T.J. Houshmandzadeh has left Minnesota and he didn't leave wearing a Vikings uniform.
I can't think of a case in the recent past where a free agent has left a visit with an interested team without a contract and still ended up signing there. So if the Vikings were going to land the Bengals wide receiver, they probably had to do it over the weekend. This isn't good news, but it's not over yet. And now we have Jay Cutler rumors to chat about.
Update
It appears Houshmandzadeh has chosen the Seahawks over the Vikings and the Bengals. It's a disappointing turn of events. But it's also not surprising after Houshmandzadeh left Minnesota without a contract.
Did the Vikings quarterback situation play a large role in Houshmandzadeh's decision (a healthy Matt Hasselback is better than a healthy Sage Rosenfels or Tarvaris Jackson)? Or was it the money?
I'd say it was the money. It's almost always the money in pro sports. The Seahawks gave him five years and $15-million guaranteed.
I know there were some negatives to Houshmandzadeh – like his age and declining yards per catch totals – but his skills would have fit nicely with the Vikings. Now fans have to hope Sidney Rice makes the leap he didn't make last year.
And let's not be happy that the Vikings didn't "overpay" to sign the former Pro Bowler. It's Zygi Wilf's money. As long as he doesn't wreck the Vikings salary cap for future generations and improves the team in the process, I don't care how much it costs to sign a guy.
Now wake me up once those Jay Cutler rumblings stop.
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8 comments:
Seahawks.
Oh well. Sidney Rice better step up next season.
If the phone calls to Denver don't pan out, I think a call to CLE about their pass dropping WR might be worth the time.
Big deal - no tears from me. Everyone knows we overpaid for Berrian, and we would have overpaid for T.J. Housh if we would have brought him here.
Now, Cutler I would get quite excited about. If we actually did land him, I just wonder how he would fit in with Childress' KOA.
Not that expect to see Cutler going anywhere but if he had landed in Minnesota, it would result in one or two things: 1) Cutler thrives and shows all Childress and Bevell needed was the right QB for the KOA to hum or 2) Cutler struggles, proving Childress and Bevell are brutal offensive minds and they get canned as a result.
"And let's not be happy that the Vikings didn't "overpay" to sign the former Pro Bowler. It's Zygi Wilf's money. As long as he doesn't wreck the Vikings salary cap for future generations and improves the team in the process, I don't care how much it costs to sign a guy."
But that's the point. You can't say "as long as" and pretend it's an automatically avoidable thing. In 5 years' time, Housh will be 37 and the Seahawks will be paying him 9 mil a year. And while he is a very good receiver, in my opinion he is not one of the top 10 receivers in the league. I just don't see him making the Vikings' offense THAT much better to warrant the long term contract. I am very confident that we will put that money to better use over the next 5 years. To be honest, a dependable RG would help this team out more than Housh. Yeah he's a 'name' free agent, but WR wasn't one of our top 3 priorities coming into free agency and still isn't.
Once you get over the initial dissapointment that that we all thought he was coming here for a day or so, it seems like an okay thing to not get him.
"And let's not be happy that the Vikings didn't "overpay" to sign the former Pro Bowler. It's Zygi Wilf's money. As long as he doesn't wreck the Vikings salary cap for future generations and improves the team in the process, I don't care how much it costs to sign a guy."
But that's the point. You can't say "as long as" and pretend it's an automatically avoidable thing. In 5 years' time, Housh will be 37 and the Seahawks will be paying him 9 mil a year. And while he is a very good receiver, in my opinion he is not one of the top 10 receivers in the league. I just don't see him making the Vikings' offense THAT much better to warrant the long term contract. I am very confident that we will put that money to better use over the next 5 years. To be honest, a dependable RG would help this team out more than Housh. Yeah he's a 'name' free agent, but WR wasn't one of our top 3 priorities coming into free agency and still isn't.
Once you get over the initial dissapointment that that we all thought he was coming here for a day or so, it seems like an okay thing to not get him.
Brett/yanksrule:
Thanks for the comments.
The Vikings have not found themselves in salary cap trouble since 2000-2001. So management has shown it has a good grasp of how to craft contracts that don't hurt the team too much down the road. I'm confident they could have drawn up such a contract for Houshmandzadeh.
It's also unlikely Houshmandzadeh will ever play out this contract with the Seahawks. He'll be there probably for three years and get cut in his fourth or fifth year so Seattle can save some cap space.
The team knows this. Houshmandzadeh knows this, which is why he's getting $15-million guaranteed. I bet he's getting the bulk of that in a signing bonus. So in a year when the salary cap has gone up, the free agent crop is lean and the Vikings have $32-million in cap space to spend, why not spend it on the best receiver available? I'm not totally down on losing out on Houshmandzadeh but I definitely think he could have helped.
A team with Peterson and Taylor at running back and Berrian and Houshmandzadeh at wide receiver looks pretty good to me. But perhaps the Vikings made the same determination you did about T.J.'s worth.
If Sidney Rice catches 60-70 passes for 800-900 yards and seven or eight touchdowns, all will be forgotten.
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