Vikings Offseason Thread

[nicksaviking]

3 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

Yeah, I was hoping the Vikes would get a pick out of this. Oh well. 

Yeah, this was a big fat nothing of a punishment.

The Vikings would probably need to prove that Cousins knew Atlanta's offer prior to free agency to have gotten any compensation. I'd hope that they'd have checked any team issued electronics issued to him to find any damning evidence, but while Cousins was too dumb not to discuss the tampering in his press conference, the suits in Atlanta were probably smart enough to only give him or his agent verbal information.

[DocBauer]

I didn't expect the Vikings to get anything out of this, but I had slim hope they would.

There was an incident a couple years ago regarding tampering that had the erroring team send the other organization a 3rd round pick in a "settlement". I might be wrong, but I thought it might have been Denver/New Orleans?

Regardless, I can somewhat understand the league punishing Atlanta in this case and not giving the Vikings any reward. The Vikings were clearly looking to add a new, young QB no matter what in this past draft. Where I have issue is that regardless of the Vikings intentions, they were still actively offering Cousins a deal. So if Atlanta interfered with those negotiations, violating the rules, then they interfered with the violated team's course of business.

I don't care if it's only a 5th round pick. Instead of being sacrificed, that pick should go to the team that was "violated" in this instance. As is, it's like winning a settlement in a court case but never receiving the awarded compensation. And that doesn't feel right to me.

[Danchat]

The Vikings were never getting anything, there wasn't any precedent for that. If that were so, the 49ers and Bears would be entitled to picks as well since Mooney and Woerner were part of the tampering. The NFL isn't going to start doling out to picks to teams that are "victims" of tampering, but they really aren't victims. They just don't want teams tampering with players/coaches under contract with other teams or significantly before FA starts.

[nicksaviking]

On 6/14/2024 at 6:11 PM, Danchat said:

The Vikings were never getting anything, there wasn't any precedent for that. If that were so, the 49ers and Bears would be entitled to picks as well since Mooney and Woerner were part of the tampering. The NFL isn't going to start doling out to picks to teams that are "victims" of tampering, but they really aren't victims. They just don't want teams tampering with players/coaches under contract with other teams or significantly before FA starts.

I agree the NFL is unlikely to award damages to the other teams, but they absolutely are victims. If Atlanta has already told Cousins they will give him X years and X dollars, it completely nullifies the Vikings exclusive negotiating window and takes away every bit of their leverage.

In this scenario, conventional wisdom would have said the Vikings couldn't retain Cousins for less than three years, but that wasn't a guarantee and that won't be the case in every situation. Atlanta should have lost three first rounders for these three players to scare the rest of the league straight.

[Danchat]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

I agree the NFL is unlikely to award damages to the other teams, but they absolutely are victims. If Atlanta has already told Cousins they will give him X years and X dollars, it completely nullifies the Vikings exclusive negotiating window and takes away every bit of their leverage.

In this scenario, conventional wisdom would have said the Vikings couldn't retain Cousins for less than three years, but that wasn't a guarantee and that won't be the case in every situation. Atlanta should have lost three first rounders for these three players to scare the rest of the league straight.

The whole reason why I don't classify them as victims is because they were very likely doing their own tampering because all teams do, just not blatantly. The point is that the NFL doesn't care very much about tampering right before the FA window because they know all teams do it, hence the slap on the wrist.

You can tell what the NFL does not want teams doing by their big fines / suspensions - they came down hard on the Dolphins for tampering with Payton & Brady who were both under contract with other teams despite being retired, and they give out drastic suspensions for players who gamble on NFL games. They want absolutely none of that and make examples out of rule-breakers, but they don't care much about tampering on players who are about to be free agents.

Even if tampering was not a thing, Kirk still would have hit the market and then gotten the ridiculous offer from Atlanta. Stopping pre-FA tampering would only push all of the signings back a couple days, since players usually wait until they see what other teams offer them to properly gauge their market.

[Vanimal46]

Awful news just before training camp. 4th round pick. 

