Restoring The Purple Pride - A 2011 Minnesota Vikings Franchise

[Mit]

Game: Madden 12
Difficulty: Custom (in between All-Pro and All-Madden)
Quarter Length: 11 Minutes w/ 15 second run-off

[Mit]

2011 NFL Draft Recap



1st Round (#12 Overall): Christian Ponder - QB - Florida State
2nd Round (#43 Overall): Kyle Rudolph - TE - Notre Dame
4th Round (#106 Overall): Christian Ballard - DT - Iowa
5th Round (#139 Overall): Brandon Burton - CB - Utah
6th Round (#168 Overall): Demarcus Love - OL - Arkansas
6th Round (#170 Overall): Mistral Raymond - DB - South Florida
6th Round (#172 Overall): Brandon Fusco - OL - Slippery Rock
6th Round (#200 Overall): Ross Homan - LB - Ohio State
7th Round (#215 Overall): D'Aundre Reed - DE - Arizona
7th Round (#236 Overall): Stephen Burton - WR - West Texas A&M

[Mit]

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Reserved 5. You may post now.

[Mit]

By ESPN Analyst Adam Schefter

BREAKING NEWS OUT OF MINNESOTA
GM Mit set to take over Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings front office made a move today to let their old general manager, Rick Spielman go, and hire Mit to the position. Mit is set to take over a Minnesota Vikings team that is far from polished. It needs work at almost every single position and it also needs to sign some key extensions, especially for WR Percy Harvin. The team fired Head Coach Brad Childress after the Vikings started off 3-7. Interim coach Leslie Frazier took over and went 3-3, to finish out the season at 6-10. There were a few key players that decided to leave the team in the offseason, including QB Brett Favre and DT Pat Williams. The Vikings front office decided to draft QB Christian Ponder with the first round pick and a few other good young players. They picked up some veterans in the offseason too in Michael Jenkins and Donavan McNabb. However, this team is far from contention. Mit is taking over to try and turn this team around with his three year plan that he outlined today at the press conference.

What is the three year plan?
The three year plan is a framework for success that GM Mit laid out today. GM Mit said that it will take them three more years until they are able to seriously contend. He stated some of the objectives for the team.

1. We must build around Ponder. We must give him the proper weapons, blockers, and coaching to succeed. We drafted him in the 1st round and we will groom him to be our starter.

2. There needs to be dramatic changes with the secondary, whether through the draft or free agency. Winfield is getting old, Griffin is always injured, and nobody else has stood out in the secondary. It was continuously exploited last season and will be this season too.

3. We need to get some offensive lineman too. We lack serious depth at that position.

Key Additions
QB Donavan McNabb (from WAS)
WR Michael Jenkins (from ATL)

Key Losses
DT Pat Williams (to FA)
DE Ray Edwards (to ATL)
WR Sidney Rice (to SEA)
OL Bryant McKinnie (to BAL)

The Vikings didn't do too much in the offseason, so their team hasn't improved at all since last season. They also lost key players on both offense and defense and didn't do much to replace them. Brian Robison is set to take over the other DE position across from Jared Allen. The Vikings lost a huge playmaker in Sidney Rice and didn't do anything to replace him. Michael Jenkins is a huge possession receiver, but he's far from being a playmaker. The Vikings need impact players immediately to be able to do anything this season and GM Mit might make a move soon.

[dj_morton]

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