MANKATO — Unlike a year ago when Adrian Peterson arrived late at training camp because he had yet to sign a contract, the Vikings will have both Peterson and Chester Taylor on the field Friday when they open practice.

There is no doubt Peterson is now the Vikings’ starting running back, but coach Brad Childress said Thursday he isn’t worried about how Taylor will handle the situation. 

“I think Chester has a great mindset,” Childress said. “He knows there are going to be plenty of carries in there for him. I think he appreciates the ability to be fresh and contribute. His approach during training camp, I thought, was very good last year and it was very good during OTAs. I wouldn’t expect to see anything different. He’s learned a lot of things since he’s been here, and one of them is how to practice at a very high level.”

Taylor actually missed much of the OTAs this spring but Childress could have been referencing the Vikings’ three-day minicamp in June. There is no doubt the Vikings have one of, if not the best, running back duo in the NFL. The two accounted for 2,185 yards on the ground in 2007, breaking the franchise record.

Childress was asked if anything had changed with the two-back system. “It will just depend on how we go through training camp here,” he said. “We’ll see if there are things that one does better than the other one, but we want to keep them fresh. We want to keep fresh legs out there. It’s no sin to tap yourself on the head if you need a blow; we will send the other guy in because I don’t see much falling off between those two. They are both proven.”

The reality is that things could be different because Peterson should be both a better receiver and blocker this season, meaning he could stay on the field more frequently. Peterson rushed for 1,341 yards in 2007 and has set a goal of 2,000 yards this year.

So how does Childress feel about his second-year running back setting such lofty goals?

“I don’t talk to him about managing his expectations,” Childress said. “I want somebody that sets the bar high. I certainly wouldn’t want him to set it low. He’s a guy that sets outrageous goals and meets them, and that’s fine with me because he’s shown he can handle that, and he knows he’s not going to sneak up on anybody.”

MANKATO — The Packers won’t be retiring Brett Favre’s No. 4 jersey during their Sept. 8 season opener against the Vikings at Lambeau Field.

The team, which had planned to honor the quarterback that night, announced today that the jersey retirement won’t happen. This comes as no surprise given the recent developments in the Favre-Packers saga and the fact that Favre likely will be playing somewhere on the opening weekend of the season.

Update: The previous story came from The Sporting News. The Associated Press story leaves some room for this ceremony to happen. Here is what the AP has:

Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy acknowledged Thursday that the ceremony might have to be postponed. “We have not made a decision yet on whether to cancel it,” Murphy said, after the Packers’ annual shareholders meeting at Lambeau. “But we’re coming up to a point where we’re going to have to make a decision pretty quickly.”

But Murphy said any delay would only be temporary. “We’re going to retire Brett’s number at some point,” Murphy said. “Regardless of whether it’s this year, it’ll be sometime in the future. We’ll wait and see, but I think it’s still enough up in the air that we want to wait and see how things play out.”

MANKATO — Vikings coach Brad Childress said defensive end Ray Edwards will open training camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list because of a back injury that has bothered him since the team’s June minicamp.

Childress had said previously that Edwards would be ready to go at the start of camp but that isn’t the case. “I think he’s probably overworked,” Childress said, “and just had a little twinge. He can get more done on the side, working out and it’s more of an insurance kind of thing for us.”

Childress did not put a timetable on Edwards’ return. “I can’t tell you if it’s a day, two days, three days,” Childress said. “It’s certainly not because of conditioning. He’s in great, great shape but just twinged his back a little bit.” 

Edwards is slated to be the Vikings’ starting left end this season. He played right end last season but is moving to the other side because of the addition of Pro Bowl end Jared Allen. Jayme Mitchell will move up to the first team while Edwards is out.

Childress was asked if there is concern about the fact Edwards’ back still bothers him: “I’m not. Backs are kind of funny things. If I thought that there was something that he wasn’t doing to put himself in a place to be there. Like I said, I think he’s overworked a little bit. … It hasn’t been an on going, on going thing. He wants to be in the mix so he’ll get back as fast as he can, as fast as we’ll let him.”

Other items:

• Childress was asked how he will approach all the Brett Favre talk with his team. “I let it be and as I said the league is going to deal with that,” Childress said. “Hopefully, we’ll have that thing resolved pretty quick.” So does Childress want to see this handled ASAP by NFL officials? “Yeah, it’s kind of their time framework, their decision,” he said.
• Childress said the team is holding meetings today that will include a speech by owner Zygi Wilf. The Viking won’t be doing conditioning drills; those were run as part of the offseason program. “That was something we optioned out of,” Childress said of the conditioning drill. “Those guys spent a great deal of time in the offseason program taking care of that and we had it set for a day back during the OTAs where we could do it en masse. I think it’s counterproductive to do it here right a day before you start to deaden their legs. There is enough leg deadening, if you will, just getting out there and [practicing] twice a day. … Guys have done a good job with their weights coming back, I like the way they look and then we’ll find out some more things [when practice starts].”
• Childress said he had gotten some tips from guard Steve Hutchinson on how to handle his goatee.

