Bravo Spielman!!

[thatoneguy]

Sure he had a GOOD draft last year, but it wasnt great.

Tough crowd. We got a Pro Bowl LT to anchor the line, a future star safety in Smith, a CB who can fill the nickel role now and will likely become a starter, the guy who will be the starting slot WR in 2013, and the best rookie kicker in the history of the NFL.

I'm not sure what else you can reasonably ask for from a single draft.

[Nick Kuhn]

I'm almost certain they turn that pick they get into Robert Woods. With Marquise Lee and his ridiculous talent overshadowing Woods all season, he might even fall to the second round despite being the most NFL ready of all receivers available this year.

[zepman]

IMO, Jennings will be signed early tomorrow by Spielman. He's a good locker room guy and a veteran which the Vikes will need with all the young WR's they'll bring in this year through the draft and UDFA's. He'll have to over-pay him to get him here...no big suprise.

My Guess:

4 years/@35M with a front loaded contract...only way to get him to sign.

Spielman needs to get this done at all costs...there's nothing in the cupboard and very little left once Wallace and Jennings are gone.

I don't think Wallace and Ponder are a good match...Wallace is a great deep route runner and Ponder is a terrible deep ball thrower...just doesn't make sense.

[PurpleFloyd]

LOL.

He wouldnt have her. She isnt his type. She has all her teeth. My biggest gripe is that the biggest contract on our team should go to a QB. The guy that touches the ball on 99% of offensive plays. Not to a DE or a RB. I realize he adds value to the Wiffs bottom line, but he isnt gonna bring a championship to us.

I seem to remember the Packers winning a SB and going to 2 straight even though their DT Reggie White had a bigger contract than their starting QB at that time. There are more cases of that sort of thing. Sure,I would love to have a better QB and I actually would not be upset if they traded Allen for picks and to clear cap space, but your statement was incorrect. Also, if you thnk that contract to Allen is bad, just wait till you see the cap space their new LT takes up when his rookie contract expires. They will need to have B squader's on the other side of the line to balance the cap room out and then everyone will carp on the coaches for the lack of talent over there.And right now the talent isn't that great on the right side the way it is.

[PurpleFloyd]

IMO, Jennings will be signed early tomorrow by Spielman. He's a good locker room guy and a veteran which the Vikes will need with all the young WR's they'll bring in this year through the draft and UDFA's. He'll have to over-pay him to get him here...no big suprise.

My Guess:

4 years/@35M with a front loaded contract...only way to get him to sign.

Spielman needs to get this done at all costs...there's nothing in the cupboard and very little left once Wallace and Jennings are gone.

I don't think Wallace and Ponder are a good match...Wallace is a great deep route runner and Ponder is a terrible deep ball thrower...just doesn't make sense.

Good lord I hope not but the team never ceases to surprise me.With the draft picks they have and with the contracts they still need to extend for vets, I see no reason not to take care of the WR depth in the draft. The team is building and they would be much better sited to build through the draft than to burn the cap up in FA.

[Antero]

I'm not sure what else you can reasonably ask for from a single draft.

Theoretically he could have drafted Russell Wilson and then PERHAPS Percy would have put some of his differences with management behind him and accepted a contract with the Vikes.

[luckydog25]

I am very happy with what we got for Harvin. The ravens got a 6th round pick for Boldin...

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

THatoneguy- Yeah, i said it was good. what else should i say about it? The LT was taken with the 4th overall pick in the draft! One would like to think that you could get somebody pretty good in that spot. The kicker was a great pick and Smith and Robinson can both play- they are not probowlers. If you call that the best draft ever thats fine, I dont.

His Wr picks were garbage and his FA moves were equally as terrible with the exception of Felton. So all im saying is, IM NOT SOLD on him after one good draft. Lets give him another year to screw it all up and see what happens.

Yes its nice and ideal to build through the draft- but when you have literally NO ONE at wideout (wright and burton, oh goodie) they cant just draft 2 or 3wr's and hope they pan out. They have to sign at LEAST one if not two proven wr's, and they have the money to do it.

[Scott K]

The Vikings have roughly 18 million free right now, but then you have to save about 3 million for rookies, you also need to find a couple line backers to play. Loadholt will require a raise, assumuming he doesnt play for someone else, but if he does, we still will need to replace him. We cant go all out on WR here, if we get someone for 5-8 million, bring him in, but we cant go all out on the 12 million dollar man. There is no way we get Cruz, or Wallace, if we do, we are going to be strapped to fill the other positions of need.

This doesnt include cuts from today, but of the WR I seen we arent tendering, we wont save much anyhow.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

The Vikings have roughly 18 million free right now, but then you have to save about 3 million for rookies, you also need to find a couple line backers to play. Loadholt will require a raise, assumuming he doesnt play for someone else, but if he does, we still will need to replace him. We cant go all out on WR here, if we get someone for 5-8 million, bring him in, but we cant go all out on the 12 million dollar man. There is no way we get Cruz, or Wallace, if we do, we are going to be strapped to fill the other positions of need.

This doesnt include cuts from today, but of the WR I seen we arent tendering, we wont save much anyhow.

I hear ya, but there is also alot of money about to come off of this teams book after this season or shortly also- K. williams, Winfield, maybe Ja Allen. Thats alot of money right there. And what was it we gave John Carlson? One of the worst moves in all of FA last year. Id rather we at least TRY to get a WR that can play in here then waste money on the John Carlson's and Jerome Simpsons of the world.

