Well, boys and girls, it's Spring Break and one of the best parts is that free agency is open for business!
In extremely sad news, I have to report the loss of Jared Allen and Toby Gerhart. Jared Allen is testing free agency for the first time, presumably in hopes of getting a ring before he retires. Toby Gerhart, who has so nobly and patiently waited for minutes behind Adrian Peterson has signed a 3 year, $10.5 million deal with Jacksonville, with the Jaguars guaranteeing a whopping $4.5 million! I'm happy for Gerhart, and Allen certainly deserves a good deal...but how I HATE losing them both!
This of course brings us to Everson Griffen and Matt Cassel, both of whom were (reportedly) very eager to re-sign with the Vikings. I'm THRILLED we keep Cassel, because in my opinion, he's the best FA QB out there, and I'm hoping this means we dump Freeman (didn't he just have a 1 year contract anyway?) and get a rookie to train up. Cassel's new contract is for 2 years, not sure how long Griffen's contract is for.
I'm happy to keep Griffen too, especially since he seemed to excited to stay with the Vikings and become a starting DE under our new coach Mike Zimmer.
We've also signed a former Giant - nose tackle Linval Joseph for a 5-year, $31.5 million dollar deal. Dude is 6'4" and 323 pounds (holy crap!), and apparently the Giants really wanted to keep him but didn't make their offer sweet enough. He's 25, and been a starter for the last three seasons for the Giants, with 59 tackles in each of the last two seasons!! Also had 7 sacks, 2 forced fumbles and 3 fumble recoveries in the last two years. I am liking this signing. Hopefully he fits in well with the team, staff, and picks up our game plan fast.
In ex-Viking news, Geoff Schwartz has joined the NY Giants. He seems quite excited at the prospect...I would have thought he would be sad to leave the Chiefs after their season last season.
I'll try to keep up with what else is going on in free agency but I do have a thesis to write. Hopefully we address enough line issues in FA that we can go BPA and big playmaker in the draft! SKOL!
