Vikings

Offense

Tice has improved as a coach every season and his players certainly love him. The story appeared in this week’s Sports Illustrated.

Despite Minnesota’s collapse, they are still in good shape for a playoff spot. Plus changing coaching staffs is expensive and McCombs is notoriously cheap.

The team is “confident” they’ll be able to keep him. We’re not so sure. Linehan is expected to be the hottest coordinator on the market. In the open market, he could earn close to what the Vikings pay head coach Mike Tice.

The deal is reportedly worth $625 million. Fowler would be become the first black owner in the NFL. If the sale goes through smoothly, perhaps the dysfunction in Minnesota will start to change.

This looks to be getting serious. It’s a dicey situation, because the Viking have a boatload of cap space this offseason and plenty of defensive needs.

The deal, if it happened, would still have to go through an approval process from the league. The Vikings offseason moves, including Randy Moss, may be on hold until some clarity arrives here.

His contract expires in two weeks. He will be the hottest coordinator on the market, already expected to get interest from Jacksonville.

The team is also battling to get a new stadium. Maybe the new owner will approach the salary cap.

Leiweke has spoken with officials from the Vikings, Chargers, Jaguars, Rams, and Raiders. “We’re not packing any (moving) vans right now,” Leiweke cautioned. But AEG is willing to pay for an NFL franchise to get out of its current lease for a move to Los Angeles. “Just as an example, if it’s San Diego, they would have to pay $24 million under their agreement to get out of the lease,” Leiweke said. “We would pay that.” PFT’s Mike Florio suggests the Vikings as the top candidate to move because the Metrodome lease is up after the 2011 season.

Paton was reportedly one of two finalists for the Rams’ vacant general manager position, with Falcons director of player personnel Les Snead being the other. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the job was Paton’s “to lose.” It’s possible Paton’s decision to stay in Minnesota was due to the fact that new Rams coach Jeff Fisher is expected to have final say on all personnel moves.