What Grant's Tomb was reading – Feb. 4, 2012

Here is a roundup of some interesting football stories I came across today – roughly 30 hours before the big game gets underway.

* ESPN 1500's Tom Pelissero has given out individual grades for every player who played for the Vikings offensive and defensive units during the 2011 season. Hard to quibble with any of these grades. When you are a 3-13 team, most of the players should be getting C's and D's. If there is one grade I don't agree with it's giving wide receiver Percy Harvin a B+. What more does he have to do to get an A? Defensive end Jared Allen (who Pelissero gave an A-) is a fantastic player, but at least he had Brian Robison, Kevin Williams and even Everson Griffen to help him out. Harvin? His wide receiving colleagues included Michael Jenkins, Bernard Berrian, Devin Aromashodu and Greg Camarillo. And he frequently was shackled by playing with quarterbacks who were either washed up (Donovan McNabb) or young and didn't know what they were doing (Joe Webb and Christian Ponder). Considering those facts, it's amazing Harvin piled up the stats he did. I would have given him an A.

* With the 2011 NFL season just a day away from being over, it's time to start thinking seriously about free agency. Access Vikings Mark Craig did just that this week, focusing on potential Viking free agent targets at wide receiver. The two guys on this list that scare me the most are DeSean Jackson and Stevie Johnson – two talented but mercurial players who could be divisive locker room influences if times are lean (as expected) for the Vikings in 2012. It's always "buyer beware" during free agency, but with these two guys, that's even more the case than usual.

* Pioneer Press Vikings beat writer Jeremy Fowler posted a blog yesterday looking at the key in-house free agents the Vikings must make decisions on this offseason. Myself and Adam Warwas from the Vikings Territory blog gave readers our opinions on most of these guys this week (you can read about it here and here.) I see Letroy Guion and Husain Abdullah coming back. The Vikes seem lukewarm on Erin Henderson. The rest of these free agents – E.J. Henderson, Visanthe Shiancoe and Fred Evans – are gone.

* And finally, the 2012 NFL Hall of Fame class will be announced today at 5 p.m. Eastern standard time. ESPN North blogger Kevin Seifert examines why Vikings great Chris Carter has yet to get into Canton despite an impressive resume. Seifert's points are all extremely valid and I don't like Carter's chances this year. But after watching him do his thing at wide receiver with the Vikings for many a year, I sure would like to see him get in this year. It would be nice for Chris Doleman to get the nod as well. But that's not going to happen.