Welcome to Around the Horns, our daily look at what's happening on the Vikings beat:
Antoine Winfield may have decided to retire after the Seahawks released him two weeks ago, but the veteran cornerback hasn't filed his paperwork with the league yet to make it official.
According to Sean Jensen of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Winfield's agent, Ashanti Webb, is preaching patience with the 36-year-old cornerback, telling him to wait and make sure he made the right decision before he finalizes his exit from the NFL.
"Antoine has played 14 years in the league, and he has had a beautiful career, and there's not much else for him to accomplish. But as his agent, I want him comfortable with that decision next week, next month," Webb said in the article. He added that while several teams have "checked in" on Winfield, the Vikings haven't made a strong push.
"He was there for basically a decade, so Minnesota will always hold a special place in his heart. But I haven't heard anything substantive from them to bring back to Antoine."
For Vikings fans, that's the important point here. The team's young secondary struggled on Sunday against the Detroit Lions, and Josh Robinson, Winfield's replacement in the slot, will continue to be tested both as a pass defender and an open-field tackler. But if the Vikings were pushing hard to bring Winfield back, it's hard to believe something wouldn't already be done. Winfield was stung by his initial exit from Minnesota, and fences would have to be mended, but the details of offering him a one-year contract at the veteran's minimum wouldn't be hard to iron out.
Coach Leslie Frazier has said he'd welcome the opportunity to work with Winfield, but wasn't interested in talking a player out of retirement. And if the Vikings brought Winfield back, they'd only be delaying the point at which they'd have to figure out how to win without him. Unless something changes with the team's situation, it's tough to see anything new happening with a Winfield return.
Here are today's other Vikings stories of note:
We discussed Matt Kalil's opportunity to rebound from a subpar game against Julius Peppers this weekend, and looked at Frazier and Greg Jennings coming to Christian Ponder's defense.
Our Jeff Dickerson looked at what Jared Allen said on a conference call with Chicago reporters, calling the Vikings' struggles at Solider Field "embarrassing."
Cordarrelle Patterson is realizing he has to be patient as a return man when so many kickers are booming touchbacks into the end zone, according to Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Safety Harrison Smith is still learning how to walk the fine line on big hits in the NFL, Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune writes.