skill set and maybe Carlson can help more than last year. I'm not going to say they're good but solid.

I'm just reading between the lines. I actually think this pass catching group might be the best we've seen since Moss/Carter. They don't have an other world talent back there (he lines up at HB), but they look to be strong across the board. If Carlson can regain the form he head when he was with Seattle we'll have one of the best sets of TE in the league. That all points to a solid group of pass catchers. The bigger question is the guy delivering the ball, but I'll justleave that at that sine it is such a fun thing to talk about on here.

Before the DL injuries I thought we had a shot at fielding a potentially elite defense this year. I'm not ruling that out yet, but I think early on things might be rough with youth in the secondary and injuries to the interior. It is actually a positive that we are playing Detroit first. I think if we played Chicago first we'd be getting a ton of Matt Forte up the middle which scares me a bit. Hopefully they can shut this down, but right now it is weakness of this unit. I suspect early on with games against CHI, CLE, PIT, and CAR we'll have to prove we can stuff that type of rushing attack.