In his opening comments today during his news conference, coach Brad Childress brought up the fact that of the 53 players on his roster only No. 3 quarterback Sage Rosenfelsand rookie center Jon Cooper have yet to play this season. NFL teams are only allowed to have 45 players active on game day, so obviously Childress has mixed it up at times.
“It struck me from the standpoint that typically you usually have about the same eight guys up and down," Childress said a day after the Vikings' 35-9 victory over Seattle. "At least that’s my [memory] of it. Guys that you just knew weren’t going to have a chance unless there was something that went on. For instance, for us to have five safieties up, those guys are all very viable guys. Not only in the kicking game but I think Jamarca Sanford jumped in and played eight snaps. Husain Abdullah jumped in. You know he trains at corner, at safety, at nickel and then is a very good special-teams player. I don’t know a lot of teams if you look through game-day deactivations that are carrying five [safeties] up. Most people carry three up. I think you don’t get locked into any one set of numbers that you have to have this many guys up. You want to bring the guys up that are productive and doing things.”
Childress said the fact he has faith in so many of his players also creates acompetitive environment. "You see those guys grow and they are really vying during the work week here to be one of those 45 and contribute anyway they can," he said. "So that’s gratifying and it gives your locker room a little more juice from the standpoint that they know they’ve all got a chance to go if they show up and do well.”
Some other notes from Childress' news conference:
-- Childress on if Sunday's victory was the most complete game the Vikings haveplayed since he took over as coach in 2006: "Without going back through each one, it was pretty good. It was a good job Ithought in all phases and nobody let off. Whether it was their offensive drive before halftime, the defense ramping it up and getting us the ball back. There were a couple ofblips.The screen pass that they got out [for a 47-yard gain in the fourth quarter]but it was a good overall effort."
--Childress on being able to rest Favre in the fourth quarter Sunday because of the Vikings' lead: "That's obviously the big thing that went along with it. It's rare that you have the luxury to be able to do that. But Idon't think you can discount it as we go later into the season. He's never going to fight you on it but he wants to win and he loves to compete. He'd be the first to tell you that he's not in it to practice every day. But he loves those Sundays.I didn't have to arm wrestle him or anything like that but it was nice."
-- Childress on how close cornerback Antoine Winfield came to playing before the decision was made to sit him out for a fourth consecutive game: "He wanted to [play] but Joe [Woods, the Vikings defensive backs coach]took him out and worked him out and he's close. I'll just so that. He's close."