FanHouse

Okay, you know the drill -- it's minicamp/OTA season, so the usual rules apply about making any long-term judgments based on non-contact performances in the middle of May. With that out of the way, this is good news:

Evaluating this week's voluntary practices, [head coach Brad] Childress said: "We got a lot done here in these four days, just kind of set the tempo. I thought the guys did a great job out here. There's a couple of competitive periods a day, and I thought they did a great job of competing."

Among the highlights was the play of wide receiver Troy Williamson, who might be seeing some early benefits from the hand-eye exercises he has been practicing since a vision evaluation in early March at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore.

"The fact that he's worked extremely hard, I think he's built a lot of equity in the offseason catching the number of balls that he caught," Childress said.

The real estate references seem like a bit much, but I take Childress' point. It's easy to pull for Troy Williamson despite his struggles as a former top-10 pick. For starters, he's taken full responsibility for playing like crap. That shouldn't be a big deal, but in the NFL, it is. Second, instead of blaming everybody else, he spent the off-season working to eliminate his weaknesses. (And when you list your profession on your W-4 as "NFL wide receiver," having vision problems certainly qualify as a weakness.)

Now let's just hope he finally has that breakout season. Because frankly, this could be Williamson's last chance with the Vikings. That Minnesota signed Bobby Wade isn't much of a threat to Williamson's future -- at least, it shouldn't be, anyway -- but the team did draft three wideouts last month, including Sidney Rice in the second round.

Previously at FanHouse
Troy Williamson's Hands Aren't the Problem, His Eyes Are
At Least Troy Williamson Is Honest