Advertisement

Charley Walters: The Bears decided to rebuild. The Vikings took a different path.

charley walters, pioneer press
·12 min read
6

The Vikings will end their regular season on Jan. 8 against the Bears in Chicago. After Saturday’s games, the Vikings were 12-3; the Bears were 3-12. The Vikings before the season didn’t do what the Bears decided to do: rebuild.

This season, Chicago decided to get rid of a lot of veteran players. That’s why they were in last place in the NFC North after Saturday’s loss to the Bills.

The Vikings, who on Saturday electrifyingly beat the Giants for their 12th victory, decided this season not to rebuild, and they won their division. Now the question for 2023 is which veteran players they bring back and which ones they don’t. That gets tricky and probably won’t be clear until the season ends.

— It’s certain that Kirk Cousins, 34, guaranteed $30 million next season, will be the Vikings’ QB in 2023. There’s no viable path for the Vikings to get anyone better.

Whether Cousins gets a contract extension, for nearly $40 million or so, for either 2024, or even 2025, will depend on the playoffs.

The way it looks now, though, Cousins will get an extension within the first two weeks of March.

Meanwhile, Justin Jefferson’s monster extension, expected to exceed $150 million over five years, isn’t expected to be completed until early July. That’s because his deal will have salary-cap implications for the entire team.

— Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, 39, is guaranteed nearly $60 million for 2023, meaning it’s highly likely, unless he’s traded, that he’ll return to Green Bay next year.

By the way, the Packers’ chances of NOT making the playoffs entering Sunday’s game in Miami are 93.4 percent, per sportsbetting.ag.

— It’s likely the Vikings will play either Detroit, Washington or the Giants in their first playoff game. If the Vikings win their first game, the second game will likely be against San Francisco, and that will be extremely tough. If the Vikings were to defeat the 49ers, next probably would be the even tougher Philadelphia Eagles.

— In order for the Vikings to get the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and a first-round bye, they would have to win their last two remaining regular-season games, and the Eagles, who lost to the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday, would have to lose their last two remaining games. The Vikings can’t fall to the No. 4 seed because mathematically no team in the NFC South can win as many games as the Vikings.

The Vikings will either be the No. 2 or 3 playoff seed. If any Vikings player is physically questionable for the remaining two regular-season games, it’s 99% certain that player won’t play. And it won’t be surprising, especially in the season finale in Chicago, if Cousins and Jefferson sit out and Nick Mullens starts at QB.

— Ticket prices for a Vikings NFC wild-card game in Minneapolis range from $132 to $4,136 each, per seatgeek.com.

— QB Josh Rosen, 25, signed last week to replace David Blough on the Vikings practice squad, will make $19,900 a week

— The Vikings’ rally that most comes close to the 39-36 overtime victory over the Colts in Minneapolis occurred 45 years ago at Met Stadium in Bloomington. QB Fran Tarkenton had broken his leg, and with Bob Lee starting in his place, the Vikings were losing 24-0 after three quarters. Coach Bud Grant replaced Lee with rookie Tommy Kramer, who threw three TDs to win 28-27.

— Not only should the Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell be considered for NFL coach of the year, but GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who hired O’Connell, should be considered for executive of the year.

Greatly understated has been O’Connell’s adept play calling.

“The coaching staff has been awesome,” said tight end T.J. Hockenson, who caught two TDs on Saturday.

— It didn’t hurt the Gophers when 6-foot-7, 330-pound five-star offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor from Des Moines flipped his recruiting commitment last week from Iowa to Alabama.

The Crimson Tide are the program that reportedly produced $3 million for 25 football players via name, image and likeness (NIL) deals last year.

Alabama signed seven five-star recruits last week, per 247Sports. The Gophers signed no five-star recruits.

— Louisiana State, which landed Minnesota’s No. 1-ranked prep defensive end Jaxon Howard from Robbinsdale Cooper, abounds with NIL deals for football players.

— Joe Alt, the Notre Dame sophomore offensive lineman from Totino-Grace, has an NIL valuation by On3 of $539,000.

