Despite Percy Harvin’s early-season (pre-injury) heroics, Adrian Peterson’s incredible season and TE Kyle Rudolph’s mini-breakout, more help for QB Christian Ponder is sorely needed. The Vikings thought WR Jerome Simpson would alleviate their need for a field-tilting weapon but other than a few early pass-interference calls drawn, he was rendered mostly moot, plagued by drops and mental lapses. The Vikings are in salary-cap comfort now with more than $16 million in space (they carried over nearly $8 million from last season) and could spend right up to it for the right players. Could the Vikings go after Green Bay’s Greg Jennings, Kansas City’s Dwayne Bowe or Pittsburgh’s Mike Wallace, for instance? Another, cheaper option to keep in mind: Colts WR Donnie Avery, whose deep speed might not be as useful in Indy’s more West Coast-based system they are implementing. Source: Pro Football Weekly
A true #1 like Bowe on the outside could make this team real dangerous. It might be worth the investment while AP's still in his prime.
Asking for a lot, but I'd much prefer an impact W/R in the first round and a solid #3 to go behind him and Harvin. Too bad drafting W/Rs is such a crapshoot.
I dunno....Dwayne Bowe when motivated is one bad mother effer. I'd be salivating to signing him if I was a NFL QB.
Well you could play it safe, be a 9-7 team again that bows out in the first round at best. Or you could make a move to put you in position for a division title and maybe a bye week. Plus, Harvin's been a head case and who knows how that's going to play out.
I don't think we should play it safe in free agency, I just think that if the Vikings pay both Bowe and Harvin, they'd be handicapped in other areas. We need 2 new linebackers, a DT, and a corner to replace winfield. His backup gave up 160 yards to Aaron Rodgers in week 17. I guess on the bright side Winfield and Kevin Williams both have decent size contracts so there will be some more wiggle room once they are off the books.
Look at it this way...if you have Ponder at QB, you don't have a lot of money invested that position...you can afford to put some money into other areas of your team.
I think DT and CB could be addressed in the draft. Find a way to lessen Winfield's cap number and bring in a young guy to groom behind him. Josh Robinson and Chris Cook are not awful and they are young. I just feel when you have a weapon like Peterson you have to build around him to win. Adding a true top flight #1 who is a threat just takes the offense over the hump. To win the NFC North you are going to need to put up some points because all the other teams can put them up in bunches. Grinding it out will just wear out their main weapon.
i agree that the vikings need another good WR but it really won't matter much unless Ponder can become more consistent. Ponder showed glimpses of improvement in his sophomore year from game to game but still had too many clunkers this year for their offense to really get on track. if johnson and musgrave can take ponder to the next level again in 2013, this offense can become very formidable, especially with another good WR. i'm just not sure if ponder has peaked or if his ceiling has yet to be reached.
