NFL Notes: Norv Turner, Chargers, Seahawks & Vikings

Norv Turner

• Former Vikings OC Norv Turner tells Ian Rapoport that his decision to resign this morning was “the hardest thing [he’s] done in football.“
• Turner added: “I don’t want anyone to think I am bailing. It just wasn’t working.” (Ian Rapoport)

Chargers

• According to Ian Rapoport, Chargers WR Travis Benjamin got good news regarding his grade-2 PCL sprain, as he was told that he won’t require surgery and can instead focus on rest and rehabbing his injury.

Seahawks

• Ian Rapoport reports that Seahawks DE Michael Bennett underwent successful surgery today to clean up a cartilage issue in his knee and is expected to be out two-three weeks.

Vikings

A personnel executive tells Jason La Canfora that it’s not surprising to see regression from the Vikings, particularly with QB Sam Bradford.

“At some point all of these quarterbacks basically are who they are,” the personnel executive said. “They may get hot here or there, but they eventually, over time, will regress to what they are. I believe that’s what we’re seeing here.”

An advanced scout had few positive things to say about the current state of the team’s offense.

“Look at Minnesota the last two weeks, and what a difference it’s been for them,” said the advance scout. “That was the only game Philly has won in the last four weeks, and the Bears are a bad football team. Yeah, he’s got happy feet. Hey, wouldn’t you? They’re butchering that offensive line. I don’t know what to tell you. That’s ugly man. Chicago just bullied them around. And it’s not like they have edge rushers. [Pernell] McPhee did some good things, but come on. That doesn’t look good. [Offensive coordinator] Norv Turner has to find a way to run the ball.

“They don’t have a left tackle. [TJ Clemmings] is a converted defensive lineman for Christ sake, and that’s what he’s looked like. At Pitt, he struggled with the counter move, same as now, and he’s very limited in pass pro. But he can be an animal in the run game. Put a blocking tight end over there and beat up those pass rushers a little bit instead of letting them kill your quarterback. I’ve seen this happen before, where you get a quarterback who can throw it and you stop running the ball and you get into trouble. They’ve got to start running the football, even if it’s not getting much.”