Rumors

Ponder Cited As Reason For Harvin’s Unhappiness

March 11, 2013, by 31 comments

Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports has been at the forefront of the Percy Harvin story, including a recent report that Harvin nearly walked out on his team last season, and he is tidying up this whole saga by tossing one last dose of fuel onto the fire.

Cole asserts that unhappiness with the Vikings quarterback situation, specifically Christian Ponder, was a primary driver behind Harvin’s desire to leave Minnesota.

According to two sources, the straw that broke the Vikings’ back with Harvin is when he bemoaned the fact that quarterback Christian Ponder, a 2011 first-round pick, was not good enough. That came even though Ponder consistently fed Harvin the ball.

The rumors of a trade seemed to cause unrest within Vikings fan circles.  The trade itself seems to have divided them.  Now, this report that pins some blame on Ponder may end up causing blogs and message boards to get downright nasty, at least on sites with less refined and civilized readers than we are lucky enough to have here at VT.

Some, like Christopher Gates of the Daily Norseman, will question the report and/or Harvin’s sanity since his production was never as high as it was last season, prior to his injury, with Ponder at quarterback.  He was getting manufactured touches, getting touches at running back and on special teams, and was on his way to career highs and MVP consideration before he hurt his ankle in, ironically enough, Seattle.

Others, like this hack blogger who lacks common sense, think that Harvin’s supposed gripes were plenty founded and that Christian Ponder has yet to prove that he has what it takes to lead a championship team.  Harvin’s complaints, despite his personal accomplishments, might just prove that he is a fierce competitor that simply wanted to win football games and was willing to speak his mind when he felt somebody was holding the team back.

He might have learned that from Randy Moss, who once told anyone that would listen that Brad Childress should be fired.

I’m not saying that complaining about your young quarterback is a recommended course of action, but I also can’t call Harvin any nasty names because of it when I, myself, was not satisfied with Ponder’s play in 2012.

What we do know is that Ponder has what appears to be the full support of Rick Spielman and his staff.  Here’s hoping he doesn’t make them regret that loyalty.

2014 Third Rounder Wraps Up Trade Compensation

March 11, 2013, by 1 comment

The details surrounding the Percy Harvin trade continue to trickle in and we nearly have achieved a full picture of what exactly went down.

The Vikings traded away the 24 year old superstar and received a trio of draft picks in return.

In 2013 the Vikings will get Seattle’s first round pick (25) and one of their seventh round picks (currently unknown which one).  In addition, multiple outlets are reporting that the Vikings received a 2014 third round pick as part of the deal.

That may not be the end of it.  Often time future picks are conditional and it could end up changing rounds if that is the case here, and it is possible that other intricacies are involved here, such as switching picks in one round or another in the Draft.  That might not be the case, but we have seen those details come out later on down the road on a number of occasions in the past, including last offseason’s trade that sent A.J. Jefferson to the Vikings.

Trading such a young and explosive talent may not be the ideal situation, but if you are going to do it then this is the type of compensation you want to get, and Rick Spielman deserves credit for maximizing the deal.  I can’t help but wonder if he was able to artificially inflate his asking price by pitting San Francisco and Seattle, division rivals, against one another in a bidding war.  Not long after the Harvin news broke, the Niners traded for Anquan Boldin who had previously been believed to be a likely cap causality of the Ravens.

The Vikings now have 11 picks in the 2013 Draft.  Five of those picks are in the top 100, at least until compensatory picks are awarded, and they are currently in a position to add two first round selections to their rebuilding efforts for the second offseason in a row.

One of the final big pieces of information we need to evaluate this trade is the contract that Harvin signs with the Seahawks, as it will more accurately portray what the Vikings would have had to sacrifice to keep him around.

Vikings Were In The Mix For Boldin

March 11, 2013, by 8 comments

On the same day that the Vikings receiver depth chart was blown to smithereens  by a deal that sent Percy Harvin to Seattle, Rick Spielman made his first attempt at reconstructing it.

And he missed.

Pro Football Talk reports that the Vikings offered a seventh round pick to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for 32 year old Anquan Boldin and his $6 million salary.  The San Francisco 49ers, who couldn’t be happy about Percy Harvin just joining their division rivals, were the high bidder with a sixth round pick.

Immediately following the Harvin trade Vikings fans, via Twitter and Facebook, immediately ran a long list of potential replacements through their heads.  Victor Cruz (tendered with a first rounder), numerous prospects, Greg Jennings, and Mike Wallace are at the forefront of those conversations.

Boldin, once a premier wide out in this league, is on nearing the end of his career and I have to say that I am not too terribly disappointed that this trade didn’t come to fruition.  He might prove me wrong in San Francisco for a year or two, but I just didn’t feel like news of trading for Boldin was the right medicine for just watching Percy Harvin walk out the front door.

Zobel: Vikings Have Standing Offer For Harvin

March 10, 2013, by 33 comments

And the saga continues…

Last night Sid Hartman was the first to uncork the Percy-Requests-Trade bottle and now Shawn Zobel, of Draft Headquarters, gives us our first report of an offer.

Zobel tweeted the information Friday night before Hartman’s article was posted Saturday.

