Vikings rookie Adrian Battles has good feeling with new job

Turning into a guard from tackle, former MSU college football player Adrian Battles is making progress as a rookie in Minnesota Vikings jersey, and he is confident that he will earn a spot by the time the Vikings have their training camp at Winter Park, where he visited frequently for practice and games when he was a college player for the Minnesota State University.

Battles had a four-year experience of starting at tackle on defensive line during college football career, but since joining the Vikings, he has been transformed to guard on offensive line. He has been at that position the entire two-week Organized Team Activities and will continue to play there in following offseason programs. Battles seems to have adjusted himself well to the new position and said that he was happy to have a chance of learning from big-name players. Playing behind starters Steve Hutchinson and Anthony Herrera and veteran Ryan Cook, Battles is glad to have the opportunity. He was used at both left and right guard during last week’s practices, and coaches were impressed pretty much by the rookie’s good job at both position.

Battles still need to give more excellent performance to earn a real spot with the Vikings, and the rookie is really working hard to reach his goal, so it’s reasonable for him to have the confident that he would be still with the team for the 2010 regular season.

Ex-Vikings DE James was ordered to enter offender program

According to reports by the Associated Press, Washington Redskins defensive end, Erasmus James, who used to play with the Minnesota Vikings, pleaded guilty to a charge of battery and was ordered to enter offender program for observation before local judge makes his final sentence.

Coming from Wisconsin, James was picked by the Vikings in 2005 as a first-round pick. During the three seasons of playing football in Vikings jersey, James had a total of 28 tackles and 5 sacks for 30 yards. He was traded to the Redskins in 2008 but did not play in 2009.

The case involving James is about a bar fight that happened in last November. According to records from the police, James was angered because a bartender refused to offer service as James and his friend arrived after closing time. The argue turned to be fight and the bartender punched one of James’ friend in face. James was arrested later and was charged with felony battery and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

The charge for disorderly conduct was dropped on Tuesday, and instead, the prosecutors charged him with battery. As a result, Dane County Circuit Judge William E. Hanrahan delayed the sentencing and ordered James to take part in the county’s first offender program instead.

Undrafted free agent Sherels is trying his chance with Vikings

Becoming an undrafted free agent after the 2010 NFL draft ended more than a week ago, former Rochester John Marshall cornerback is now wearing Minnesota Vikings in the team’s rookie training camp to try out his chance of joining an NFL team. And he is confident that he would be with the team after giving impressive performance.

"It's the next step after college, all you can ask for is a chance. Yes, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get picked up or drafted.” Said Sherels, “But now, here is the time, everyone's equal, you have to prove everyone wrong, it's time to step up... whoever makes the most plays and impresses the coaches."

Sherels had a brilliant college football career with the John Marshall and the University of Minnesota and has been famous for his quick feet. As every standout college player wishes, Sherels also expects to start his professional NFL career to have more significant achievements. Whether he will get the chance to put on the Vikings jersey will depend on how much he impressed team coaches during the three-day rookie camp. If he makes it, it would be like long-time dream coming true and the relatively short man would definitely do his best to maximize what he can do for the team.

The Saints stole CB Robinson from Vikings?

While previously many peopled expected the New Orleans Saints to add some new outside linebackers and defensive tackles in early draft with their late round picks. However, the Saints made somewhat surprising choice by firstly picking cornerback Patrick Robinson, who was believed to be a target of Minnesota Vikings.

The story went like this. With the 30th overall pick in hands, the Vikings had already planned to draft Robinson when the draft began on Thursday night. With belief that the Indianapolis Colts, Saints and St. Louis Rams had no interest in drafting a cornerback, the Vikings traded their first round pick to the Detroit Lions for second- and third-round picks. However, they were wrong in believing that other teams would follow their plans and the Saints drafted Robinson as their first choice in the draft. So the Vikings had to move back and use the 34th overall pick to draft the perhaps second best cornerback on board, Chris Cook in the second round.

However, such guess does not make much sense considering Vikings’ trade for late picks. If they were really targeting at Robinson, how could they take the risk of losing him to other teams with previous picks? On the other side, it makes much more sense if we consider the Saints’ need of a healthy cornerback. Saints veteran cornerbacks Tracy Porter, Jabari Greer and Randall Gay all have injury issues and missed much time last season because of injuries. To have younger and healthy backup put on Saints jerseys at the position is really a necessary move to the defending champion team.

As expected, Vikings’ first pick is a cornerback

Quitting the first-round draft on Thursday night, the Minnesota Vikings finally made their first choice with their picks in early second round. Quarterback Jimmy Clausen was not the one who put on new Vikings jersey, instead, cornerback Chris Cook was.

The tall, long-armed cornerback from Virginia has been equally to Clausen to Vikings’ pick if they did not trade the 30th overall pick to the Detroit Lions. According to reports, the team could use him either at cornerback or free safety as his size of 6-2 in height and 212 pounds in weight fit well at both positions and his running skills are better than most players in his size. Despite injury and academic issues, Cook still managed to have a solid senior season with the Cavaliers and had a speedy 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine. The Vikings could have been interested in picking him for long and therefore did not hesitate in drafting the cornerback with the 34th overall, the second pick in second-round.

However, as a rookie, there are inevitably problems with Cook, whose main problems are with his instincts and ball skills. But if he is to stay at cornerback, the problems won’t affect his performance much. Even if he is moved to free safety, he could still receive great help from veterans. Already having several experienced veterans at cornerback, Cook is likely to be the forth or fifth cornerback behind Cedric Griffin, Antoine Winfield and Lito Sheppard.