Vikings first-year general manager Nolan Teasley has major work ahead of him.

Pending free agents include Kyler Murray, Carson Wentz, Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, Josh Metellus, T.J. Hockenson, Aaron Jones and Isaiah Rodgers.

And a lot of them are getting older, so Teasley will have to consider that risk in terms of what to offer for those he decides to retain.

The Vikings, depending on how this season goes, also could consider a form of a rebuild to get younger.

>> Hitting on draft picks didn’t work for Teasley’s predecessor, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, now a vice president for personnel strategy for the San Francisco 49ers. The most important front office asset an NFL team can have is a front office that can draft well.

>> Justin Jefferson this season is sporting a new large diamond necklace to accompany his other bling, which includes the diamond teeth grill he displayed to national TV cameras against Green Bay.

“I try to pop out anyway I can,” the Vikings’ wide receiver told the Pioneer Press.

The new necklace’s worth?

“Too much to disclose,” he said.

>> The two series that Kyler Murray played against the Packers before leaving with a concussion in the season opener were underwhelming.

>> Of Murray, when he lay motionless on the field after the brutal hit to his head, teammate Aaron Jones said, “I was sick to my stomach right away. Talking with teammates, we said a prayer for him.”

“It kind of makes you take a step back and come back to reality,” Jones added, “because you forget, like, that can happen to me when I’m out there competing. You forget that’s a part of the game, that we’re putting our bodies and lives at risk.”

>> Twins first baseman Royce Lewis appreciates baseball’s traditions, including those of the New York Yankees.

“I think it’s cool that they don’t have (players’) names on their jerseys,” he said. “It’s very professional, like when I grew up watching baseball.”

Lewis’ favorite player growing up was Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. Lewis came up as a shortstop, but he has excelled as a first baseman.

>> Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved and Wild general manager Billy Guerin were big hits for their forthrightness as guest speakers last week: Medved at the Rochester Quarterback Club, and Guerin at the Capital Club in St. Paul.

Guerin, last season’s NHL GM of the Year, asked how he managed to trade for Quinn Hughes from the Canucks in December last year, said he called Vancouver hockey president Jim Rutherford and asked what he was looking for in a deal.

“He told me the price and I named the pieces, and he said, ‘Would you do that?’ And I said, ‘I’d do that right now,’ ” Guerin said.

Rutherford told Guerin there were other teams with which he was talking about Hughes, but he labeled Guerin’s offer as “very serious.”

After the deal was agreed upon, Guerin, his wife and friends celebrated at a Christmas party until 3:30 a.m.

Guerin, who continues to try to sign Hughes to an extension, said of the defenseman, “He has been nothing short of spectacular for us.”

>> The status of Cade Tyson’s potential return to the Gophers men’s basketball team this season remains in limbo. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver still hasn’t requested oral arguments in his case, and the Gophers’ first game is Nov. 2 at home against North Dakota.

>> Before broadcasting last Sunday’s Vikings-Packers game for CBS in Minneapolis, Jim Nance, the longtime lead voice of the Masters golf tournament, made his seventh visit to the top-tier upstart Tepetonka course in New London, Minn., near Willmar.

Nance, a design consultant on the project, played 18 holes with Eric Church, the country music singer-songwriter.

“The course is going to be extremely well received when people get a chance to see it,” Nance said, adding that limited play is underway.

>> The first woman to regularly broadcast major league baseball for a team, Suzyn Waldman, was at Target Field last week calling Yankees games against the Twins. She was the first woman to broadcast a World Series in 2009 (Yankees-Phillies) and has broadcast Yankees games on radio for 22 seasons.

What’s that been like?

Waldman, 80, who is extraordinarily sharp and energetic, laughed.

“Well, women in sports back in the 80s weren’t really welcome,” she said. “I think if you’re going to do it, you’d better do it in a place like New York, where there are all kinds of people, and they accept a little more readily. It was very, very tough for years, and the stories are legendary. But now, I’ve outlasted everybody.”

Waldman certainly is inspirational. How long will she continue?

“Until I don’t,” she said.

>> Hopkins grad Emma Charlesworth-Seiler, who worked a couple of seasons as a minor league baseball umpire, is coach of the Los Angeles Queens in the four-team Women’s Professional Baseball League. She will speak at the Oct. 17 Halsey Hall Society for American Baseball Research gathering at Hennepin County Library in Plymouth.

>> Seven major league baseball umpires are retiring after this season, meaning seven new hires. There are a handful of women umpiring in the minor leagues this year.

>> On its 50th anniversary Saturday in Collegeville, Minn., St. John’s was to honor the 1976 John Gagliardi-coached national championship football team. The 52 former players attending were expected to include Jeff Norman, Tim Schmitz, Ernie England, Mike Grant, John Welsh, Scott Becker, Terry Geraty, Brad Eustice and Jim Roeder.

>> Condolences to Ed Rauen, for decades the king of Rochester sports radio. He recently lost his wonderful wife Mary Lou after 70 years of marriage.

>> Cory Provus, the peerless Twins TV play-by-play voice, after the season is taking a month off to focus on family, then plans to work about 20 Division I college basketball games and one or two college football games. His broadcast events for the year will total nearly 175.