Vikings well-represented on mid-season lists

Several Vikings were given mid-season all-pro honors by two national publications. Two Vikings were represented on both lists, but one of the team’s best players was left off both lists.

With eight games in the books for every team except Houston and the New York Giants, who are the last teams to have their bye weeks, it is time for the national football publications to name their midseason All-Pro teams and the Vikings are well represented.

Both Sports Illustrated and Pro Football Weekly named their midseason all-star teams, and Jared Allen and Percy Harvin were named to both. Peter King, senior writer for SI, named Allen as his midseason Defensive Player of the Year and Harvin as his midseason Offensive Rookie of the Year. In addition, King named Kevin Williams as one of his picks for All-Pro defensive tackle.

In his piece for SI.com, King said that after only eight games, Harvin has supplanted Chicago’s Devin Hester as the league’s most dangerous combination of wide receiver and kick returner. King also named Brett Favre his Comeback Player of the Year for the first half of the season.

PFW went a step further, making Harvin and Adrian Peterson unanimous selections to its mid-season All-Pro teams and Allen as one its starting defensive ends. They join only five other players as unanimous selections – QB Peyton Manning, RB Chris Johnson, OT Ryan Clady, S Darren Sharper and punt returner Joshua Cribbs.

If there was a surprise among the lists, it was that neither picked perennial Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson to their first team. Hutchinson, who has been battling a back injury much of the season, was left off both teams, which named Jahri Evans of the Saints as the top guard in the NFC this season.

While midseason grades don’t necessarily play into how well a team will do in the second half of the year, it is encouraging to see so many Vikings being mentioned among the NFL elite.

WEDNESDAY NOTES

The Vikings return to the practice field for their first full post-bye practice today at Winter Park. They had an abridged practice on Monday.

It appears as though the three-game home stand the Vikings will embark on starting this week and running through the end of the month will be available on TV for Vikings fans. The team announced Tuesday afternoon that fewer than 1,000 tickets remain for both the Detroit and Seattle games, and the Chicago game Nov. 29 has all but sold out.

Good news for those looking to get tickets for Sunday’s game, it is expected that 300 to 400 tickets reserved for the Lions will be returned this afternoon.

In other midseason list news, USA Today named Brad Childress as its midseason NFC Coach of the Year.

Former Vikings kicker Steve Hauschka’s NFL career took a downturn when he missed a game-winning field goal against the Vikings last month. Now it looks as though his job is on the line. The Ravens brought in free-agent kickers Billy Cundiff and Mike Nugent for workouts. It is unclear whether the workouts were intended to light a fire under Hauschka or if it is a sign that his days in Baltimore are numbered.

There are already rumblings that the NFL might opt to switch the Vikings to at least one additional Sunday night game as the flex schedule begins next week. In Arizona, there is a strong belief that the Vikings-Cardinals game will be flexed out to Sunday night. Considering they are both division leaders, the move would make sense.

Former Vikings RB Maurice Hicks worked out with the Bears on Tuesday.

The Giants had a 13-player cattle call of workouts Tuesday. Among them was former Vikings CB Marcus McCauley, according to Pro Football Talk.

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John Holler has been writing about the Vikings for more than a decade for Viking Update. Follow Viking Update on Twitter and discuss this topic on our message boards. To become a subscriber to the Viking Update web site or magazine, click here.

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