Matt Cotto of Auburn

5'11" - 190lbs - Free Saftey / Kick Returner

Regular Season - Week 8-17

Well it hurts to end the year so horribly but thats about what happened. We lost our week eight game to the Bears and could only manage four wins the rest of the season.

On the year I managed to pick up 36 tackles and 6 interceptions. I could not manage to pick up any touchdowns so I guess that is a goal for next year.

On the bright side of things it was my rookie year and I still have an entire career a head of me. (knock on wood) Anyway I'll make sure to give everyone an update as trainning camp rolls around. Stinks to finish my last post of the season in December but there isn't much else I can do.

Regular Season - Week Seven

Yes your eyes are correct, Brodie Croyle the fourth string long shot has snagged the starting job after an impressive win over the Greenbay Packers. Although he threw two interceptions the leadership he showed made up for it. Not to mention things opened up on the ground as A.P. had a 104 yard day.

The final score was Packers 23, Vikings 28. On the day I managed to pick up 2 tackles and one interception. Things could not have been more perfect.

Our D caused 1 forced fumble which we recovered and intercepted Aaron Rodgers 3 times. I am so glad our offense finally got things going. That was really the only down side of things. We should be able to take this momentum into next week. Yes I think we are becoming dangerous people woot!

Regular Season - Week Five & Six

After six weeks of football we are still winless and Colt McCoy is still out with an injury. One more loss and our playoff hopes are done. They are slim right now but I never like to count myself out till I am out.

Our defense has improved a lot, right now its the turn overs on offense that are killing us. Fumbles by A.P. and interceptions thrown by Troy Smith have ended so many games for us. Bad teams find ways to loose, I really dont want to call us a bad team but we look like one right now.

If we loose again i'll give you an update at the end of the year because it would be pointless to keep you updated on a loosing year.

Regular Season - Week Three & Four

It looks like coach will be making some changes at the quarterback position pretty soon. I think he should just wait till McCoy gets heathly to make a switch but its not my decision so oh well.

We lost our fourth game in a row this week to the Chicago Bears 17 to 21. The prior week we got destroyed loosing by over 30 points which is why I did not post anything. Pretty embarrasing.

In hopes of making things better on Defense coach moved me over to strong saftey and is starting Tanard Jackson at free saftey. Tanard has a lot of speed which critics have been saying is the key reason we keep getting burned deep.

Anyway Colt McCoy will be just about fully recovered in a couple of weeks so if Troy doesnt step up his game then there may be a new starter on the depth chart. Thats my prediction. Others are saying he may be starting Tarvaris Jackson but that is still in the air. I'll make sure to give everyone an update after our game against the Seahawks sunday.

Regular Season - Week Two

We lost another close one today. Smith locked on a reciever late in the fourth rather then looking around to see who was open which set him up to get intercepted. Rookie mistake, hopefully he learns from it. The final score was Cardinals 20, Vikings 13.

I didn't get much done on the day either. Just one tackle and 77 return yards. I got a lot of work to do. My main goal right now is to help our team snag a win over the 49ers this week. Stats are the last thing on my mind.

I'll give you another update shortly. Coach may be making some key defensive adjustments, not sure what to expect yet.

Regular Season - Week One

It looks like the coach was not happy going into the season with Tarvaris as our starting quarterback so he had our general manager work out a deal with the Rams which sent Troy Smith over to us and sent out a 2nd round pick a long side reciever Eddie Sawyer.

Not even Troy could save us this week. Our defense somehow let Quincy Carter and the Bengal's offense come back in a game where at one point we led by 17 points. (Carson Palmer went down early in the third quarter) The final score was 17 to 20. Cinncinatti won off a field goal in the final seconds.

I will take some of the blame because I did slip up a few times but I was hoping my interception would have made up for it, I guess not.

On the day I managed one tackle and one interception. I also injured TJ on a play that would have giving the Bengals a first down off of one of their third downs.

