Carolina and Minnesota Two-Way Pipeline: Kalil, Remmers, Munnerlyn, & Johnson
Carolina and Minnesota continued their player swapping well into Friday night, a theme that makes this offseason’s free agency period somewhat unique.
We already knew that the Vikings lost left tackle (and pizza maker) Matt Kalil to the Panthers this week. I openly mused at that point, in our ongoing Live Chat, about the possibility of Mike Remmers joining the Vikings and being of more value at half the cost than what Kalil ends up being in Carolina.
Amazingly, that theory will now be tested by reality, as Remmers has signed with the Vikings. Then news broke that two more Vikings free agents are going to be Carolina Panthers moving forward.
Source: The #Panthers have agreed to terms to sign CB Captain Munnerlyn. The band getting back together.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 11, 2017
For the WR Charles Johnson in Carolina, it’s 1-yr for $2.2M, source said.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 11, 2017
For those keeping track at home, the Vikings have now lost Matt Kalil, Rhett Ellison, Jeff Locke, Charles Johnson, and Captain Munnerlyn in free agency. They gained Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers.
As for the compensatory pick formula, losing Johnson won’t help the Vikings gain a pick, as he was not a “natural” unrestricted free agent (UFA), but instead a restricted free agent (RFA) that was not tendered. That means the Vikings have lost four UFA’s and signed two, giving them a potential net positive of two late-round 2018 compensatory picks if free agency stopped here (it doesn’t). We’ll keep tracking all of that for you as the dust settles.
Cordarrelle Patterson may be the next Vikings UFA to depart, as he is drawing interest from a number of teams, including the Oakland Raiders.