Vexed Vikings scramble to catch up

On paper, the Minnesota Vikings are lining up for the NFC North race wearing leg irons and a sack pulled up to their chins.

It's not that they can't win. This is the National Football League, after all.

But when compared with the stability that the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions carry over from last season, the Vikings have a long way to go before they catch the teams that aren't quite as far behind the proverbial 8-ball. That's their reality, thanks to the league's 4 ½-month lockout and the revised practice rules in the new labour deal.

"Yeah, but how many times do you see teams stacked No. 1 on paper not come through?" Vikings defensive end Jared Allen said. "How many years have we been stacked No. 1 and not won the Super Bowl? Every year stands on its own."

The lockout and new practice rules came at a terrible time for the Vikings and other teams in transition. In the Vikings' case, the biggest of many hurdles to clear is introducing a new offence with a new co-ordinator and a new quarterback who received his playbook a week ago.

"We're in uncharted territory," offensive co-ordinator Bill Musgrave said. "We've never been through anything like this, whether as a coach or a player. We're trying to be smart in whittling down the volume that we present to the players. We want to be diverse and difficult to defend on offence, but at the same time, we want to know what the hell we're doing."

That's obviously not something Aaron Rodgers and the defending Super Bowl champion Packers are having to worry about.

"Does Green Bay have an advantage right now because their offence has been together?" Allen asked. "Yeah, but our defence has been together, too. So we feel we have an advantage, too. We also have that hunger and desire to get off our butts and get back to the top of the NFC North."

Besides the usual off-season training regimen, the Vikings also missed out on having two mandatory mini-camps. Coach Leslie Frazier, who had his interim tag removed in January, would have been given the extra mini-camp.

Once the lockout ended and training camps opened, teams couldn't hit the ground running. Fullcontact drills were prohibited for the first three days, and veterans who changed teams or restructured their contracts were sidelined until the new collective bargaining agreement was ratified Thursday.

The latter rule meant the Vikings went the first three days without their No. 1 quarterback, three of their top four receivers, and starters at nose tackle, outside linebacker, strong safety and left tackle. Overweight left tackle Bryant McKinnie was released on Tuesday and replaced by Charlie Johnson, who got his playbook less than a week ago.

Throw in right guard Anthony Herrera's spot on the physicallyunable-to-perform list and All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson's excused three-day absence to be with his fiancee for the birth of their son and, well, let's just say there's some overall catching up to be done ASAP.

"But it's not like we don't have time," cornerback Antoine Winfield said. "We have all the way up to Sept. 11. The pre-season is long, so there's time. I think we can catch up in a couple weeks. I don't see a problem."

Under the revised practice rules, two-a-day, full-padded practices are eliminated. Teams are limited to 4 ½ hours on the field a day for training camp. Padded practices are limited to three hours and a second practice is permitted, but must be a walkthrough with no pads or helmets. Teams also can't practise more than six consecutive days.

"One of our big concerns over the past couple years has been player safety, and this is definitely going to help with that," defensive tackle Kevin Williams said. "That's all you heard the past couple years was concussions and player safety in general. With all the rule changes in the games, why not make the practices a little lighter?"

New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott criticized the new practice rules and suggested it could have the reverse effect and result in more injuries during the season.

"I think it's wimping out, making football more soft," Scott told the Newark Star-Ledger. "I get concerned you're making football players weaker because you don't push them past that threshold."

Vikings tight end Jim Kleinsasser said he believes the Vikings can adapt quickly and make up ground on other teams. But he admits the journey has been a strange one, to say the least.

"We have 90 guys in camp," Kleinsasser said. "A lot of us are still learning guys' faces. There's probably half these guys I've never seen before."

Schuening rejoins Raider Nation

PENDLETON — Roy Schuening is making his fourth attempt at an NFL roster as he joins the Oakland Raiders for the second time.
The 2002 Pendleton High School graduate and All-Pac 10 tackle/guard at Oregon State signed with the Raiders after the NFL lockout ended.
Schuening had spent nearly four months with the Raiders in 2009 and made the active roster, only to be released two days later when the team signed quarterback J.P. Losman.
Schuening was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the fifth round of the 2008 draft and spent time on the team’s practice squad before being waived. He had signed with the Detroit Lions in 2010 but an arm injury made him a training camp cut.
Last fall he was an assistant coach for the Pendleton Buckaroos varsity football team.
— East Oregonian

Sports Minute: Here is the latest Michigan sports news from The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) - The Texas Rangers ended a 3-game losing streak by beating the Detroit Tigers yesterday 5-2. Alexi Ogando became the first pitcher to defeat Detroit three times in a season after allowing two runs over six-plus innings. Brad Penny took the loss after giving up five runs on 11 hits.

ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) - Detroit Lions defensive end Cliff Avril has returned to work less than a day after welcoming a son. Avril signed a 1-year qualifying offer worth about $3 million yesterday morning. The 4-year veteran had a career-best 8.5 sacks last season.

LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) - Michigan will face Memphis in the championship round of the EA Sports Maui Invitational. Kansas, Duke and UCLA will also be competing in the tournament this November. The event is expanding from four to eight teams this year.

CHICAGO (AP) - Ivan Nova had a career-high ten strikeouts last night as the New York Yankees topped the Chicago White Sox 7-2. Nova's performance helped the Yankees complete the 4-game sweep and win their seventh straight game. Adam Dunn homered for Chicago, who has lost six games in a row.

Lions DT Fairley has surgery on left foot

ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — Detroit Lions rookie defensive tackle Nick Fairley had surgery on his injured left foot Wednesday.

The team said in a statement that he will miss a "significant portion" of training camp. Detroit opens the preseason at home against Cincinnati on Aug. 12. The Lions start the regular season at Tampa Bay on Sept. 11.

Fairley, the Lombardi Trophy winner at national champion Auburn last season, was injured Monday and in a walking cast a day later after X-rays showed no significant damage.

He was sent to Charlotte, N.C., for further evaluation Wednesday morning, and Dr. Bob Anderson performed the surgery. The team did not provide details on the procedure.

The 6-foot-4, 298-pound Fairley was drafted 13th in April's draft to complement a defensive line that includes Ndamukong Suh and Kyle Vanden Bosch.

Fairley had 11½ sacks last season and a total of 24 stops behind the line for Auburn.

The Lions have finally started to roll in the Motor City, closing last season with four wins and a 6-10 record two years after being the NFL's first 0-16 team. Suh was a big reason, and Detroit chose to beef up perhaps its strongest unit by drafting Fairley.

His progress, already slowed by the lockout, is now on hold again.

Detroit has already had to put defensive back Alphonso Smith and offensive tackle Jeff Backus on the active/non-football injury list. Smith broke his left foot, and Backus is recovering from a pectoral injury.

Detroit Lions practice in pads for first time

ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — Training camp unofficially started for the Detroit Lions on Tuesday.

For some players, anyway.

Although the team has been practicing since late last week, coach Jim Schwartz had them in full pads for the first time Tuesday. The rise in intensity was obvious, especially after a lackluster practice Monday morning.

"We finally got to knock the dust off today," tight end Brandon Pettigrew said. "You prepare during the entire offseason to build up to training camp, even if it was a little different this year. But it isn't the same until you get the pads on and actually get to do some hitting."

One notable absence was rookie defensive tackle Nick Fairley, who was in a walking boot after injuring his foot Monday. X-rays were negative, but Schwartz said Fairley was undergoing more tests.

Schwartz had said as late as Monday that he didn't know when his first full-padded practice would be, but his disappointment in that day's workout made the decision.

"These are football players, and they want to be in football situations," he said. "You could see the intensity pick up as soon as they got into pads today."

One day in pads, though, won't solve Schwartz's other problems in the new post-lockout NFL — issues he shares with 31 other head coaches. The Lions have more than 20 players that are unable to practice until the league year officially begins Thursday.

"We'll be back in shorts on Wednesday, and then we've moved Thursday's practice back to the evening," he said. "If the league year does start Thursday, we don't know if it will be at 12:01 a.m., or at noon, or maybe even 6 p.m., so we're going to practice at 6.

"You don't want to practice at 8 in the morning, have the league year start at noon and let everyone practice with full rosters."

If the sidelined players are allowed to work out on Thursday, that means another day without pads.

"There's no way that you are going to put guys in full pads on their first day," he said. "These guys did a great job of keeping in shape on their own during the offseason, but it isn't the same as going through the normal routine here.

"Even Kyle Vanden Bosch, who is as fanatical as anyone about being in shape, told me that he needed a couple days to get his football legs back. We don't know where these 23 or 24 guys fall on that spectrum."

The other change, of course, is the elimination of two-a-day workouts. Normally, the Lions would have followed up Tuesday's full-padded practice with another tough workout in the afternoon. Now they are reduced to a short walkthrough.

"People are calling it practice," Schwartz said of the second practice. "Even Allen Iverson could walk through with no helmets and everything. It's a walk-through without helmets. Technically it's a two-a-day, but when the second practice is a walkthrough, I don't view it as a two-a-day."

