Vikings Wide Receiver Targets: Braylon Edwards, Malcom Floyd, James Jones

Sidney Rice is gone and now the Vikings are left to deal with the fall-out from his departure. The most immediate effect of Rice’s defection is that now the Vikings have no obvious deep threat on their roster, unless you want to include Devin Aromashodu, the former Bear the Vikings are taking a flyer on. And did I mention the Vikings just brought in Donovan McNabb, a quarterback well-known for slinging it deep?

Obviously you can’t maximize McNabb’s impact unless you give him a deep target (and block long enough for him to get the ball down there, but that’s a subject for another day). With this fact firmly in their minds, the Vikings will probably now pursue one of the handful of receivers on the market who could legitimately give them what Sidney Rice would have had he not followed the smell of money out to Seattle.

The biggest buzz receiver-wise currently seems to be coming off Braylon Edwards, who was just mentioned as a Viking target by John Clayton. Edwards can do some things downfield but we also know he has a tendency to drop balls from time-to-time. And there are the character issues. On the plus side, acquiring a big name like Edwards would quiet down some of the anger among fans who are not happy to see Rice go. Excitement levels around the team would increase at the thought of McNabb and Edwards becoming a dangerous combo.

The other plus side to pursuing Edwards is that, at this point, the receiver market has largely dried up and you could probably get him for relatively cheap.

There are a couple other possibilities if Edwards falls through. According to Judd Zulgad, the Vikings are in on Chargers receiver Malcom Floyd, another tall fellow of the Rice variety. The 29-year-old Floyd is seen by many as a break-out player waiting to happen. There is also now buzz about the Vikings bringing in Packers receiver James Jones, a guy so beloved by Aaron Rodgers that the QB said re-signing him should be the team’s #1 priority. As of this posting, KFAN’s Paul Charchian was reporting the Vikings are working on a deal with Jones.

A few other names are being floated out there almost as an afterthought. Roy Williams? Do I even need to say it? Hell no! Chad Ochocinco? That can’t be serious. The Vikings ought to be able to land either Edwards, Floyd or Jones. If they can’t, then they have serious issues.

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