The NFL is allowing a three day window in which team’s can legally tamper with pending free agency prior to free agency officially beginning. That means very late on Friday all phone lines will be open, rumors will be flying, text message services will be working overtime, and tentative deals will be struck.
That is why it is interesting to point out that the Vikings have done incredibly little this offseason so far. Since the season ended they have added one player, CFL cornerback Rod Williams, and released veteran receiver Michael Jenkins.
That’t it.
Tomorrow night the agents for all 14 pending free agents are free to talk to other teams. This includes right tackle Phil Loadholt, Pro Bowl fullback Jerome Felton, and safety Jamarca Sanford. They haven’t tendered any of their restricted free agents like some teams have done. They also haven’t restructured any veteran contracts like so many teams have done over the last few weeks.
Minnesota has always seemed to frustrate fans by waiting until the last minute to show their cards, which is the smart thing to do, but they are allowing some fairly important items on their to-do list wait until the last minute. It is safe to assume that there is a plan in place, but I just can’t help but wonder just how much risk is built into this plan when it comes to retaining their own players.
For everyone’s sake, I hope the Vikings make the transaction report on Friday, and show a sign of life in an offseason where they have done little other than play possum.
View Comments
Seems as though they are planning to take a calculated risk and let guys go into the tampering period to set their value before presenting any offers. I think there has been less activity league wide as far as re-signings go. I'm surprised they didn't talk more extensively with Loadholt and Felton. Those are two key pieces to Adrian's 2K season that could potentially walk right out the door on them, but maybe their agents set the bar too high.