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The recent acquisition of defensive end Jared Allen required the guy who writes to checks to ask his partners to write some checks.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, owner Zygi Wilf made a capital call to his partners of just under $20 million, to cover the Allen signing bonus of $15,500,069.
In other words, the team didn’t have the cash on hand to pay Allen.
The move serves only to highlight the high-risk/high-reward nature of the undertaking for a team that was/is desperate to enhance a stifling run defense with a top-notch pass rush. Though the trade can be justified by thinking of it as using the team’s first-round pick on Allen and giving up two third-rounders for the ability to do so, the total package of picks and cash makes this trade the biggest move the Vikings have made since trading for Herschel Walker in 1989.
But while in hindsight Herschel might have been a tad loopy for Lucky Charms, he wasn’t a card-carrying member of the field sobriety test team. Though Allen has stayed out of trouble for a year and a half, a relapse could be devastating to him, and to the franchise.
The Vikings have had more than their fair share of forgettable moments over the years. From the Love Boat to Mike Tice’s Super Bowl will-call window to the Koren Robinson fiasco to the 2003 first-round draft pick blunder to the 2002 first-round draft pick blunder to the Artic Blast mess in 2003 to sexual harassment allegations during the Dennis Green era to the antics of Randy Moss to the colossal choke job in the 1998 NFC title game to the Walker trade to four Super Bowl drubbings, the Vikings are as cursed as any pro sports franchise ever has been.
The Allen acquisition could be the moment that changes it once and for all. For the sake of the team’s long-suffering fans, we hope so. But we wouldn’t bet 69 cents on it.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:30 am
just jealous your teams cant pull a move or your owner doesnt have the balls to pull the trigger on the deal. Wilf is going big or going home and its going to be a fun season
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April 24th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Fortunately you don’t have to go big or go home when you have a deep roster full of talent as evidenced by a 13-3 record.
Go big or go home!? With T-Joke as the QB and a bunch of #2 WR’s as your starters, Wilf would have been better off not dialing for dollars to sign Allen and spent the money on a new office building. Less we forget, Chilly Willy is still the head coach and your overrated/overpaid (seems to be a common theme) left tackle will probably be in jail soon.
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April 24th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Urnotme - Besides the fact that you had like 4 completely fabricated (and false) premises in your second paragraph, I have to say that I laughed when you cited Kampman as an example of a player the Packers “signed to a longterm deal before his deal expired and they had to overpay him and blah blah blah”… Do you not remember how his deal was signed? Not only did his deal run out, but the Packers didn’t even negotiate the deal - the Vikings did. Look it up.
dyhardskinsfan - Stick to talking about teams you’ve watched, pal. Or maybe sports you’ve watched (cause I’m not so positive you’ve watched a whole lot of NFL games in the last couple years). If you’re going to tell me that the Chiefs are better than the Vikings, then I’m going to need you to tell me even three positions at which the Chiefs are better than the Vikes (I mean, to be better than the Vikes, they’d presumably have to be better at 12 positions, but I’m only asking for three). You know what? I’ll give you two: TE and WLB. So go ahead and give me one position (and if you say RB I will only laugh, so please… for your own sake… don’t say RB).
Oh, and I’m sorry but just one more thing - are you trying to say that proof of Allen not being good is the fact that he’s on a team picking in the top 10? So… I guess you expect one player to fix a diseased team, or else he sucks? You do know that by your logic J. Taylor and S. Jackson and T. Holt and N. Asomugha and P. Willis and E. Reed and T. Suggs and R. Lewis and C. Palmer and C. Johnson and D. Brees all suck, right?
Stick to figureskating, and let the big boys talk about football.
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April 24th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Isn’t this great, apparently everyone that writes a comment on this site thinks they should either be a President of Player Personnel, or AA Counselor. Maybe one person that has commented on here has ever even talked to Jared Allen, but yet everyone (mostly non-Vikings fans, because their team didn’t make the move) “knows” he is going to have a relapse and start drinking and driving again. He’s not the first player to have a problem off the field, and he won’t be the last. Yes, most player’s that have off the field problems say it won’t happen again, and it does. But if he says it won’t happen again and it doesn’t it also won’t be the first time that a player has grown up and figured things out.
