Vikings Message Board.Com

Keep hearing #Vikings' meetings with agents at the combine were awkward. Asked where agents stood, were vague at best on their own position.

Eli wrote:Meetings with agents for their own free agent players, correct? I've got an odd feeling that Spielman's charmed freshman year at GM is about to end with a severe reality check.

Rick Spielman has a rep for being overly secretive at times. But the timeline is a factor here. Free agency launches 2 weeks from today.

dead_poet wrote:Seems like the agents are the ones being difficult?

Comment From Zack
Saw your tweet about meetings with agents and the Vikings being "awkward"...can you talk more about what that means?

Tom Pelissero: From what I've heard, they basically just kept asking for the agents' positions and presented nothing of their own. Kind of hard to really accomplish much when the team isn't even willing to suggest a starting point for negotiations. Keeping everything pretty vague with two weeks still to free agency.

dead_poet wrote: Not sure what you mean or why you feel that way. Seems like the agents are the ones being difficult?

Mothman wrote:If Pelissero's getting an accurate picture of what's going on, it sounds like Spielman might be willing to let the market set the price for some of these free agents.

If I'm not mistaken, there's a new rule in place this year that allows teams to negotiate with agents of players who will be UFAs during a 3 day period before free agency officially begins on Mar. 12th. If that's the case, it changes the negotiating landscape because a "market price" for a player can conceivably be established (and then matched or exceeded by a team trying to keep him) before the player can actually be signed.

Why would you want a Gm that just bends over and takes it from the players?

This ESPN Insider piece on the Minnesota Vikings' offseason crystallized a plan we've discussed in abstract terms. Former NFL scout Gary Horton figures the Vikings like only two of their returning receivers, and because Percy Harvin and Jarius Wright are both best-suited to play the slot position, there is probably an offseason need for "two quality edge receivers with some speed," Horton writes.

In that scenario, the Vikings could seek one of those receivers in free agency and another in the draft. To that end, Insider reporter Field Yates recommends pending free agent Mike Wallace, and not Greg Jennings, as the free agent the Vikings should target.

Yates: "Wallace possesses rare speed, and though his production tapered off in 2012 compared to his previous two seasons, he remains one of the most dangerous downfield threats in the league. For an offense that is centered around pounding the football with [Adrian] Peterson, adding an explosive edge receiver in Wallace would effectively take the top off of defenses and create further lanes for Peterson to run."

Wallace ran a 4.33 in the 40 during his combine test in 2009 and would be an obvious downfield upgrade over Michael Jenkins, who could be released, and Jerome Simpson, a pending free agent. The question is whether the Vikings will want to get involved in negotiations that probably will use as a benchmark the five-year, $55 million contract that Vincent Jackson received last spring from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

As for the draft, let me pass along Mel Kiper's top five receivers , a list he updated after last week's combine:
West Virginia's Tavon Austin
Tennessee's Cordarrelle Patterson
Cal's Keenan Allen
Tennessee's Justin Hunter
Louisiana Tech's Quinton Patton.

Austin has elite speed and playmaking ability, but at 5-foot-9 and 174 pounds, he projects at the same position as Harvin and Wright. Patterson (6-foot-3), Allen (6-3), Hunter (6-4) and Patton (6-2) are built more like edge receivers.

Patterson ran a 4.42 in the 40 at the combine, Hunter a 4.44 and Patton a 4.53. Allen did not run.