10 Things

To pass the slow pre-training camp days of July here are 10 football things that have been on my mind.

1. Minnesota Vikings football. This is a 24/7 thing so it's no surprise. What will Pat Shurmur's offense look like? How will the line play together? Who will emerge from the training camp battles at center, weak-side linebacker, nickel, defensive tackle, and other position competitions that might arise? Will there be another Adam Thielen or Marcus Sherels that emerges from the back of pack? The Vikings are never far from my thoughts.

2. Did Tom Brady suffer a concussion? I don't understand why this has been an offseason conversation. He said that he didn't suffer a concussion last season. His wife said he did? Actually, I do know why it's been an offseason conversation. It's Tom Brady. And his wife is involved. And it's concussions. Whenever concussions are mentioned these days, the finger of blame is always pointed at the league. The players aren't innocent. They always know when they're "bell is rung" and most will always play through them. It's a team spot. It's a team issue.

3. Gil Brandt's "Greatest players he's seen" lists have been great. It seems like they innocently started as a twitter curiosity and now they're an NFL.com feature. Brandt has seen so much football and so many players that his lists are a blast. And they're legit. Why he has Dan Dierdorf at center and Doug Atkins at defensive tackle is a mystery.

4. NFL Network's annual Top 100 lists are fun. I urge everyone to forget about the actual rankings and enjoy the commentary. Those are often informative and routinely hilarious.

5. I really like the the coaching staff that new Cal head coach Justin Wilcox put together. Cal made the coaching change from Sonny Dykes to Wilcox a few weeks later than most college coaching changes are made. It's a tough task for any new coach to put together a top notch coaching staff. It's even more so when that coach is doing so for the very first time. Add to that the challenges of doing this in the middle of January when most available assistants are no longer available. Offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin will probably be hiring his own assistant coaches soon. I'm just hoping that Cal has him for at least two seasons.

6. If I had a say in the Senior Finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection, and I should!, the two finalists for the 2018 Class would be:
Lavvie Dilweg
Al Wistert
If the voters have closed the doors on players that played more than 60 years ago they better open them. Both Dilweg and Wistert have been overlooked for far too long. Dilweg last played in 1934 and probably should've been in one of the first 10-15 Hall classes. Wistert should've soon followed. We've had over 50 classes.

7. More Vikings. The Minnesota Vikings haven't had a 1,000-yard receiver since Sidney Rice caught passes from Brett Favre in 2009. Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs had over 900 yards last season. So there's hope in Minnesota that the 1000-yard receiving drought could be nearing an end. The Vikings have pieced together a very intriguing and talented receiver group.
Stefon Diggs
Adam Thielen
Laquon Treadwell
Michael Floyd
Jarius Wright
Rodney Adams
Stacy Coley
Isaac Fruechte
Moritz Boehringer
Cayleb Jones
R.J. Shelton
The battle for the final receiver spots on the roster should be fierce. In recent years, the Vikings struggled to field NFL-level starters. Now there should be NFL-level talent 5-6 players deep.

8. I've been curious curious as to what the Carolina Panthers have planned for Christian McCaffrey and Curtis Samuel since the day they were drafted. Should be fun.

9. More curiosity. I'm also looking forward to seeing how the San Francisco 49ers plan to use recent first round line defensive line picks Arik Armstead, DeForest Buckner, and Solomon Thomas. Each has the talent and traits to play just about anywhere on the line. Offensive linemen might not know who they're facing on each snap until the ball is snapped.

10. Football is fun.

11. A bonus thought. After Derek Carr signed his giant, new contract with the Oakland Raiders there was a lot of talk about the rich, young thrower leaving money on the table for the benefit of his teammates. This supposedly team-friendly contract made Carr the first $25 million/year player in league history. Contract numbers can be broken down in so many ways but few, if any, players have ever been paid more than what Carr is scheduled to be paid. If Carr had really signed a team-friendly contract he wouldn't be the highest paid player in league history.