MANKATO — So did Brett Favre talk to Vikings officials on a cell phone that was owned by the Green Bay Packers?

A report earlier this week in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Favre was using a Packers cell phone and that provided strong evidence of tampering by the Vikings. However, the Green Bay Press Gazette has a story today that refutes the Milwaukee report. “Contrary to several well publicized media reports, two sources — one in the NFL, another close to Favre — said Favre does not have a cell phone issued by the Packers.”

The Packers, of course, have filed a tampering charge against the Vikings for talking to Favre. Meanwhile, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appears to be applying pressure to the Packers to shop Favre around the league and bring an end to an ugly situation.

Vikings coach Brad Childress, asked Wednesday about the reports he had talked to Favre, said: “You can’t believe everything you read, but that’s an NFL matter. I’m not going to touch that one.”

Childress will hold a pre-training camp news conference this afternoon. The Vikings start practicing at 9 a.m. Friday.

Here’s Vikings receiver Bobby Wade on the Brett Favre situation and also starting quarterback Tarvaris Jackson.

Q. Could this be a distraction?

A. “It could be. It just depends on how we handle it. Obviously, I think this team’s a veteran team and I think we understand that for the most part every year you come into the season and there are people that are talking about coming back out of retirement, you got people that are talking about trades and this other stuff and speculation goes up. For us we’re just focused on one thing at a time, which is getting better in this training camp.”

Q. How much have you followed the Favre thing?

A. ”Not much at all. Only when somebody asks me a question I respond to it. I don’t give it much thought just because of the possibility of distractions.”

Q. Would you be excited to get Favre?

A. ”It’s hard to say. It’s just speculation. Obviously you can say anything. It would be great to play with guys that are completely retired for the last 20 years. I could give you a hundred names I’d like to play with. Joe Montana, that would be the first one. I’d be excited about that. But to have a guy that is just out there, you hear it every year. You got guys talking about coming back out of retirement, possible trades, situations that can happen. … I think this team is in a great spot. I think everybody is excited about the guys we have here and how good we can be this year.”

Q. Are you aware of how Jackson has handled this?

A. ”I’ve talked to Tarvaris numerous times this offseaon and we didn’t have one conversation about it. I think that’s kind of the way it should be. You just ask: ‘How often do I think about it, do I pay attention to it?’ Not at all. It’s just not reality. I really want to focus on what’s real to us and our possibilities as a team now and not what could be and what might be.”

Q. Is your confidence in Jackson growing?

A. ”Absolutely. It’s really not based off the offseason, it’s really based on the season last year. Game experience is something you just can’t replace and for Tarvaris to be able to go through the ups and downs, the injuries, not playing a couple of games, winning some games, being in the playoff hunt, all those types of things that you can’t possibly even drill into a person and understand what it’s going to feel like as far as emotions and preparing yourself to play and all of that. That’s priceless and I think he’s 100 percent a better player this year and I’m expecting him to just be as great as he wants to be.”

Just got done writing for the paper and wanted to check in here with some items from media availability, which ended at 8 p.m.   

• The most interesting news of the day was Antoine Winfield’s comments about Brett Favre, which Judd blogged on the previous post.
• Brad Childress addressed reporters for a few minutes and mostly avoided the Favre situation.

Asked he’s prepared for cell phones jokes from some fans, Childress said: “I don’t think you will ever be as bad as 25,000 people cursing at you in Philadelphia at 8:00 in the morning.” 

Asked what he expects from his team after all the offseason moves, Childress said: “I expect to pick up on the things we did in the spring time. You’ re always looking through this training camp to build momentum. It will be a little difficult with 80 people; we will have to be mindful of that, make sure they take care of their legs and try not to pile them up. But it is grassroots football still all about knocking people around, so you want to maintain that physical football mentality.”  

• Technically, the players don’t have to report until tomorrow so a number of players did not arrive during the media availability from 3:30 to 8 p.m. Quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, running back Adrian Peterson, center Matt Birk and defensive end Jared Allen were among the players who did not show up during that time frame.
• Left tackle Bryant McKinnie had no update on his criminal case, saying he’s only focused on football.
• Rookie linebacker Erin Henderson arrived on the rookie bus. Asked why he didn’t ride with his brother, middle linebacker E.J., Erin said E.J. is driving down on Thursday morning.

There is no access to players tomorrow but Childress will meet with reporters at 1:30 p.m.