Vikings agree to terms w/ Ravens DT Michael Pierce
I take it all back!
The Vikings just signed the 48th best free agent (according to ProFootballTalk.nbcsports.aol.netscape.com) in the league to replace Linval Joseph!
That player is Michael Pierce from the Baltimore Ravens. According to multiple sources the Vikings have agreed to a three-year deal with the defensive tackle who is 27-years old and was an undrafted free agent out of Samford in 2016.
I’ll let Ian Rapoport break it down because I have heard the buffet in the press box is pretty amazing.
The #Vikings agreed to terms former #Ravens DT Michael Pierce on a 3-year deal worth $27M, source said, with a max of $28M. He gets $18M guaranteed and is back in free agency at 30.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 18, 2020
$18 million of the deal is guaranteed which we should keep in mind once the Vikings cut him to save $250k in 2021 against the dead cap hit of $8 million.
While I’m just acting out like a petulant child, there is some interesting tidbits surrounding Pierce. While he wasn’t invited to the NFL Combine, at his Pro Day, according to Wikipedia (where all the great sports journalists get their info), he ran a 10 meter split faster than any DL that was invited to the combine (1.67 vs the top performance at the combine by Alex McCalister’s 1.68 seconds), he also performed a broad jump that landed him within the top 15 for any defensive lineman.
Keep in mind though, that Pierce has struggled with his weight as a pro. So much so that he was sent off the field by the team at minicamp because he was both overweight and in terrible shape. So, again… Forgive me for not feeling too enthused about this move.
So, good news! If the Lombardi Trophy requires someone to run side to side and then jump from a flat-footed stance… Pierce is your guy!
I’ll let the good folks at Wikipedia finish the rest of this article so I can avoid the all caps comments from the peanut gallery…
“On May 3, 2016, Pierce signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent. As a rookie in the 2016 season, Pierce appeared in all 16 games and finished the season with 35 tackles, two sacks, and one pass defended. On September 10, in the 2017 season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals, Pierce recovered a Terrell Suggs-forced fumble, which came off of quarterback Andy Dalton, in the 20–0 victory. On March 9, 2019, the Ravens placed a second-round restricted free agent tender on Pierce. On May 1, 2019, the Ravens re-signed Pierce.”
The good news here really is that this’ll give Zimmer and company one less position on his favorite side of the ball, defense, to spend a draft pick on as it’s clear that they’re going to need to invest heavily in the offensive line in free agency and the draft if they’re to even break the .500 (or .250) win percentage in 2020.