The Vikings structured the contract to protect themselves in case anything happens again. Taking everything into consideration this is really a pretty safe deal.
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April 24th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
“Draft Blunders”????
Were those picks not McKinnie and Kevin Williams???
Seems like great picks to me.
Florio need to apply that same “insight” to other teams, like the Cowboys and Packers.
Bye the way, did Reggie White sign with the Packers and cost a SL of M?
Within a few years that had a super bowl with a young up-rising QB.
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April 24th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Jaybles,
I guess you should take your own advice and disappear so in your words the big boys can talk about football. Kampman was a restricted free agent, meaning that he had already signed the tender after his 3rd year, thus he was under contract as long as they matched any offers, which they did. That’s a big difference than a free agent or giving up the farm for a player who has a lot of questions about him and making him the highest paid player at his position on top of it!
They do it every year with crap results. Visante Shianco for $3.5 million a year? Is he even still with the team? Dwight Smith? Ooooops…… Fred Smoot? Ooops again…. Wait wait you say? What about Bobby Wade? Ooops……. I know, I know……what about Bernard Berrian?!?!? Sorry……Oooooops again! Last I checked the Vikings are one player away from having the entire Bears WR core. I don’t recall ever being concerned about anyone the Bears had playing WR. Just another Ooooops in the making. But at the 4th highest paid, he should at least be in the top 10 in receiving right? Not likely for that one trick pony with stone hands.
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April 24th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
For anyone to think that this team won’t be better than last year’s 8-8 team needs to lay off the booze like Allen.
OL returns all 5 starters albeit the right side isn’t so great.
QB while crappy, still a year older and more exp.
RB I hear they have a couple guys there…cant remember their names
WR better than last year + Sidney Rice a year older
TE good enough for government work
DL 3 Pro Bowlers + 2 young guys who had 9 sacks last season and James
LB EJ almost made pro bowl,Greenway 100 tack first year, Leber solid
CB Winfield is a stud, Griffin McCaulley are okay and getting better
S Sharper is still the man, Williams solid player
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April 24th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
urnotme, now you’re just making a fool of yourself. First you try to correct me on the Kampman point… I never said it was the same as the Allen trade (it wasn’t a trade at all), I was pointing out that he wasn’t resigned before his contract ran out, as you originally said. Restricted or not, he was a free agent, so your point was, as they might say in these parts, wr..wr..wr..completely f–king stupid.
And I’m alright with Bobby Wade’s contract, thank you. And I’m alright with Bernard Berrian, as well (”one-trick pony with stone hands”? Watch a damn game before you make a judgment - and not just a GB-CHI game when you’re drunk). And Dwight Smith had a pretty damn productive couple of years, considering the price. And Smoot…… So wait, your team on the drunker side of the border has never hired someone that didn’t work out, right? Please.
And if you’re going to bring up out crappy tight end, would you at least spell his name right, for chrissake?
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April 24th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
In spite of all the “blunders” the team is finally out of rebuilding mode will definitely be fun to watch. I think they sent a pretty good number of players to the pro bowl as well this year, they just need consistent play from Jackson. Laugh now while you can.
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April 24th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Why did the Vikes not wait until after the draft, then sign Allen and put in the poison pill? He was not going any where. This may work out but one player does not make a team and they certainly are more than one player away from a Super Bowl team.
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April 25th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Urnotme,
Vike’s track record is actually good in recent FA acquisitions:
Darren Sharper - Ooops!
Pat Williams - Ooops!
Ben Leber - Ooops!
Steve Hutchinson - Ooops!
Chester Taylor - Ooops!
A. Winfeid - Ooops!
The draft picks have been solid over the past three years as well.
Others:
Bobby Wade was a good pick-up.
Ferguson was a desperation pick…thumbs down right now.
The jury’s still out on Visante
Berrian hasn’t played a snap yet with the team.
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