Image courtesy of Vikings.com
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.
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.
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Kind of bummed to see Captain leave. They must have faith in Mac. I don't doubt that, but they have lost depth. So, pretty much a must to retain Newman and/or a draft pick.
Wtf...fire spielman now and right now. We lose half our fricken team and sign to average at best tackles. Great. Go get the pats gm atleast he can build a roster
To all of you who thumber down. How many super bowls do we have under spielman? How many winning seasons? How many above average rosters? How how about the pats?
How many teams do have a super bowl appearance, let alone a win? To answer your questions... Spielman started out as a part of the "triangle of authority". Can't really place too much blame on him alone until 4 years ago. He has built a studly defense. Many good draft picks on that side of the ball. You lent no credence to Waynes on a different thread, he played well last year and he and Xavier (Rick's pick) are poised to be a very good tandem. Floyd is not the only player that has been oft injured, the nature of the game. So, Everson, Floyd, Hunter, Barr, Kendricks, H. Smith, Xavier. Pretty good. Good vibes regarding Brothers, Kearse, McKinnon, Rudy, Morgan, Mackenzie... Walsh was great until two years ago. His overlooking the o line is now a glaring deficiency, but he had success in the later rounds with Fusco and Sullivan.. perhaps he was too high on their success relative to being drafted so late and thought he could continue the trend? Don't know dude, but he passed on some pretty good o linemen the last two years while taking Clemmings, Beavers, and Yankey.. I think all in the 4th and they are all blah. So a poor record with o linemen while doing quite well on d. Me thinks that you are really biased, your screen name lends credence to that. I was pissed as can be during last year's draft, I hated the pick of Tread.. But maybe he did try to trade the pick to move down to the 2nd to take Spriggs and/or Whitehead. Even if Tread does not ever work out, I think that Mac and Brothers will someday contribute, likely this next year. Beavers is likely done, but Morgan and Kearse will likely be quality starters, maybe Weatherly, maybe MoBo. Reality is a bitch when it contradicts bias.
Rhodes, Rudy, Morgan, trade for Linval, Barr, Kendricks, H. Smith, Diggs, Waynes ready, Floyd if he can stay on the field, Griffen, Hunter. Brothers, Kearse, Mac all on the uptick. Your screen name indicates your bias. Yankey, Clemmings and Beavers.. just terrible. Don't' forget the barrell for the few bad apples dude. I think that the success of Sullivan and the year of success for Fusco fooled Rick into thinking he could build the o line through late picks. He won't continue with that mistake. There are some good interior linemen in this year's draft, a few tackles as well; just not the sure fire dominant ones. I am thinking that there will be some "wheeling and dealing" done and they land 2 good lineman with 2 or their first 3 picks.
Who'd we trade for linval? Last time I checked we signed him in the one year we actually participated in free agency. Ill give you diggs, rudy some of the time, but hes no gronkowski, rhodes, kendricks, barr, Harrison, Griffin, as for the rest their all pure speculation. They have not proved themselves may have shown flashes but heck ryan leaf or jamarcus russell has shown flashes. Spielman has failed way more picks then won and part of that reason is his obesession with the garbage picks as I call him you know the end of the draft. If spielman is so dang good, how come he has like 2 playoff wins no superbowls, more losing seasons then winning seasons? and hasnt been able to draft a franchise qb?
I apologize for my oversight, but what difference does it make? He landed Linval. What other TE can be compared to Gronk? I really find it ridiculous that you would throw two of the greatest busts in the history of the draft into this. What flashes from either of those two.. ever!!? They were terrible from the word go in the NFL. I will place more faith in any of the youngsters that I mentioned over Leaf or Russell! Brothers was a tackling machine with great instincts in college, Kearse is long, extremely fast, and not afraid to tackle. Hunter speculation? Yeah, as much as Everson was speculation with almost 10 sacks while playing 1/5 the downs. I am not saying that I think Rick is the greatest ever.. I absolutely hated his taking Tread when their WR's were fine (don't think so, look at stats of Diggs and Adam vs rest of league; they were on the roster then...) when they were so obviously in need of o lineman. It sucked that I was right. But let us not forget.. the media and so many fans (maybe you were one of them) that were clamoring for the Vikes to get a red zone threat, he complied. It reminds me of a certain year when everyone was clamoring for the need for speed to replace Moss.. Before Rick's time, but same ol' same ol'; they drafted to appease the fans. Williamson may just be almost as great a bust as Jamarcus and Leaf. Expectations were just as high and all procured the same end result. INRE a franchise QB, he drafted Teddy. I did not like it at the time, thought they should have taken Carr. But at least I was happy that they didn't draft that POS Manziel, were you one that wanted him? I sure as heck didn't, I was just glad that they didn't draft Manziel. I also thought Teddy should go after his performance in 2015, I was impressed that he did not have happy feet in the pocket as most young QB's do in the prior season, but I also thought that he did not sense pressure from the blind side well, plus he continued to miss long passes to a wide open Wallace over and over again. Then he looked great in preseason up until his injury. So, I am thinking that he did draft one, at least possible, franchise QB.
If one's grading of a GM is how many superbowls won, then about 28 current GM's are failures by your grading curve.
Trade Kalil, Johnson and Munnerlyn for Remmers? Done. We just got better. Will miss Captain, but the youngsters are ready. Losing Flash will hurt though. His big plays were the difference in wins and losses in several games. Should have picked up that 5th year option, Mr. Spielman.