— The tight ends coach for Pittsburgh, which plays UCLA in the Sun Bowl on Friday, is Tim Salem, the former Gophers QB and son of former Gophers coach Joe Salem.

— That was 6-foot-7, 230-pound Dallas Mavericks star Luke Doncic, in town to play the Timberwolves last week, who was bowling with teammates — their hands practically covered the whole bowling ball — at a local lanes, and apparently playing for quarters. When they were finished, Doncic directed that his huge bag of quarters be given to nearby youngsters to use on whatever games they wanted.

— Franco Harris, the Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steeler who died at 72 last week, was the “nicest celeb” that St. Paul’s “Hondo the Magician” ever met during his long and notable career.

— New Twins catcher Christian Vazquez, 32, is projected to hit .260 with nine home runs next season, per baseball-refererence.com. The catcher Vazquez is replacing, Gary Sanchez, 30, remains an unsigned free agent.

— Ex-Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino of New Mexico has gotten off to a 12-0 start against a decent schedule, including an 82-74 victory over his father Rick’s Iona team on national TV last week. Ex-Gopher Jamal Mashburn Jr. is averaging 16.8 points for NM.

— The Gophers are a 7.5-point favorite in their Tier 3 Pinstripe Bowl over Syracuse on Thursday. Bowl players’ swag includes apparel from New Era. Tickets begin at $40 on stubhub.com.

— Among the approximately 4,320 players who have been in the College Football Playoff, only seven have been from Minnesota. This year, two — Ben Reppenhagen from St. Thomas Academy and Namdi Obiazor from Eden Prairie — are with TCU (12-1), which plays Michigan (13-0) on Saturday in the Fiesta Bowl for a berth in the national championship game.

— Mike Nealy, 57, the Ramsey High and Minnesota grad who was CEO of the Fiesta and Guaranteed Rate bowls, has stepped away to do consulting for several sports teams.

— The University of St. Thomas men’s basketball team (11-4), in its second year in Division I, is starting four former Division III players, none of whom were recruited by Division II schools. Nine Tommies are from Minnesota, three from suburban Chicago and two from Wisconsin.

— Happy birthday: St. Paul’s national boxing treasure, Denny Nelson, who still works with the Minnesota Boxing Commission as a ring supervisor, turns 86 on Monday.

— While about to turn 98 next month, Dick Mulkern, the Hamline football coaching legend, is working diligently to get late former Piper star Duane Benson on the Row of Honor at the university.

— The Gophers baseball team will open its 32 game nonconference schedule on Feb. 17 against Santa Barbara in Surprise, Ariz., and plays Milwaukee on March 1 at U.S. Bank Stadium. Besides 102.5-mph fastball pitcher George Klassen, center fielder Brett Bateman is another Gopher major league scouts will be watching.

— Former Twins GM Terry Ryan and current Twins baseball chief Derek Falvey are among speakers at a Twins-Minnesota high school baseball coaches’ clinic on Saturday, Jan. 14, at Target Field.

— Retired Sylvia Fowles, 37, from the Lynx, was the dominant rebounder in the WNBA over the last decade, per Sports Illustrated last week.

— Legendary vendor Wally “The Beerman” McNeil, 88, is doing fine while residing in Plymouth. He regularly worked local sports venues for 48 years, his last gig a Vikings alumni golf tournament at the Bearpath club in Eden Prairie last summer.

Don’t print that

— Pssst: Mat Ishbia, the Michigan mortgage mogul who last week agreed to buy the Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Mercury for $4 billion, tried to buy the Timberwolves and Lynx from Glen Taylor before Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez agreed to buy them for $1.5 billion.

“Isn’t that something — I should have waited a couple of years, shouldn’t I,” Taylor quipped on Friday.

Taylor said he has no regrets about agreeing to sell for $1.5 billion nearly 17 months ago.

“I made my decision at the time with the information I had,” he said. “It (Wolves-Lynx deal) is way more than I ever dreamed of or anticipated, so I can’t be jealous of someone else.”

Taylor, who bought the Timberwolves for $88 million in 1994, received offers to sell from nearly a half-dozen other groups besides Ishbia and Lore-Rodriguez for more than $1.5 billion. But some of those groups wanted to move the Wolves-Lynx to either Seattle or Las Vegas. Taylor required they remain in Minnesota.