Although we lost this game I dont think this is a view of things to come. Troy is still adjusting to the playbook and our defense is still getting comfortable with things. When its all said and done, I project us coming out with atleast 10 wins.

Post Preseason

The Preseason went very well give or take a few injuries. We won our second game due to a late fourth quarter comeback by our second stringers. We lost our third game pretty badly but yet again our second string guys made it a game at the end bringing us with in a touchdown. Then we won our final game 19 to 22 because of a last second touchdown pass thrown by our fourth string quarterback (Brodie Croyle).

These four games gave all of us some much needed experience but also hurt us heading into the regular season. Our starting quarterback and first round draft pick (Colt McCoy) went down early in the first half which turned out to be a 6 week injury. Our new starting QB will be T-Jack (Tarvaris Jackson), he actually did a great job. It would have been a close call anyway for the starting Quarterback job so hopefully everything works out.

Over the course of the preseason I could not snag any touchdowns but I did pick up 9 tackles and a hand full of kick return yards. 435 to be exact. My longest return went for about 77 yards yet still no TD go figure.

First up on the regular season schedule is Cinncinatti. They have a strong recieving core in Chad Ochocinco (99ov.) and TJ (93ov.), Along side that they got quarterback Carson Palmer. Judging by all that I can tell I have my work cut out for me, excellent day to have your rookie debut against guys like that isn't it? Time to learn from the best I guess you can say, talk to yall soon!

Preseason - Week One

Today's game went pretty well. I'm not complainning to much about the lose since its just our first preseason game but still our second stringers showed a lot of heart coming back the way they did.

We were loosing by over 4 touchdowns to begin the second half and somehow T-Jack managed to drive us back into contention with about 6 seconds left. I think if we would have recovered our final onside kick attempt things may have gone into overtime. The Ball bounced right in front of me but I could not reach it before the return team.

On the day I picked up 4 tackles, one for a lose. Other then that things were pretty quiet for me although on special teams I did take back one kick return but could not score, only got to about the Greenbay 25 yard line.

Next week we should have our act together. This week was really a learning experience for all of us young guys. Sure we got our share of vets but the majority of the team is youth so we all made our share of rookie mistakes.

Draft Day

Hi all you readers out there! Hope everyone is having a good day because I'm having a great one!

I was projected to go in the 4th or 5th round of this years draft but the Vikings have decided to take a chance me. Appearantly they made a deal which sent Dwight Smith to another which left a whole at free saftey. From what I hear they have Tony Parrish still on their roster from last season but hopefully I can show them something during the preseason or even trainning camp.

Now I did do some research on Minnesota so heres what i've come up with. They went 8 - 8 - 0 in 2006, 5-11-0 in 2007 and 7-9-0 in 2008. Their fan support is at 54%, Head Coach Joe Barry was signed last season to try and build the team up. He is 7-9-0 after one season as a head coach. The Vikings ended the year 4 million in the red so not to good of a year money wise either.

Hey I guess every franchise hits rough times but I think they should do fine this year. Coach Barry and our general manager has done an excellent job upgrading this team with players like rookie quarterback Colt McCoy who they drafted with their first round pick, They signed tight end Dallas Clark, a lot of their big name offensive lineman were resigned. I'm excited about the things that are to come.

Well I am going to focus on preparing for the season but i'll make sure to give you an update after our first preseason game with my thoughts. Check back soon!

Introduction

Hey everyone!

Thanks for checking out my newest project Matthew Cotto of Auburn. This site will be run from a player's point of view like i've done in the past. My last player website many people enjoyed and hopefully this one will be even more successful.

Matthew Cotto played saftey and kick retuner at Auburn but only started his senior year which effected him in the draft. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings late in the 3rd round of the 2009 NFL Draft. This is where we will begin his journey.

College Highlights

Team Schedule

Divisional Standings

1. Bears - 5 - 1- 0
2. Packers - 2 - 4 - 0
3. Lions - 1 - 5 - 0
4. Vikings - 1 - 6 - 0