Bobby Wade Waived; Greg Lewis Signed
By Dan Zinski
Remember last week when we were speculating that Bobby Wade might be on his way out? Then Bobby agreed to restructure his contract, reducing his 2009 salary from $3 million to $1.5 million, and everything seemed fine.
Turns out everything wasn’t so fine. Because on Thursday the Vikings released Wade, replacing him on the roster with wide-out Greg Lewis, who was just cut by the Patriots.
Lewis’s stats don’t come close to Wade’s the last few years, which makes the move slightly puzzling except as a purely financial one. But, then you realize that Lewis does have two favorable attributes: 1) Familiarity with Brad Childress and the West Coast from his time in Philadelphia; and, 2) Speed.
The second may be the more important item when trying to get one’s head around this move and how it’s supposed to help the team. Outside of Bernard Berrian, the Vikings’ roster is sorely lacking in guys who can stretch the field. And, frankly, Berrian’s health was an issue in the preseason, creating an even more precarious situation. So, Chilly figured he’d shore up that area depth-wise, which meant picking up Lewis and letting go of Wade, whose role was going to be greatly reduced after the acquisition of Percy Harvin.
Of course the big question is: What role did Brett Favre play in making this decision? I don’t care to speculate. It’s possible Chilly was just uncomfortable with the way his receiving corps was constituted. But it wouldn’t shock me to find out that Brett was unhappy with the array of receivers he had, and let his unhappiness be known.
It wouldn’t be the first time Childress bent over backward to placate Favre.
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