— Taylor, whose personal wealth is valued at $2.4 billion, is confident that Lore and Rodriguez will come up with a $200 million payment before a Saturday deadline.

“I take them for their word,” he said.

— Taylor has an agreement with Lore and Rodriguez that he remain a limited partner. But if the sale were to fall through, he told the Pioneer Press, he would retain majority ownership and probably not put the teams up for sale again.

— Rodriguez, by the way, in his second year on baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot, is again expected to receive fewer than 50% of the 75% needed for election. Results will be announced on Jan. 24.

— With the Washington Commanders preparing for a $7 billion sale, the Vikings, valued at $3.92 billion by Forbes this year, could have their value increase to $5 billion. The Wilf brothers bought the Vikings for $600 million in 2005.

— Anyone checking on Kyle Farmer’s performance last season (.255, 78 RBIs with 14 home runs in 145 games) for the Cincinnati Reds or talking to scouts would know that he’s plenty capable of playing shortstop for the Twins while they await Royce Lewis’s recovery from major knee surgery.

Farmer, 32, is projected to hit .253 with with 68 RBIs and 14 homers for the Twins next season, per baseball-reference.com. For the Reds last season, Farmer’s shortstop fielding average was .974.

Departed Twins shortstop Carlos Correa, 28, is projected to hit .277 with 67 RBIs and 19 homers for the Mets — for $26 million. Correa’s fielding average for the Twins last season was .983.

— The Twins offered Correa $280 million for 10 years, not $285 million as reported elsewhere. The Cubs offered the same $280 million for 10 years. Correa ended up with $315 million for 12 years from the Mets after his $350 million, 13-year Giants offer fell apart.

After the Giants deal fell through (insiders say it was ownership that wanted Correa more than the baseball office), Correa’s agent, Scott Boras, went back to the Twins, who said they wouldn’t increase their price until they found out what caused San Francisco to back out.

Correa, considering New York state and city taxes, will make less per year from the Mets than he would have from the Twins.

— The Gophers have the 49th-best football recruiting class in the country, per 247Sports. Iowa is No. 30; Wisconsin No. 44.

— One baseball insider described the Twins’ $11 million, one-year signing of lefty-hitting outfielder Joey Gallo, 29, last week as “weird,” comparing him with ex-Twin Miguel Sano, 29. But who knows — maybe the Twins’ analytics geeks see something in Gallo that real baseball doesn’t.

— The Twins used 37 pitchers in finishing third in the American League Central last season.

— For the right deal, the Twins probably could trade with the Mets for right-hander Carlos Carrasco, who has just next season at $14 million left on his contract. Carrasco turns 36 in March, but was 15-7 with a 3.97 ERA last season.

— It’s unlikely Vikings pass rusher Danielle Hunter is going to play for the $5.5 million for which he’s under contract next year.

— Nine Big Ten football teams, including the Gophers, are in bowl games, and the conference will share total bowl payouts, even among schools not in bowl games.

— People who know say Mike Leach, the eccentric Mississippi State football coach who died after a stroke the other day at age 61, had serious interest in the Gophers job after he was fired at Texas Tech in 2009.

— The Gophers women’s basketball team is shooting .711 from the free-throw line. The Gophers men’s team is shooting .588.

— Hugh McCutcheon, 53, the former Gophers volleyball coach who’s now an assistant athletics director, would seem a logical choice to become A.D. when that position becomes available.

— The Hillcrest (Calif.) basketball team, with 7-foot-1 Gophers commitment Dennis Evans, is off to a 3-5 start. Evans is the team’s second-leading scorer, averaging 15.7 points, and leads the team in rebounds with 11.7 and blocks (6.2) per game.

— Golden Valley Country Club will replace fairway grass and grass on greens next year. Cost: $600,000.

Overheard

— McNeil, the legendary sports vender, on today’s sports vending: “I miss the action, but it’s all kind of changed now, having to take the credit card and put it in and print it out — it’s not the old ‘Thank you and goodbye, see you in about 10 minutes.’ ”

Related Articles