What does Rudolph drill mean?

MANKATO, Minn. -- Got a solution to the Vikings' problem with birds hitting the new stadium and dying.

Let's think about this. Birds flying into building. Legendary coach who loves shooting birds. That's it!

Put Bud Grant out in front of the stadium. The man is known to be a little miserly. All you have to do is give him $50 bucks, a tank of gas, and free shotgun shells.

Birds fly toward stadium. Bud lets loose. Dinner for everyone.

What could go wrong?

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Why would the Vikings sign tight end Kyle Rudolph to a $36.5 million contract?

After spending three days with the team in Mankato, what struck me is that this team, after a couple decades of turmoil, has a chance to be somewhat stable.

Denny Green won a lot of games, but the organization was never calm when he was around.

Mike Tice was turmoil personified. Brad Childress was constantly battling with quarterbacks or bosses. Leslie Frazier was a calm and wonderful human, but he wasn't hired by the general manager who runs the team, so he was always in limbo.

Now you have a head coach hired by the general manager he works for who cares about nothing other than winning games. You have a coaching staff that Vikings employees say is already making a difference. And one of those coaches, offensive coordinator Norv Turner, is capable of building one of the best offenses in the NFL out of the parts he's assembling.

The worst contracts in sports are those that reward what a player has already done. This one projects what the Vikings expect Rudolph to do.

Jay Novacek played five seasons in the NFL before playing in Turner's offense in Dallas. His best season pre-Norv: 38 catches, 569 yards, four touchdowns.

His first season with Norv and a budding offense: 59-657-4. His best season with Norv: 68-630-6.

Rudolph is bigger and stronger than Novacek, and about as fast. Turner spoke this weekend about teaching Rudolph to run more fluid routes, which should enable him to get deep more often, and to catch the ball in stride and run with it more often.

Assuming decent quarterback play, Rudolph could have a breakout season this year, or next.

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Key player to watch? Maybe Sharrif Floyd. He's lighter this year. I don't know if that's a sign that he's hungry and in better shape, or a desperate move for a player who didn't make an impact as a rookie.

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