Vikings Agree to Terms with Bernard Berrian

The Vikings agreed to a six-year, $42 million deal with free agent receiver Bernard Berrian, and in doing so managed to accomplish two things...

1. Improve their Receiving Corps

Here are the receivers that were on the Vikings roster before they acquired Berrian Saturday night:

Martin Nance, Justin Surrency, Aundrae Allison, Brent Little, Joel Filani, Sidney Rice, Bobby Wade, and free agent Robert Fergusen.

With the addition of Berrian, the top four receivers for the Vikings look promising for the future. Berrian, Rice, Wade, and Allison all have the potential to be good, if not great, NFL wide receivers.

2. Weaken the Chicago Bears 

Either the Bears have total faith in the receiving abilities of Devin Hester, or they have plans to sign at least two top receivers later in the free agency period.

With the loss of Berrian, and the previous loss of Mushin Muhammed, Chicago doesn't have any decent options to throw the ball to, besides Hester.

This is obviously a smart move for the Vikings. When they play the Bears twice in 2008, they won't have to focus entirely on stopping the pass. In fact, they can almost completely focus on defending the run.

The Vikings accomplished both of these things without much cost. Besides a weekend spent almost entirely with Berrian, the only other thing the Vikings gave up was some extra cap room. Berrian gets $16 million in guaranteed money, while earning $42 million over six years, which equals $7 million a season.

This is a steal of a deal for Minnesota, at every angle.