Anyways, Zobel claims that the Vikings have a standing offer on the table for Percy Harvin in the form of a second round pick.  Zobel doesn’t name which team has made the offer but he does say that the Vikings are holding out for a first round offer.

 

Hartman: Harvin Wants Out Of Minnesota

March 9, 2013, by 8 comments

Sid Hartman, the oldest member of the Vikings Cheerleading Team, is at it again.

For a guy that normally uses this time of year to boost the morale of fanbase, Hartman has decided to pass along a disheartening piece of information about the Percy Harvin saga, just in time for Sunday morning’s paper.

Hartman says that he has gotten word from “some good sources” in the NFL that the troubled receiver has told the Vikings that he no longer wants to play for them and would like to be traded.  Additionally, Hartman says there is no way that Harvin would be reporting for duty when the Vikings begin offseason workouts on April 22nd, which is not a surprise to anyone that is paying attention.

I have noticed over the years that Hartman seems more than willing to be a pawn in the Vikings public relations efforts, and I can’t help but wonder where Hartman got this information and what motives the “sources” had for leaking it, and I find it interesting that Hartman goes out of his way to point out the leverage the Vikings still have in this situation and give credence to Rick Spielman’s assertions that the team will not be trading Harvin.

One must keep in mind that Spielman and his staff are currently fighting a war on two fronts.  They have to balance between maintaining leverage with Harvin, in case negotiations do eventually take place, and also maintain a good game face to maximize their selling price if it comes down to a trade scenario.  Hartman seems to do a good job of helping Spielman out on both fronts with this latest report.

This could all be over as soon as Tuesday.  It may also last right up until Draft Day in April, or even longer.  In theory, this thing could play out over the course of the next couple of years, but that is sounding less and less likely with every report that comes out.

Short of an actual trade, the Vikings signing one of the top free agent receivers available this offseason would be the surest sign of all that the Vikings are ready to move on and will work hard towards shipping Harvin out of town.  Ironically enough, it could be Harvin’s contract demands that prevent a deal from taking place quickly.

First Free Agency Report Is, Well… Not Shocking

March 8, 2013, by 23 comments

I decided to stay awake as long as I could during this new, weird free agency (but not really) deal that the NFL is doing these days.

I was able to find out one thing that should have been obvious to us all:  The Vikings called the agents of receivers Mike Wallace and Greg Jennings.

Those reports come from Pro Football Central and otherwise have absolutely no detail.

So, yeah, glad I stayed awake.

Suspicious Timing With Latest Harvin Dirt

March 8, 2013, by 11 comments

Whether it be his time under Urban Meyer at Florida or his time playing for Brad Childress or his more recent days playing for Leslie Frazier, Percy Harvin always seems to leave a trail of not-so-flattering dirt behind him.  The problem for the media, both national and local, seems to be that by the time they report any dirt on Harvin it is pretty well embedded into the past.

The most recent report that put Harvin in the crosshairs came from Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports and claims that Harvin nearly walked out on the Vikings after news broke that his former teammate at Florida, tight end Aaron Hernandez, received a nifty contract extension from the Patriots.  As Tom Pelissero of 1500 ESPN points out, Hernandez signed his contract extension on August 27th which was the final week of the preseason, and no reports of a Harvin-related incident has previously been reported from that time period.

Cole also goes onto say that the Vikings have yet to make an offer to Harvin, and that Harvin’s agent has yet to make an offer to the Vikings, but that is is believed Harvin wants to be paid significantly more than Dwayne Bowe and Vincent Jackson are getting under their current contracts.  He reportedly would like to see a contact more in the neighborhood of Calvin Johnson’s eight year deal worth up to $132 million.

While Harvin claimed last offseason that his sudden tirade during the offseason, where he reportedly demanded a trade, was not about the money but was instead about other issues within the offense.  More recent reports indicate, however, that Harvin’s contract demands are what is standing in the way of an extension or even a trade.

Despite all the fairly clear evidence against Harvin and the way he handles himself, I have to wonder about the timing of Cole’s report and the motives that his unnamed sources might have.  Cole writes that the Vikings “fear” that Harvin will hold out in 2013 as long as he allowed (week 10), while still accruing a year of service, and aim to be an unrestricted free agent.  Part of that “fear” stems from worries that he would be such a pain in the ass when he did eventually return, that they wouldn’t even want to consider retaining his rights via the franchise tag.

I personally don’t see any legitimate reason the Vikings have to “fear” a Harvin hold out.  If he comes back in week 10, presumably very healthy, he will likely be advised by his agent that he is playing for his new contract still and will have major motivation to impress anyone watching during his truncated season.  Harvin would have to completely destroy his own reputation along the way if this ever got to the point that he wouldn’t be a franchise tag candidate and valuable trade bait.  Maybe I am foolish or ignorant, but nothing about a hold out situation scares me.

I’m not sure what the motive was here, but Cole’s sources didn’t push this “new” look into Harvin’s attitude on the eve of free agency (essentially) by coincidence.  It seems very calculated, actually.

And, like I have said a gazillion times this offseason, plenty of options still exist here.  The whole Harvin saga could end on Monday, or it could continue for another eight years, or something in between those two scenarios.

The only thing I know for sure, however, is that neither Jason Cole or his source have any idea how all of this is going to end up.