Being a Vikings fan through free agency has been like being a guy at a swanky party with a bunch of cool people and hot girls and you become relegated to playing video games in the basement because you won't join the mix.

REGGIE BUSH to Detroit. MIKE WALLACE to Miami. WES WELKER to Denver. And so the beat does not go on around here. Our GM RICK SPIELMAN formulates big opinions and rolls with them, and that's a quality of his personality I very much appreciate. The JARED trade, moving on FAVRE, drafting PERCY, trading Percy, letting SIDNEY leave, trying MOSS, cutting WINFIELD, rolling with PONDER, sitting out high-priced FA and opting to draft to get good for a long time ... the man is not afraid to take a stand. Rick believes "if you give a man a fish he'll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he'll eat forever."

As I discuss daily 9-to-Noon, Rick clearly has a get-young-stay-good theme. Splashing in FA at this point of the build is not his thing and never may be. Who knows, right? That's why I predicted we would not chase Wallace and/or GREG JENNINGS because of their deals and/or age they would be theme-busters. Wallace (too much cash) is gone and unless Jennings comes down on his demands he will not be considered here, either.

There's not a market for Greg Jennings at this moment for some reason, and maybe it's because he wants close to what Wallace garnered or something like GARCON ($21.5 million guaranteed) or VJAX ($27 million promised) received last year? If that's the case and he comes down rather significantly, yeah, I'd bust the theme with him.

If we ended up with Jennings, JARIUS WRIGHT, JEROME SIMPSON, KYLE RUDOLPH and somebody like TAVON AUSTIN (West Virginia) or CORDARRELLE PATTERSON (Tennessee) via the draft we are more than in business. And that stable would be better than what we had last year, even with Percy in uniform. I only would consider Greg Jennings if the deal was like $15 million promised and like $7 to $10 million a year. Not like $12 million a year and plus $20 million guaranteed.

BRIAN URLACHER, the crafty MLB from Chicago, reportedly is in talks with the Vikings. The man who broke the news is MIKE MULLIGAN, a radio and newspaper guy from Chicago for whom I have immense respect. I totally think his steam is accurate.

Urlacher would be entering his 14th year and missed four last year due to injury. He would be a "theme-buster" if somebody locked him up for three or more years with a ton of guaranteed money, but I don't believe that to be the case with him. Yeah, I'd take Brian Urlacher in our colors, even at the end of his career, if the bit was a one- or two-year deal with not much guaranteed, a fair amount yearly and some bonuses that assist him in potentially earning much more.

That type of contract is not a "theme-buster" in my estimation. The insdier steam on him the last couple of years is that he stays blocked too long in the running game and can become a liability. He also reportedly still can cover the middle of the field pretty well in the Tampa Two drop and would be as a good a field general from the middle spot as we have had in quite sometime.

The Vikings with GREENWAY and ERIN HENDERSON are quite good against the run most games. Greenway is an elite tackling LB and Erin is considered very solid versus the run. We may need a LB who assists us covering the pass, and Brian stiill can do that.

Then you draft a cool, stout DT to protect Brian in the running game and have HARRISON behind him and all of a sudden we have become strong up the middle.

So, I am in favor of cutting a deal with Jennings for less money than he wants now and locking up Urlacher to a one- or two-year deal, again, for fair money and feeling better about the offseason from a FA standpoint. Then we can leave the Skyrim game, flirt with the hot girls and join the party.