If you’ve followed our humble little corner of the internet for any length of time Trae Waynes Jersey , you know that we’re generally big fans of the folks at Football Outsiders and their take on the National Football League. As we’ve done in past years, we got the opportunity to ask the folks from FO some questions in conjunction with the release of their annual almanac.This year, Scott Kacsmar is the man that wrote the Vikings’ chapter in the Football Outsiders Almanac, and so he’s going to be answering the questions that I’ve sent his way. You can follow him on the Twitters at @FO_ScottKacsmar for more good, solid football analysis. We got five questions, and hey. . .there’s five days in a (work. . .should have clarified that earlier) week! So, we’ll be doing one question each day this week, and we start with the big question about the purple going into the 2018 NFL season.Let’s get the big, obvious question out of the way first: How significant of an upgrade is Kirk Cousins at quarterback for the Vikings? Are the expectations that come with his contract realistic for him in Minnesota?You can’t help but like this answer for our favorite team. If Cousins, who turned 30 years old just a few days ago, hasn’t "peaked” yet, it’s going to be fun to see what he can do with a full season of being able to work with the likes of Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen, Kyle Rudolph, and a healthy Dalvin Cook. As I’ve said plenty of times in this space before Mackensie Alexander Jersey , this is probably the best supporting cast that Cousins has ever played football with, and given the way he’s looked in the past few seasons with Washington, it’s not a stretch to think that he should look significantly better in Minnesota this year.We’ll have Part 2 (of 5) of our Football Outsiders question series with Scott Kacsmar tomorrow, so keep your eyes right here for that. And, for some of the best analysis of the NFL you can get your hands on, head on over to their store and grab a copy of the 2018 Football Outsiders Almanac. Counting the days until training camp......"Happy Monday, everyone!I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. We had rain......lots of rain, and we even saw a few snow/ice pellets. Thankfully, it finally cleared yesterday and we were able to get outside and have a little fun in the ...........well, it wasn’t sunny, so it wasn’t fun in the sun, I suppose it was fun in the cloudy? Fun in the........something. I dunno, we got outside, anyway. Late last week and over the weekend, there was a bit of a to-and-fro with the Vikings’ tight end group. Rudolph stated that he was too young to take a pay cut (aren’t we all?) Laquon Treadwell Jersey , then later that day, Irv Smith commented that he and Rudy could be a great combination. The Vikings front office might agree with Smith, as a rumor has it that they offered Rudolph an offer for a contract extension, Chris has that story here. I don’t know if the rumor is true, but if it is, I would be surprised, unless it contains little to no guaranteed money. Even if it doesn’t, if it doesn’t reduce this year’s cap hit, I see no reason to float a five year deal to an aging tight end. I’m guessing either the rumor is not true, or the contract offeror was drunk. Being it was Friday, I lean toward the latter.Around the DN since our last open thread:Luft Krigare and the gang are back with Good Morning Gjallahorn episode 051 - Locked on with Luke Braun.Wludford looks at Kirk Cousins and sees lots of stats, but thinks maybe they’re nothing super?Danielle Hunter made the Pro Football Focus Top 25 Under 25 list, per Chris.Other Vikings/NFL news, other sports news, and the occasional oddity or annoyance:Over at Vikings.com Ben Gedeon Jersey , there’s a piece where 3 Vikings made the ‘Top 20 Traded Players in NFL History’ list, they shared 10 moments that defined Brian Robison’s football journey, and NFL Network’s Michael Silver reported on Kyle Rudolph’s status and potential trade value.NFL.com has a list of the NFL’s most complete teams in 2019. They have the Browns at number 3........sigh. Okay, I know the media loves to latch on to catch phrases, and they run with the latest and greatest stories (even if they make little to no sense), but can we just step back and look at the Browns for a second? Everyone is going crazy about a team who went 7-8-1 last year. Now, that’s not a horrible record, it’s almost average, and is better than 0-16, but with the buzz around this team, you’d think they’re nipping on the heels of the Patriots. In the decade, yes DECADE (that’s ten years) preceding last year, they had won a whopping total of 38 games, which put them at an average annual win total of 3.8 games per year. Now, pardon me if I don’t pencil them in as the AFC champs quite yet. I think I’ll let them puta couple winning seasons together first Jaleel Johnson Jersey , or maybe wait for A WINNING SEASON before handing over the Lombardi trophy. Sheesh.We come to today’s media selection:Here’s a great one from Dropkick Murphys. Enjoy!Again, we all know the rules, but in case someone is new:No discussion of politics or religionNo feeding of the trollsThis isn’t a male version of The View, so leave the gender hatred at the doorKeep the bad language to a minimum (using the spoiler tags, if you must)Speaking of which, if discussing a newer show or movie, please use spoiler tagsNo pictures that could get someone fired or in serious trouble with their employerIf you can’t disagree in a civil manner, feel free to go awayWhile navigating the open thread, just assume it’s sarcasmWith that, the beer light is on and the bar is open. Belly up and tie one on. Don’t forget to tip your waitress, and try the cereal and pancakes.