Archive for March, 2009

I don’t know about you, but I’m thrilled with today’s news that the Vikings have signed Benny Sapp to a new one-year contract (money not disclosed).  I personally can’t get enough of Benny’s horrible tackling and I really can’t get enough of his idiotic, ill-timed personal fouls.  This move, coupled with the recent re-signing of Charles Gordon, would seem to signal that we are not in the market for a cornerback like Karl Paymah, who was supposed to come in for a visit some time this week.  So the Vikings still will not have signed a free agent outside of [...]

Free agency has been a non-starter for the Vikings, so it’s time to turn our attention to the draft.  The Vikes will be picking #22 overall, which means they will likely be out of the running for a big name quarterback…unless they were to trade up.  Today in a chat Q&A, ESPN’s Kevin Seifert addressed this possibility, and specifically, whether USC‘s Mark Sanchez might make a worthy target: Chris (Mn): Would the Vikings consider moving up if Sanchez starts to fall past pick #10? Kevin Seifert: Not totally out of the question. Last year, the Vikings cited the USC offense [...]

Things are pretty much dead right now on the Vikings front…which makes this a perfect time for one of these posts where we look at what other Fansided.com bloggers are talking about. Arrowhead Addict considers the Chiefs’ strategy of not spending money in free agency.  Viking fans can relate to this. SideLion Report sees parallels between the careers of Terrell Owens and Allen Iverson. The Landry Hat on whether Roy Williams can be a true #1 receiver.  The post is just an excuse to love up Jason Witten…again. The network’s bloggers chime in on who they think is the best [...]

Terrell Owens didn’t need to wait as long as we all expected.  Just days after being cut by the Cowboys, the controversial wide-out has signed a one-year, $6.5 million deal with the Buffalo Bills. The speed with which this went down tells me two things:  1) The Bills wanted to get this over with before they had a chance to talk themselves out of it, and; 2) Drew Rosenhaus knew good and well no other team was going to make a pitch.  Trust me – if Drew had thought there was even a small chance of New England, the Giants [...]

The Vikings have been very quiet in free agency, but today at least they made a little noise…by re-signing special teams stud Heath Farwell.  Not the big move we were all waiting for, I know, but still an important guy to lock up, especially considering how far our coverage units fell last year without him.  The deal is for $7.75 million over 3 years with $3.25 million in guarantees.  Chip Scoggins said on Access Vikings that Farwell was close to leaving until Brad Childress called him…and still Farwell elected to return.  Okay that wasn’t nice.

Matt Birk is a Baltimore Raven – and he’s very, very happy about it.  And not shy about telling everyone how happy he is about it, as we learned from his remarks at the introductory press conference.  A sampling of the shameless – and I think revealing – gushing: I probably can’t adequately describe how excited I am to be here and [with] my family. Professionally, I just think this is a perfect fit. From the second I got here, I could just sense that I really feel like there’s something special here. And I’m excited. The one thing being [...]

You’ve certainly heard by now that Terrell Owens was cut by the Dallas Cowboys (and if you haven’t…how’s that coma working out for you?).  This means T.O. is now free to shop his services (and the considerable baggage that comes with them) to other teams, including the Vikings, who signaled by their pursuit of T.J. Houshmandzadeh that they are absolutely in the market for a veteran wide-out.  Unfortunately, when it comes to the Vikings and Owens…let’s just say there are certain considerations that have nothing to do with whatever T.O. may or may not still be able to do on [...]

Prognosticators who said they didn’t expect the Vikings to be very active in free agency were right on the money.  In fact, to say the Vikings would be “inactive” would’ve been a gross understatement – they have been downright moribund.  There’s a combination of factors at work here I’m assuming:  1) The lack of really worthwhile talent on the market; 2) The team’s belief that some of their own younger guys are ready to step in at key positions, and; 3) The availability of solid draft prospects at places like tackle, receiver and quarterback.  In other words, the Vikes made [...]

Could Torry Holt be the guy to make us forget our discontent over the lack of movement by the Vikings in the free agent market this off-season?  He’s certainly available.  The Rams have been trying to trade him for days, but there’s absolutely no market for him at all.  The frustration has only mounted for Holt who has now asked the team to outright cut him so he can make his own deal some place.  The Rams have until March 17th, the day he’s due a $1.25 million roster bonus, to figure out what they want to do. Holt, at [...]

A bad off-season for the Vikings just got worse with the news, per Mike Florio‘s sources, that Matt Birk will sign with the Baltimore Ravens.  The six-time Pro Bowl center visited Baltimore yesterday and spoke about how impressed he was with the organization and coach John Harbaugh – and apparently their contract offer impressed him too.  The Vikings, for now, will have to roll with John Sullivan or Ryan Cook at center, unless something else surfaces.  I don’t like to get all gushy usually but this is really the end of an era for the Purple.  Birk was on the [...]