Vikings need to be in on free agent Eric Decker

Minnesota native Eric Decker will be released by the New York Jets.

Last week, Adam Schefter of ESPN fame reported that the New York Jets would be parting ways with big time receiver Eric Decker. Schefter said the Jets would be looking to trade or release the native Minnesotan. After a week, New York hasn’t found a trade partner and they will be releasing Decker making him a free agent and able to sign with any team he so wishes.

When the first Schef-bomb came out, I wrote that the Minnesota Vikings needed to get in on the Decker action. Now the Vikings have no excuse to not be in on the former Minnesota Golden Gophers standout.

One of the main hurdles with the potential trade of Decker would’ve been the fairly hefty contract that Decker had attached to him. The Jets didn’t want to hold on to too much of the salary and no team in the NFL was willing to give up enough for the Jets to want to eat the contract themselves. With Decker about to hit free agency, teams can sign him to whatever deal they want.

Another burden for the Vikings is the fact that other teams might be able to offer Decker a much more attractive deal than what Minnesota may wanting to offer. The Vikings have room to add him, but general manager Rick Spielman might not want to allocate more money to the receiving core than he has already.

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Minnesota will be counting on Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen as their main targets. After that, it’s probably a crapshoot. There’s no guarantees on the production from the likes of Laquon Treadwell or newly signed Michael Floyd. Heck, Decker might be the best receiver in the whole group right now.

As 1500 ESPN points out, Floyd will more than likely be missing time with a suspension in the early part of the season due to his DUI arrest in Arizona during last season. Treadwell didn’t do anything in his rookie season to count on him for his sophomore campaign.

The grand point is that to give Sam Bradford the best chance to succeed, he needs the best weapons available. There’s not many weapons better out there than Cold Spring, Minnesota’s own Eric Decker.

In the NFL, a team goes as far as their quarterback can lead them. If Bradford is also given Decker to throw to, the Vikings offense looks like it could be a serious playoff contender.

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