Although Schwartz sees the elimination of two-a-days as a loss of crucial teaching time, his players don't have the same opinion.

"There's not one person here who is upset about losing that second practice," veteran defensive tackle Corey Williams said. "Nobody is sad about that."

Lions glad to have linebacker Stephen Tulloch aboard

Matt Burke walked out to Lions practice Monday and was greeted by the usual chorus of good-mornings and how-do-you-dos.

"Much better," the linebackers coach said. "Thank you."

Burke and the rest of the Lions were all smiles Monday as they welcomed new middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch.

The Lions pursued Tulloch aggressively at the start of free agency last Tuesday, with coach Jim Schwartz calling at 10 a.m. when the market opened, and defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch and safety Louis Delmas phoning their friend as well.

Tulloch said he never doubted he'd be a Lion, though the deal took longer than expected to get done. He agreed to a one-year contract early Sunday morning.

"Schwartz is the main reason why I chose the Lions," said Tulloch, who played three seasons for Schwartz in Tennessee. "Schwartz believed in me back in 2006 when I first came out of (North Carolina) State. I heard the story about how they drafted me. They were going to draft another guy that went to Green Bay, and Schwartz went upstairs and told (head coach Jeff Fisher), 'This is the guy that we want.'

"He believed in me -- gave me an opportunity. Like I always told Schwartz, I'm indebted to you for giving me the chance to play in this league and show my ability."
 
LB takes short deal, long view

Tulloch waited two years to cash in on free agency, and when he finally hit the open market last week he found it "flooded" beyond belief.

The NFL's second-leading tackler a year ago, Tulloch officially signed a one-year, $3.25-million deal with the Lions on Monday.

If that seems like a bit of a bargain for one of the game's most productive middle linebackers, it is. And it's part of the trickle-down effect from the owners' decision to opt out of the NFL's last collective bargaining agreement in 2008.

That decision changed free-agent rules for the 2010 season, requiring players to have six years of service instead of the normal four before becoming unrestricted.

Free agency returned to four seasons after the lockout, and with more players to choose from and less money to spend (thanks to the return of a salary cap) teams such as the Lions were able to pick and choose in a buyer's market.

"You're looking at a market that generally is 250 players and the market this year is pretty much double that," Tulloch said. "I guess you can say that (there wasn't as much interest in some veterans) and the fact that the free-agent market was shortened and everything was a rush."

The Lions added two more defensive starters on short-term free-agent deals: cornerback Eric Wright and linebacker Justin Durant. Wright signed a one-year contract, and Durant got two years.

Cornerback Chris Houston also re-signed for two seasons.

"I had opportunities to go for a multiyear deal, and I just wanted to come here and show what I'm all about, show what I can do and earn it," Tulloch said. "I want to earn it. I want to show the coaches that I can come out here and be productive and help this team. So I felt like a one-year deal is the best opportunity for me to do that."

The Lions, meanwhile, retained some roster flexibility by not spending superfluously this off-season.

Defensive end Cliff Avril, a restricted free agent, will need a long-term deal before next March to keep him off the market; new contracts for 25-and-under core players Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford and Ndamukong Suh aren't too far off in the horizon; and Tulloch and Wright will have to be re-signed, or their replacements procured if they go elsewhere.

Schwartz said this year's free-agent strategy was right for a team that had specific holes to fill in its back seven and is committed to building long term. Tulloch, Durant and Wright are all 26 or younger.

"I think the thing to remember is every one of the players we've signed we have a very specific role in mind for them," Schwartz said. "They fit that job description and that's what we were worried about. We weren't worried about, 'Well, we've got a help-wanted sign at a certain position. That guy doesn't fit but let's take him anyway.' We take the position of saying, 'Hey, let's get good football players, let's put them on the field, let's worry about the other stuff later.' "

Lions lose DE Turk McBride to Saints

The Detroit Lions are losing some depth on their defensive line.
Backup defensive end Turk McBride agreed to terms with the New Orleans Saints today.
McBride, who confirmed the signing via text message, had five sacks last year and started eight games while Kyle Vanden Bosch and Cliff Avril were dealing with injuries.
Avril has yet to sign his restricted free-agent tender, but he’s expected to return at the Lions’ most well-stocked position. Vanden Bosch, Lawrence Jackson and Willie Young also are in the playing group at defensive end, and Ndamukong Suh, Corey Williams, Sammie Hill, Andre Fluellen and rookie Nick Fairley make up a five-deep rotation at tackle.
The Lions also signed free-agent defensive lineman Quinn Pitcock last week.