Monday, March 02, 2009

Housh signs with Seahawks, Nate Washington signs with Titans

Well this sucks. Two of the best wide receivers available signed with teams that aren't the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings' first choice was obviously T.J. Houshmandzadeh , but he's apparently signing with the Seahawks (and just when I memorized how to spell his name). And while the Vikings were focused on Housh, a receiver that may have been the Vikings' back up plan, Nate Washington, signed with Tennessee.

After their success last year with free agents, I guess the Vikings inability to sign a single free agent makes sense in some kind of regression to the mean kind of way. It doesn't mean it sucks any less, however. With most of the quality free agents gone, the Vikings have yet to upgrade at any position, except for quarterback (and that was mainly an upgrade because of how bad the Vikings quarterbacks were last year). They still need to improve their offensive line, specifically right tackle, bring in a real quarterback (by prying Kurt Warner or Jay Cutler away from their current teams), find someone to return punts and kicks and improve their cornerback depth. And they could still use more talent at wide receiver as well (hence the whole "trying to sign T.J. Houshmandzadeh" thing). That's a lot of positions to improve during the course of one draft, but it's looking more and more like that will be the only way for the Purple to do so (Come on miracle trade for Jay Cutler... Come on miracle trade for Jay Cutler...)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am not disappointed. The Vikings should save some money for their mystery 4th QB Favre. In the meantime, they should pick up a vet tackle (eg Tascher) and possession WR (eg Bobby Engram) to fill in for their developing number one draft choice tackle and Sidney Rice, respectively. Maybe draft a cornerback in the second or third round.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree here. I'm more disappointed that Matt Birk's a Raven (and, to a lesser extent, that Jason Brown signed with St. Louis).