Did you know the sky is falling?
Seriously… look outside your window. That’s what it looks like when the sky is falling, not to be confused with what it looks like when a giant Teflon roof is falling.
I’ll admit it. I had high hopes that the Vikings could land cornerback Brandon Carr and wide receiver Vincent Jackson on day one of free agency. I will also admit, however, that I had in no way anticipated the all-out madness that was day one of the NFL’s free agency period.
Seriously, if I could just have one percent of the money that was tossed around on Tuesday, I would buy all of you season tickets and just name that section “Vikings Territory Seating Only.”
The Vikings are in a rebuilding mode, which will probably span multiple seasons, and their strategy was evident on Tuesday: We won’t designate too much of our valuable cap space to one player, because no one player can fix what is wrong here.
I’m not saying it will work out for Rick Spielman, and some of these high profile studs will probably continue to play like high profile studs, but to dismiss the strategy as invalid is just plain silly.
The Redskins and the Cowboys have spent enough money in recent offseason’s to make Mitt Romney choke on his caviar. And where has that got them?
Meanwhile, the Packers haven’t signed an unrestricted free agent in years, and most of them are wearing a big shiny ring right now. Not only should Vikings fans not feel lonely, they should consider themselves in pretty good company. The Ravens, Falcons, Patriots, Lions, Giants, and Steelers were all fairly quiet, too. Let’s face it… the Ravens know how to run a ball club better than the Redskins, so I would much rather see Spielman acting like them instead of Dan Snyder.
In fact, as of this posting only about 14 notable signings have occurred, so there is plenty of players left to spend money on and there should be little doubt that the Vikings can now make their $23 million in cap space stretch further than they would have been able to on Tuesday. I mean, paying Pierre Garcon $8 million per year makes sense and all, but…
We talked about rumors that the Vikings are interested in offensive lineman Scott Wells and tight end John Carlson. While no official visits have been reported, it is obvious that Spielman and company are just letting the funny money fly and will take a well-reasoned approach to filling as many of the numerous holes on this roster as possible with quality football players.
So, when the you wake up Wednesday morning and the sun is shining, and you realize the sky has indeed not fallen, get your ass back here to Vikings Territory and we’ll talk some more about the five hundred (give or take) free agents that are still available.