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

Awful news just before training camp. 4th round pick. 

Just got an e-mail from a friend about this

[nicksaviking]

Awful news, such a young guy.

[Mike Sixel]

I hope his family gets the money.... Not that it will help. Just awful. 

[nicksaviking]

51 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I hope his family gets the money.... Not that it will help. Just awful. 

Not sure what they'll get, but the Vikings keep getting top ranks for how they treat their players. I'd bet on them to do some degree of right by the family.

But you're right, hardly the point at this time.

 

[Parfigliano]

4 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I hope his family gets the money.... Not that it will help. Just awful. 

Gonna be a fun story when V moves to retain the money

[Mike Sixel]

10 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Gonna be a fun story when V moves to retain the money

Why be so negative? Did this somehow make you happy? I doubt it made anyone else happy? What a horrible post. 

[Parfigliano]

18 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Why be so negative? Did this somehow make you happy? I doubt it made anyone else happy? What a horrible post. 

Im being realistic.  V ownership is corporate USA.  Not paying is what corporate USA would do.  Its heartless.  It happens 24/7/365.

[nicksaviking]

4 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Im being realistic.  V ownership is corporate USA.  Not paying is what corporate USA would do.  Its heartless.  It happens 24/7/365.

I'm disgusted by this country's toxic super capitalism, but it doesn't happen every time. His contact is for 4.8M, 800K of which was already paid as a signing bonus. An NFL team withholding 4M in in today's market would be worse for them than paying it. It's peanuts to these owners; the good-will alone would be worth more than 4M. The only reason they wouldn't pay is for salary cap reasons, but I'm sure they could work something out easy enough where they cancel the contract and just cut a check.

So yeah, feel free to be heartless about corporate USA, but not because they won't pay, but because they may be doing it for the wrong reasons.

But again, the Vikings keep getting top marks for how they treat their players, there's no reason to think the Wilfs won't realize the Vikings make 4M every other day from the franchise and think it's the right thing to do.

[Shaitan]

The money isn't the point. That said, I'd hope he had insurance. In which case, the Vikings probably wouldn't pay his family. It's never simple.

[cHawk]

That ain’t good, especially considering that it’s his second traffic violation in the last calendar year.

[Vanimal46]

45 minutes ago, cHawk said:

That ain’t good, especially considering that it’s his second traffic violation in the last calendar year.

Any news this time of year is never good. Dude needs to get his S*** together. First the reckless speeding incident last year, now this. 

[Mike Sixel]

8 days after his teammate is killed. Trade the loser. 

[Mike Sixel]

McCarthy and the Vikings reach a deal....

[Parfigliano]

10 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

McCarthy and the Vikings reach a deal....

Wasnt his deal pretty much preordained based on his 1st round draft slot position?

[Mike Sixel]

11 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Wasnt his deal pretty much preordained based on his 1st round draft slot position?

Second last player to sign.... Leaving their other first ronder as the only unsigned pick in the NFL....

[Parfigliano]

ESPN says extending Darrisaw for 4 more years

[wabene]

Strib says 4 years up to 113 million, yikes 

[Mike Sixel]

44 minutes ago, wabene said:

Strib says 4 years up to 113 million, yikes 

yikes what? That's what young, great LT are paid. 

They also signed Shelly back as CB, since they need one...

[wabene]

19 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

yikes what? That's what young, great LT are paid. 

They also signed Shelly back as CB, since they need one...

Yikes that is a lot of money. Yes the going rate for a LT. Hope the guy can stay healthy.

[Mike Sixel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwDps6Wa9ec

 

 

[Vanimal46]

Injuries suck. I had high hopes for Blackmon this year. 

[Mike Sixel]

2 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Injuries suck. I had high hopes for Blackmon this year. 

Damn.

[Mike Sixel]

Holy hell, Shaq Griffin may have been injured today. DO NOT let your kids play CB for this team....

[Mike Sixel]

Source: Vikings are signing former Dolphins and Giants free-agent defensive back Bobby McCain, reuniting him with Minnesota DC Brian Flores.