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The Vikings capped their organized team activities this afternoon, meaning they have only a minicamp left in their offseason program before they head to Mankato for training camp in late July. But even if we moving closer to substantive football, there are still a few scraps of offseason news hanging around.
The first item involves Miami Dolphins receiver Mike Wallace, whose father Mike is once again claiming his son had a bigger offer from the Vikings than Wallace ultimately accepted from the Dolphins. Take it for what it worth. This time, Wallace father put a number on it: He says the Vikings offered Wallace $76 million, and Wallace wound up signing with the Dolphins for $60 million.
Is it possible the Vikings gave Wallace that big of an offer? It is, though I mention again what we know about how free agency played out. They called Greg Jennings representative, Eugene Parker, shortly after the start of the freeagent negotiating window on March 8 to express their interest in the receiver. General manager Rick Spielman finalized the trade that sent Percy Harvin to Seattle on March 11, and Wallace signed with the Dolphins on March 12 an hour after the start of free agency and the end of a negotiating period during which there could be no formal offers. So if the Vikings did make such an offer to Wallace, they would have had to do so while courting Jennings and trying to trade Harvin, and Wallace wouldn have had long to consider it.
The other point to consider here is guaranteed money: The Vikings could well have offered more to Wallace than the www.nikejetsauthenticjerseys.com/87_jeff_cumberland_jersey_authentic_black_limited_cheap.html Dolphins did, but this isn baseball, where every dollar is guaranteed and overall contract value is king. It football, and Wallace will reportedly get $20.5 million of his $30 million guaranteed money over the next two seasons. Jeff Cumberland Elite Jersey To top that, the Vikings either would have had to do some cap gymnastics this season or stick a massive cap hit on their books for 2014, like the Dolphins are doing by guaranteeing Wallace $15 million base salary. Consider what else the Vikings have to figure out for 2014 the futures of Jared Allen, Brian Robison, Kevin Williams, Everson Griffen, Fred Evans, Chris Cook, among others and ask yourself if it would have made sense for them to pin an eightfigure cap number on their payroll. If they did offer $76 million, it possible the structure of the deal was such that Wallace didn have to make much of a choice, especially when you consider the lack of income tax in Florida and Wallace stated preference for warm weather.
Moving on we keep this next item short.
Terrell Owens is back in the news, having told NFL Network he wants to play in 2013. He mentioned the Chiefs and the Vikings as possible fits, and it not hard to see why: Owens played for Chiefs coach Andy Reid in Philadelphia, and Vikings receivers coach George Stewart helped launch Owens career in San Francisco. But I make two observations, and be done:
1. Spielman often talks about finding players who are fits usually young, hungry and devoid of drama.
2. Owens turns 40 in December. He hasn played an NFL game since 2010. And he well Owens.
Sound like a fit to you? Me, neither.
The Vikings conclude their second week of organized team activities today; they be back for four of them next week before a threeday mandatory minicamp from June 1820. That the last we see of the team on the field before training camp, so these next couple weeks are big for a number of players trying to make an impression.
One player we heard about over and over yesterday was tight end Kyle Rudolph, who won Pro Bowl MVP honors after being named to the game as an injury replacement. That experience had coach Leslie Frazier talking well beyond his normal measured tones when discussing Rudolph yesterday.
try not to get too far ahead of myself, but the Jeff Cumberland Black Jersey Kyle Rudolph that I see now is so much more confident and more sure of himself than the Kyle I saw a year ago at this time, Frazier said. like night and day to me, personally. I'm anxious to see how he does when we get to training camp from a blocking standpoint, but that Pro Bowl, it's flipped the switch. He knows he has a chance to be a premier tight end in this league after what he did over there being MVP and it's evident by the way he's practicing, the way he runs his routes, the control he has in the meetings. But it's obvious he's taken his game up to another notch but we're still only in June so I have to temper my emotions a little bit. I'm excited about what I see. was more. Chad Greenway said he thinks Rudolph is to be the breakout star in the NFL. When you're Pro Bowl MVP it's hard not to be confident. has made a number of impressive plays in OTAs so far. He looked more able to do damage on seam routes, and after a year where just 27 of his 89 targets came more than 10 yards down the field, Rudolph might turn into the kind of downfield threat Christian Ponder needs.
His runblocking, though, is what Frazier is still waiting to see. Rudolph had to adjust to playing more of a traditional tight end role coming out of Notre Dame, and though he only allowed one hit on the quarterback last year, he was less effective blocking for Adrian Peterson. That one of the last pieces of his game the Vikings need to see improve, and while it dangerous to draw too many conclusions about runblocking during OTAs, when there isn much contact, the Vikings seem to like everything else they seen from Rudolph. We have to stay tuned on how that plays out, and what it would mean for John www.nikejetsauthenticjerseys.com Carlson ability to get on the field.
difficult, for similar reasons, to gauge Xavier Rhodes this time of year. His ability to play press coverage will have plenty to say about whether he can start in his first year in the league, but the Vikings want their corners to be more physical, and Rhodes certainly fits that bill. With Jacob Lacey out until training camp after thumb surgery, Rhodes will get plenty of time in the nickel during the rest of the Vikings offseason program. He can make his case for a spot in the base defense from there.
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