Comments on: What the Vikings must do in free agency

By: Brian McMorris

Brian McMorris — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:46:00 +0000

Seems like everything you asked for, you got. Matt Cassel and Greg Jennings are about as much as Vikes fans had any reason to hope for. They are within the budget and within the concept the team is constructing. So far, Rick Spielman has done as well as a GM can do.

By: Mandie Kranig

Mandie Kranig — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:58:00 +0000

Patrick you are wrong. Check this article: http://www.knowitallfootball.com/2013/03/12/jarius-wrights-potential-allowed-vikings-deal-harvin/
It basically says JW was on track to do BETTER than Harvin and he is FASTER than Harvin. So I’d say he has a pretty good shot and replacing Harvin completely.
I also do not completely agree with the article. We do not need another injury prone player. We have 3 already coming back from them, Carlson, Simpson and Childs. Overpaying for an old, injury prone receiver just isn’t smart. Not when we have so many holes left to fill. We have a team that on another other team would be a backup. Our receivers, our secondary (minus H. Smith), our linebackers (minus Greenway). In our division with Stafford throwing for 4000 yards a yr, with A. Rod and his 3, potentially 1000 yr receiving corp, and the Cutler and Marshall thing the Bears got, we need better pass attacking guys in our secondary. We need to find a DT to replace Williams. Our middle isn’t as stout like it used to be and Williams will be gone soon. And we don’t just need 1 receiver. We need 2. We can’t count that Childs will come back. I’m hoping like hell he does, but both of his needs are a mess. We have Chris Summers, a 6 ft 5 hulk, but he isn’t fast enough to be on the outside, he is more of a jump ball expert. So he is more rotational than a full on starter. We need to draft well, and sign smart. We don’t need to go out and break the bank and 1 top tier receiver when we have so many holes to fill. We need 2 maybe 3 great 2nd tier signings just to upgrade what we have. And maybe we’ll wait until after the draft. We’ll wait until after we see what we get and supplement our draft from there.

By: Mando

Mando — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:47:00 +0000

Last night I went to bed mad that we didn’t land sign a FA. But when I woke up, I was glad to find we DIDN’T sign Jennings. We already have several players coming off on injury (Carlson, Childs, Simpson) and really do not need another injury prone receiver. Especially if we have to overpay to get one. We have more needs than receiver. We need a DT, CB upgrade, S upgrade, and a MLB upgrade and a backup QB, not to mention we need 2 more receivers. We only have 2 first round picks and I think 1 second rounder. We could use a combo of a later rounders and make a package to trade back up, but we more than likely won’t do that. So that leaves us with 3 starters in the draft and then trying to sign upgrades in FA that we can afford. If we sign Jennings or steal Cruz, we won’t have enough resources to fix other holes we have. Several of our positions are full of backups. I mean we are mostly a team made up of backup quality “starters”. We are lucky we have the few starting caliber players we do that, and that we magically made it to the playoffs last year. To say we are still contenders is wrong. We can’t again solely rely on AD to carry this team. We can’t have backup CB and S going against the best passing attack division in the league.
I like Rick’s apporach. It is was the Pack does and they are contenders annually. I mean look at the free agent “winners” of the recent past, Bucs and Eagles and their “dream team”…look how far that got them. The pack never overspend on a player (even one of their own!) and develop the talent they draft. And they are deep at many positions. So while it may be “boring” and frustrating, it really is the best move. We just need upgrades to what we have. We have 4th tier talent, and I’d gladly take 2nd tier if it means we can fix more holes in our team. Because if as a team of mostly backup talent can make it to the play offs, if we could get a team of just a little bit better quality, we might be able to go even farther.