Jun 19, 2012; Eden Prairie, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Michael Jenkins (84) gets ready for drills at Vikings Minicamp at Winter Park. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-US PRESSWIRE

The Vikings know this routine well. Veteran wide receiver is making a little too much money for comfort, but the team is thin enough at the position to not want to cut him outright. Do you keep the guy despite his inflated salary or let him go and take your chances with an untested young player? Or do you take what’s behind door number 3: re-negotiation?

Three times now in the past two years the Vikings have chosen to cut new deals with veterans making too much money. Last offseason they did it with Bernard Berrian and Greg Camarillo, and got very little return from either player. Now they’ve gone that route again with Michael Jenkins, agreeing to a new deal that cuts his 2012 base salary from $2.5 million to $1 million, and his 2013 base from $2.5 million to $825,000. As normally happens with such deals, Jenkins can recover some of the lost salary by reaching incentives.

The new deal pretty much secures a spot on the opening day roster for Michael Jenkins, even though Jenkins is still visibly not all the way back from his 2011 knee surgery. Before there had been speculation that Jenkins would be cut in favor of a younger, healthier, cheaper guy like Manny Arceneaux, who has been a steady performer in camp according to wide receivers coach George Stewart. But now the Vikings can comfortably keep Jenkins, who still has good hands – preseason drop notwithstanding – and can still be a help to Christian Ponder in his on-going development.

With Jenkins now probably solidified as the #3, the rest of the receiver corps can begin falling into place. Jerome Simpson and Percy Harvin are the starters with Jarius Wright and most likely Stephen Burton filling the other two spots. Manny Arceneaux will probably make the team out of preseason with Simpson being suspended the first three games, and my guess is that after Simpson returns, Arceneaux will be sent to the practice squad. Devin Aromashodu is the odd man out in this equation. I can’t see the Vikings keeping him over Burton who earned the start at flanker Friday night with Harvin sitting. Thanks for the memories Devin.

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August 10, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder (7) throws the ball against the San Francisco 49ers during the first quarter at Candlestick Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE

After multiple reports of training camp struggles, Christian Ponder came out in the first preseason game and looked pretty darn solid. His highlight by far was a 52-yard completion to Stephen Burton on the first drive. Ponder stepped up in the pocket and confidently delivered the deep ball to the second-year receiver who was starting at flanker in place of Percy Harvin. Ponder’s other positive plays went to Kyle Rudolph, who displayed his usual sure-handedness.

Speaking of sure-handedness…Ponder could’ve used some from his receivers. Big free-agent acquisition Jerome Simpson had one in the opening drive, Stephen Burton had one, and Michael Jenkins had one in the red zone that killed a scoring chance. Those drops plus a couple of throwaways hurt Ponder’s percentage, but stats aren’t important. Ponder looked like he was in command of what he was doing. Decide for yourself how much that matters in a preseason game with a vanilla offensive game plan in action. It was against the first-team 49ers defense.

You might be wondering how Matt Kalil looked. Well, he did have one glaring whiff allowing a pass rusher to get in Ponder’s face, forcing a throwaway. Otherwise Kalil seemed to hold his own. The Vikings did find some success running the ball to the right with John Sullivan doing his best Matt Birk impression as a pulling center. Toby Gerhart had the big running highlight of the first team portion, rumbling and pounding his way for 16.

Blair Walsh looked good too, sticking a pair of field goals and booming one kick-off deep into the end zone. As for the defense…eeeeeeuuuuh.

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Jun 19, 2012; Eden Prairie, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Emmanuel Arceneaux (16) catches a pass at Vikings minicamp at Winter Park. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-US PRESSWIRE

How wide open is the competition for the last couple spots in the Vikings’ receiver corps? As wide open as it gets. Right now there are just three receivers you can consider locks: Jerome Simpson, Percy Harvin and Jarius Wright. Simpson will be suspended the first three games so that means, assuming the Vikings take 5 receivers, there are currently 3 spots more-or-less up for grabs.

If you had to rank the guys vying for those three spots, Michael Jenkins and Devin Aromashodu would seem to be running 1 and 2, at least on the basis of experience. But a rebuilding team like the Vikes may be less interested in experience than upside. That would give Stephen Burton and Manny Arceneaux the inside track. And if you had to pick an early favorite? It’s tough with so little training camp action to go by, but right now it seems Arceneaux has a leg up.

Arceneaux hasn’t necessarily flashed in camp as big as some other guys (like Greg Childs who was really wowing people before his injury), but he has impressed at least one very important person. That’s receivers coach George Stewart, who sang Arceneaux’s praises to Judd Zulgad.

“Emmanuel Arceneaux has improved more than any player in one year that I’ve ever coached,” Stewart said. “That’s in (all my) years of coaching and in every facet. He’s going to be a player that’s going to help us again this year.”

When asked which specific areas have seen the biggest improvement for Arceneaux, Stewart said, “Everything. Route running, run blocking, catching the ball, confidence in what he’s doing. The whole gamut as a receiver. Now is he ready to go to the Hall of Fame? No, but he has improved from year one to year two, and as a coach and as a player that’s what you strive to have.”

It certainly helps to have a coach behind you like that. Another factor in Arceneaux’s favor is his relatively low salary compared to Michael Jenkins, a man he is in direct competition with at X receiver (at least going by the initial depth chart). Arceneaux will make $465,000 in 2012, compared to Jenkins who is set to pull in $2.5 million. That’s not a huge number for Jenkins but keep in mind he’s aging and coming off an injury. Physical condition and price are two areas where both Arceneaux and Devin Aromashodu have an advantage over Jenkins. Ditto Stephen Burton, though Burton himself is coming off an IR stint.

So if this battle does come down to a three-way competition between Jenkins, Aromashodu and Arceneaux, Jenkins could be in trouble. The best thing Jenkins has going for him is experience, which can’t be discounted when you’re trying to develop a young quarterback like Christian Ponder. Do the Vikings really want to roll with a receiver corps whose most-seasoned member is Percy Harvin (Aromashodu has him in years but Harvin has obviously gotten many more snaps)? Or do they want at least one guy who can lend a little grizzled-old-man savvy to the mix? Having a wily veteran like Donald Driver around probably helped Aaron Rodgers quite a bit.

That argument becomes moot if Jenkins can’t get himself totally right physically. If Arceneaux truly has improved as much as Stewart says, he seems like he would fit the bill as an outside receiver to back-up Jerome Simpson. That’s the role Greg Childs was probably set to fill before blowing out both his knees. Childs’ misfortune could be Arceneaux’s big break.

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