Vikings vs Packers (again) for Jennings

[PurpleMustReign]

That's a good question.

I'm sure the answer is "no" though. For some reason, it just doesn't seem like he will be willing to do that... kind of a gut feeling. Idk.

[Eli]

There's no way they are going into the draft believing that their needs are met at WR. No one could be that blind. I'd be absolutely shocked if they didn't grab a WR with 1 of the first 3 picks. I would guess the first 2.

Absolutely. This changes nothing in their draft plans. The WR lineup still looks like this:

Greg Jennings
Jerome Simpson
Jarius Wright
Stephen Burton

They'll draft a WR in the first round. Period. If they draft a decent one, he'll just be coming into his own at about the same time Greg Jennings is spending most Sundays on the sidelines in street clothes.

[headless_norseman]

Absolutely. This changes nothing in their draft plans.

YES it does. And it helps our draft board on the other side of the ball.

[vikeinmontana]

Absolutely. This changes nothing in their draft plans. The WR lineup still looks like this:

Greg Jennings
Jerome Simpson
Jarius Wright
Stephen Burton

They'll draft a WR in the first round. Period. If they draft a decent one, he'll just be coming into his own at about the same time Greg Jennings is spending most Sundays on the sidelines in street clothes.

to me this seems the same as people saying how injury prone percy harvin was. a guy who missed like two games before this season. jeenings has been in the league 7 years. he had a nagging hamstring injury last year that kept him out of 8 games. 8 games is also the amount of games he missed total in 6 seasons prior to this year! in '08, '09, and '10 he started every game. i guess i just don't look at the numbers and think "injury prone".

[The Breeze]

to me this seems the same as people saying how injury prone percy harvin was. a guy who missed like two games before this season. jeenings has been in the league 7 years. he had a nagging hamstring injury last year that kept him out of 8 games. 8 games is also the amount of games he missed total in 6 seasons prior to this year! in '08, '09, and '10 he started every game. i guess i just don't look at the numbers and think "injury prone".

i read that it was a torn groin muscle. nasty injury. he came back from it too and was a stud the last 2 games.

injury prone is way over used IMO. if you play pro football you are injury prone.

[Eli]

to me this seems the same as people saying how injury prone percy harvin was. a guy who missed like two games before this season. jeenings has been in the league 7 years. he had a nagging hamstring injury last year that kept him out of 8 games. 8 games is also the amount of games he missed total in 6 seasons prior to this year! in '08, '09, and '10 he started every game. i guess i just don't look at the numbers and think "injury prone".

Players over 30 typically do not get LESS injury prone. Quite the opposite. Percy's injuries weren't due to mileage, but Jennings' arguably are.

The Vikings today have almost NOTHING behind Greg Jennings at WR. They need to restock the position ASAP and do so with players, not projects. Wide receivers often take two or three years to develop, even the very good ones. In three years the Vikings will be very lucky if Jennings is still contributing. Like it or not, he's something of a stop-gap, temporary solution at WR. If he were 26 that wouldn't be the case, but he's not 26.

[losperros]

Players over 30 typically do not get LESS injury prone. Quite the opposite. Percy's injuries weren't due to mileage, but Jennings' arguably are.

The Vikings today have almost NOTHING behind Greg Jennings at WR. They need to restock the position ASAP and do so with players, not projects. Wide receivers often take two or three years to develop, even the very good ones. In three years the Vikings will be very lucky if Greg Jennings is still contributing.

I very much agree with the above. While I'm delighted that Jennings signed, the WR corps is far from a finished project. And Jennings is really a stopgap WR during the rebuilding process.

[BGM]

I don't view this as stop gap. I view this as bringing in a very good veteran player to lead a young group of up and coming WRs. If the Vikings had not made this signing, who would there be to help meld these guys into a unit? Jerome Simpson? My guess is they hope Jennings will have a positive effect on Simpson as well. If Simpson gets his head on straight and the WR the Vikes select in the first round (is there any doubt that's what will happen?), adding Jennings goes a long way to viewing the WR corps as a major upgrade this season.

[J. Kapp 11]

we just gave him 18 million gauranteed.. I call that a bad move.

Which means only two of the five years are guaranteed.

Think, people. Jennings is a pro's pro. He's still an excellent receiver. He'll be a great influence on not only the other wide receivers, but Ponder, as well. Signing Jennings doesn't negate us from drafting a WR. And it certainly doesn't hurt that Jennings knows Green Bay's offense.

The is a great signing.

[losperros]

I don't view this as stop gap. I view this as bringing in a very good veteran player to lead a young group of up and coming WRs. If the Vikings had not made this signing, who would there be to help meld these guys into a unit? Jerome Simpson? My guess is they hope Jennings will have a positive effect on Simpson as well. If Simpson gets his head on straight and the WR the Vikes select in the first round (is there any doubt that's what will happen?), adding Jennings goes a long way to viewing the WR corps as a major upgrade this season.

I agree with everything you're saying but I still view Jennings as being a stopgap WR, mostly due to his age. Maybe I'm wrong about this but I think Eli is correct in saying Jennings has about two years left before probably sliding downward in production.

That said, as I stated in another thread, I believe a polished receiver like Jennings will have positive effect on the passing game and especially on guys like Jarius Wright and Jerome Simpson. Wright is a talented but still inexperienced pro receiver. Simpson is a heck of an athlete with impressive sustained speed and incredible leaping ability, but he needs to get his head in the game. Jennings might be able to help both those guys be better students of the game.

I also think that adding Jennings is a smart move because it allows the Vikings to go with their original plans in the draft. For example, if they want a future #1 WR who can stretch the field, they can pick someone, even a project, knowing they have an all-around WR in Jennings. Plus if they want to go after a specialist like Tavon Austin, they can for the same reason.

[vikeinmontana]

i read that it was a torn groin muscle. nasty injury. he came back from it too and was a stud the last 2 games.

injury prone is way over used IMO. if you play pro football you are injury prone.

you are right it was the groin. brain fart.

i agree though. people love to throw around the term injury prone. i also think casual fans worry about age way too much. the dude is 29! i'm just surprised that people don't like this signing for our current team.

as always...i'll wait to see how he actually performs in purple and leave the bold predictions and assumptions to the many people who can see the future.

[TeamChaplain]

This is AWESOME! I thought this might have been the case!

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000 ... kings-deal

[marty264]

What other up coming Packer free agents have both played with Favre and fit a position of need for the Vikes?

[Purple bruise]

What other up coming Packer free agents have both played with Favre and fit a position of need for the Vikes?

How about Rodgers

[Mothman]

This is AWESOME! I thought this might have been the case!

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100000 ... kings-deal

LOL! I'm sure that news will just delight Packers fans.