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...)

Killing Time: Waiting For Godotmandzadeh

T.J.'s left town now, which certainly doesn't bode well for the Vikings' chances at signing. Of course, if he's on the way to L.A., it might mean he's planning on signing with the Purple in a few years (sorry, cheap joke). As I wrote on Friday, I think Housh would be a great addition to the Vikings if they can sign him to a contract that doesn't kill their cap when his age catches up to him in a few years. He's big, he has great hands and he catches almost everything thrown his way. He's the perfect complement for Bernard Berrian in the same way that Chris Carter was the perfect complement for Randy Moss. And if there's one thing we should have learned in the past few years, its that while good wide receivers can't make a bad quarterback great, they can make him better. And if you have a bad quarterback throwing to bad receivers (like the Vikings did in 2006), you're really not going to enjoy the passing game.

Letting Housh leave town isn't the only bad thing that's happened to the Purple since free agency started. Pretty much everyone of their other targets have already signed with other teams or don't seem interested. Center/Guard Jason Brown has signed with the Rams, Laveranues Coles hasn't left the East Coast, and Mark Clayton re-upped with Tampa Bay. Matt Cassel was traded to the Chiefs (sketchy, sketchy, sketchy) and Matt Birk is planning on visiting a few other teams.

Of course, when a door closes, a window opens, and for the Vikings those windows are named Kurt Warner and Jay Cutler. Warner's planned a visit with Niners, which means that the Vikings need to do everything in his power to get Warner to Winter Park. And while they're busy trying to woo him, they need to see if they can talk Josh McDaniels into making the worst decision of his career and trading them Jay Cutler (Yes, he'd be worth 3 draft picks. Heck, he might even be worth four).

Killing Time: Rumor Craziness & Housh

So far, the Vikings have done, well, nothing, aside from formalize the trade for Sage Rosenfels. I haven't seen or heard anything about which players are visiting Winter Park, or, really, anything new about any of their free agent targets. Negotiations continue with Matt Birk and Jim Kleinsasser, and the Purple have made offers to restricted free agents Fred Evans (a solid back up for the Williams Wall) and Naufahu Tahi (a horrible blocker who gained 37 receiving yards on 21 targets with a -77.4%DVOA and accumulated -77 DYAR). So really, no big changes except for a fun little rumor started by T.J. Houshmandzadeh who appears to enjoy flirting with every franchise's fanbase. As he said yesterday,

“I’m looking at teams I think have good coaches and good offensive lines and good running games. I have no idea if those teams are interested in me. If I can play with Adrian Peterson, can you imagine what I would do getting one-on-one coverage with Adrian Peterson? I am going to win 98.6 percent of the time with one-on-one coverage with him in the backfield.”

He's also contacted a radio station in Philly and is generally having a good time with being wanted (though I have no idea how he was able to know how often he could beat one-on-one coverage within a tenth of a percent). Would Housh (you type his name out more than once) be a good fit for the Vikings? The answer--it depends on the price.

If the Vikings can sign Housh that gives them a reasonable protection against his age 34, 35 and 36 seasons (the upcoming season is his age 32 season), he should definitely be brought in (I'm fine with them paying him for 4 or 5 years for 2 great and one good season, but not with them paying him for 6 or 7 seasons). He's averaged 1012 receiving yards a year over the last five years, and 89 catches. Last year, despite spending 13 games catching passes from Ryan Fitzpatrick, he still caught 92 passes for 904 yards. While he's not a deep threat (he has only 6 catches for over forty yards and 67 catches over 20 yards the last five years), he is an amazing possession receiver--he's not Randy Moss, he's Chris Carter. His worst catch percentage over the last five years is 66% and he's a first down machine, averaging 56 first down catches a year over the past five years and finishing 16th, 1st, 7th and 16th in first down catches in the last four years. He'd be the perfect fit for a West Coast offense, and the perfect complement for Bernard Berrian.

The only question mark is whether he can be signed without a Haynseworthian contract that guarantees it will ruin the Vikings' cap situation as Housh ages. If he can't, he's probably not worth it. If he can be signed for a reasonable (within the context of #1 receiver contracts), then the Vikings should do everything they can to sign him. At the very least, the Purple need to find out the answer.