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| rett Favre |
| John Sullivan |
| Adrian Peterson |
| Percy Harvin |
| Sidney Rice |
| Brett Favre |
Vikes Will Find Out If
Missing Stars Have Effect
MANKATO, Minn. Join the Conduit Affiliate Program!J
The Minnesota Vikings want another season from their offense just like the last one.
The reunion has been difficult to organize.
One week into training camp, the Vikings - heard this one before? - still don't have a commitment to play from ageless quarterback Brett Favre. All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson has been bothered by soreness and tightness in his left leg. Their top two wide receivers, Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin, aren't on the field. Even their starting center, John Sullivan, has been held out because he hurt his right calf muscle.
The opener at New Orleans remains more than a month away, so these absences are not yet cause for alarm. So how important is this time together for a veteran team? Well, the Vikings will find out if all these absences by important players in early August affect their rhythm when it counts in September and thereafter.
"I worry for those guys because you don't get another time at missed snaps," coach Brad Childress said.
Favre's arrival a year ago triggered a flourish by the offense unseen in Minnesota since Randy Moss's final year in 2004, and the swagger the Vikings developed rivaled that of the 1998 team that went 15-1 and set the later-broken NFL record for most points in one season. With the exception of backup running back Chester Taylor, the entire unit that finished second in the league in scoring behind the Super Bowl champion Saints is on track to return.
Favre, of course, didn't join the Vikings last year until three weeks of practice were completed. Though wide receiver Bernard Berrian's nagging right hamstring injury hampered his familiarity with Favre, the rest of the team had no problem.
This season, whether Favre comes back or not, the Vikings will again have to prove their ability to develop cohesion for the regular season - and in a shorter window, too.
Peterson returned to practice on Friday morning in pads, but his participation was limited to individual drills. Rice remains on the physically unable to perform list while rehabilitating his injured hip, and Harvin has missed six straight days following the death of his grandmother.
Plus, Peterson didn't work out with the team at headquarters during the winter and spring, skipping the mandatory minicamp for a personal event. Rice and Harvin were mostly away from Winter Park, too. Favre has been practicing with high school kids in Mississippi, while his left ankle recovers from surgery, but he hasn't thrown a pass to the Vikings since January.
"The guys that are out there right now, I think we're developing a good rhythm these last couple days," said running back Albert Young, who has filled in on the first team with Peterson resting. "You can only work with the guys that are out there."
Favre's success last year was an argument against the importance of two-a-day practices, but teams don't schedule them for no reason.
"Camp is huge. Every team in the league is trying to find an identity right now," Young said.
Left guard Steve Hutchinson brushed off any frustration that the absent stars might be causing the offense in the preparation process for the season.
"You're always going to have tweaks and bumps and bruises and guys in and out of camp, so you just learn to deal with that," Hutchinson said. "The offense has just got to keep going. You can't stop or slow down because Adrian's not running the ball or Sidney's been out or Percy. You run the same routes. You run the same plays, and guys have to step up."
Rice said he's not concerned.
"I feel like we've gotten a lot of work in minicamp," he said. "Hopefully it's not going to take too much longer to get healthy and get back out there, get a couple of snaps with those guys."
Rice added: "I think everything is still going well. We've got leaders on this team that know how to handle themselves and we're holding each other accountable to our own job. So we're not going to let any kind of distractions hold us back."
Peterson was not made available for questions following his first practice in three days. Childress declined to put a timetable on the process of putting him back in full-team drills.
"As a coach you want every guy to take every turn. That's the way we're wired. Reps are the best thing. No substitute for 'em," he said, adding: "As much as I want him to ... right now that's not the prudent thing to do."
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