Silly season

It’s preseason, so naturally there are a bunch of fairly useless stories appearing this time of the year about various Viking players and how they have improved or are trying to improve. The Star-Tribune published three recently on Adrian Peterson, John Sullivan and John David Booty.

We’ll see what happens when the games start on Friday. But regardless of what his coaches are saying, I think there is a good chance Peterson will be an improved pass catcher and pass blocker in 2009.

I don’t think pass blocking is that difficult a skill to improve on. Sure, there are pass-rushing schemes to pick up on and little techniques to learn that will make you better at it, but pass blocking appears to be an effort thing. If you want to be a good at it, you will be. Just work hard at it and get your reps in and you’ll improve. Nobody has ever questioned Adrian Peterson’s work ethic and I’m sure he is working hard at it, so he’s got to be a better pass blocker in 2009 than he was in 2008 and 2007.

As for his pass catching, Peterson’s struggle to catch passes last year was puzzling to me. In his rookie season I thought he looked quite good catching passes even though the Vikings didn’t throw it to him very often. Based on his rookie year, I expected Peterson to improve some more and become an even bigger part of the passing game in 2008. Instead, he looked awful catching the ball.

I can’t explain why that happened. Perhaps he lost some confidence. Perhaps he couldn’t get in a rhythm or comfortable catching the ball because Brad Childress and Darrell Bevell always replaced him with Chester Taylor on passing downs.

Whatever the reason, my eyes in 2007 told me Peterson looked like he was capable of becoming a good pass-catching running back in the NFL. So I see no reason why he can’t become a good pass-catching running back in the NFL – in 2009. But the Vikings offensive staff has to trust him and throw to him more. Thus far in Peterson’s career, they haven’t seemed willing to do that

Playing time
I’ve started to fret about Viking players getting injured during exhibition games, something I didn’t worry about at all when I was Viking fan in my teens and 20s. Today Mike Lombardi’s writes about the importance of star players playing a great deal during exhibition games.

He has a point. I’d be horrified if Peterson or Jared Allen were to sustain a season-ending injury during a “meaningless” preseason game. But Lombardi is right to point out that these games aren’t meaningless.

They may not count in the standings but they do help players prepare for the regular season. And you could argue that playing your star players sparingly during the four-game exhibition schedule increases the likelihood they will sustain serious injuries when the “real” games begin. Perhaps these players won’t be in game shape or totally in tune with the speed of the game once the regular season hits, which means they might not protect themselves as well during the “real” games as they otherwise might have if they had played a lot during the exhibition schedule.

Anyway, I hope Peterson or Allen don’t get hurt on Friday.