[DrJuice1980]

Jeez SLoBs, all the back and forth on Gophs b-ball... I dont think I couldve put it better myself. A legit #1 WR is our top priority PERIOD. From there do what we have to do to get Patterson in the 1st round. If that happened I wouldnt care what else took place. Sign Load, and pick up some other pieces in the draft. The 3-5th round WRs or signing a 2nd or 3rd WR and expecting them to be a #1 never works, we continue to do it and get burned and waste money.

If we go for Te'o Im boycotting.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

JEROME CHONG SIMPSON! WE GOT HIM AGAIN!!! Seriously, what in the hell do these guys see in him? Do they like watching balls bounce off of his facemask when hes stoned out of his mind on the field???? I hope this isnt the last guy we sign at WR. Cuz this is a non move and a waste of fricking money IMO. I seriously would have rather signed Jenkins again. Bravo Spielman..... wow

[bbfenatic]

IMO they need to sign the best WR available now and then make judgment on Ponder after getting him the pieces they think he needs. AP can't carry this team all the way..we saw that this year. I still think they need to upgrade at QB but they are giving it one more year it seems.

[Fish Head]

Ponder will never be great, but many people are writing him off too early. He could still turn into a decent QB. Time will tell... San Diego gave up on Brees too early. I'm not saying Ponder will ever be Drew Brees, but its still possible he could turn into a good starter. People write off QBs pretty fast now a days, and don't allow them time to develope. We need to get him some tools to see what he can do.

I doubt Spielman picks up a big time free agent WR. They will need to sign some veterans, but it won't be Wallace, Cruz, Amendola or Jennings. It might be Gibson from St Louis. I assume they will re-sign Simpson too. They are building a young base. We will also get a WR with one of the first round picks. I wouldn't be surprised to see the vikings pick 2 WR in the first 3 rounds.

This draft is different from most years. Many people are saying the talent at 1-5 isn’t that much different than 20-25. That puts us in a great spot! It's also a deep draft for WR this year.

I love Percy, but he had to go. Spielman did pretty well considering...

[DrJuice1980]

If Speilman really thinks he's going into this season having Simpson as #1 hes a complete silly-me. AP needs support. We made the playoff with no passing game at all. Just think where this squad would be if we had WRs that could run a route, create separation, and catch a fricken pass! We'd be unstoppable. We would control the ball so much, our D line wouldnt be so worn down, APs career would last. How does the front office not get it?

[maros91]

I think the Vikes get one of the top WR in FA whether it be Wallace, Jennings, or Amendola. Welker is too old.

[bbfenatic]

I think the Vikes get one of the top WR in FA whether it be Wallace, Jennings, or Amendola. Welker is too old.

Agree! The Wilfs are getting impatient IMO and the Stadium deal is off to a rough start from a funding standpoint...how they ever thought a bunch of gambling machines would work is beyond me...they need to put up a winner because they are going to need the public's help at the end of the day and they'll get support if they have a CONTENDER if not they'll have to dig deeper into their own pockets and they'd rather take ours than their own!!

[LABS4ME]

Loadholt will require a raise, assumuming he doesnt play for someone else, but if he does, we still will need to replace him.

Word has it the Bears have already offered him more than the Vikings. If the Vikes raise the anti, the bears have painted the Vikings into a hard corner... using up that precious cap space on an O-lineman... if the vikes let him go to the Bears, they will improve one of the worst lines in the NFL. Word is they are courting Bushrod and Jake Long also...

Good luck!

Ken

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

If Speilman really thinks he's going into this season having Simpson as #1 hes a complete silly-me.

You can say that again! Youd think with his a$$ on the line with Ponder, Spielman would want to help him out a little.... Bouncing balls off simpsons facemask isnt going to do much to help Ponder there ricky. Wouldnt surprise me if Spielman thinks hes the GURU after last years draft and thinks he can just draft a couple wr's and they will step right in and ball.

And if the bears over pay for Loadholt, good luck to them.

[LABS4ME]

Quote:

nd if the bears over pay for Loadholt, good luck to them

I agree to an extent. Their line is so wretched they are almost forced to overpay line man. He is average at best as a pass blocker... and that is what the Bears need the most. He is primamrily a run limeman, and opens lanes for Peterson, but they cannot pay much more than his 5 mil he wants...

I think maybe the Bears are 'pushing' the Vikes trying to get them to use up more cap space limiting other free agency moves to help improve their team.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Fish Head]

I think Loadholt had a good year last year, but only because he was in a contract year. He really under preformed the 2 years prior.

Amendola is always hurt, Welker is old, Wallace is going to Miami, Cruz will require a 1st round pick in compensation. Jennings is a possibility, but he is 29 and a little injury prone. He will require big money, but they have some money to spend, so we'll see. Gibson isn't a big name, but he's young, has rising stock and won't cost too much.

I know Simpson had a bad year, but that was on a bad ankle. I don't hink he's great, but he knows the offense, he will DEFINATELY have a better year than last year and they can get him for a song.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Just heard the vikes released Winfield..... if its true, SAD day. One of my favorite vikes of all time. Cant say enough good things about him. And guess what- He was a FREE AGENT, signed through FREE AGENCY. So YES, big name FA do work out now and then.

But this makes me think they are making a run at a big name FA.

[schmitty3]

One of my favorite all time Vikings. He was so underrated throughout his entire career. Man, I don't like this move at all, he still had some left in the tank, and is still one of the best tacklers in football.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Lets see, so far we've gotten rid of two of our best players and signed chong simpson again. Why do I find myself scratching my head... There better be good news coming real soon Ricky

[zepman]

Simpson is a #3/4 WR and the Vikings know this too. They never signed him to be their #1 WR. It's a good signing because it's cheap and he has upside and fills another need.

Winfield probably didn't want to take a pay-cut but I wouldn't count on them trying to re-sign him at a reduced contract.