Minnesota Vikings: John Carlson Not the Signing They Needed

Great Minnesota. You made a move. Congratulations. Pat yourself on the back. You are on the board.

On Wednesday ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the Vikings inked former Seattle Seahawks tight end John Carlson to a five-year, $25 million contract with $11 million guaranteed.

But does it really matter? Is it a move Minnesota should have made?

The tight end position is near the bottom of positions that needed filling. It's a solidified position at the top with Kyle Rudolph—the second-year tight end from Notre Dame. He was supposed to have the opportunity to make the tight end position his.

Now it appears Carlson will be No. 1 on the tight end depth chart while Rudolph will remain at No. 2.

Yes, it’s fun that Carlson is a native Minnesotan—Litchfield to be precise—and yes, it is fun that Rudolph and he played at Notre Dame.  

Yes, Jim Kleinsasser is retired. Yes, Minnesota isn’t expected to re-sign Visanthe Shiancoe.

But Minnesota still has Rudolph and Mickey Schuler—a player it drafted in the seventh round in 2010 and was high on. Give those two players an opportunity to play. This is a young team that isn’t expected to compete for much in 2012. This would be the season to see what type of players those two men will become.

Meanwhile, it has been proven that Minnesota’s secondary, offensive line and core of wide receivers need help. They all need the services of new men because the production in 2011 was not adequate. It was downright putrid.  

Carlson can help at the receiver position. He has 137 receptions, 1,519 yards and 13 touchdowns in 47 NFL games. In 2011, offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave proclaimed that Minnesota would use multiple tight ends. For the most part it did. Against the San Diego Chargers in the season opener, Minnesota used multiple tight end sets 73.8 percent of the time.

However, Minnesota did not spread its tight ends wide as I thought it would in 2011, even though Rudolph and Shiancoe are both athletic tight ends who could thrive out wide. Nor did either tight end catch more than 36 passes (62 catches between Rudolph and Shianoce), which leaves me to wonder how valuable the tight end is to this offense or if it was just a down offensive year (the latter more expected as Minnesota's offense wasn't overly effective).

I do not expect Minnesota to sign a top tier offensive lineman, defensive back or a wide receiver. It's just not in the cards for a team not expected to thrive in 2012. Instead, Minnesota is expected to devote much of the draft to those three positions, but it can't rely upon just the draft to solve the problems at those positions.

Hopefully, the next player Minnesota signs plays one of those positions.