In a week sure to be filled with blog items involving a certain soon-to-be 40-year-old quarterback who resides in Mississippi and just can’t seem to call it quits (hey, I think that was my summer vacation that just went out the door), we bring you at least one post that hits on a totally different subject. Thankfully.

Namely, what happened in the contract talks between the Vikings and veteran cornerback Antoine Winfield? When the Vikings made the surprise announcement in March that they had quietly negotiated a five-year extension worth more than $25 million with corner Cedric Griffin, it also got out that Minnesota was in talks with Winfield’s agent, Ashanti Webb, about an extension.

The difference is that the 26-year-old Griffin has played only three NFL seasons and, obviously, the Vikings feel he has yet to reach his potential. Griffin’s play appeared to take a big step forward in the second half of 2008 and the Vikings got a deal that many will consider more than fair as long as he continues to show progress.

Winfield, meanwhile, is going to turn 32 in June and will be entering his 11th NFL season. This is in no way to say Winfield’s play has declined. In fact, he made the Pro Bowl for the first time in his career last season and tied for the team lead with two interceptions. An incredibly hard hitter — especially for being only 5-9, 180 pounds — Winfield’s most memorable game of 2008 came in a Monday night victory at New Orleans. He returned a blocked field goal for a touchdown, taking the ball 59 yards, and also sacked Saints quarterback Drew Brees at one point, forcing a fumble. Winfield recovered the ball and returned it 9 yards.

Given Winfield’s production, it made sense that the Vikings would want to talk to him as he got set to enter the final season of a six-year, $35 million in 2009. As recently as April 4, Webb termed his dealings with the Vikings as “intense negotiations.” But on Monday, Webb admitted that talks had broken off, adding ”no further negotiations are planned.”

Webb refused to go into any detail but it isn’t too hard to figure out what happened here. Either the sides aren’t close on years or the money and usually the years can be worked out — especially in the NFL were contracts aren’t guaranteed. Top-notch cornerbacks don’t come cheap in the NFL and the Vikings might have concerns about paying too much for a player who has been in the league as many years as Winfield.

Some have speculated Winfield could be moved to safety at some point but if that happens is he still worth the money that a team would pay a top-notch corner? Probably not. The Vikings also might feel a bit more emboldened since they added Georgia corner Asher Allen with their third-round pick in last month’s draft. The Vikings could try to use the leverage that Allen will be set to replace Winfield in 2010.

I heard speculation at one point that if the Vikings fail to reach a deal with Winfield after next season they could put the franchise tag on him. But his age would make that an unlikely scenario. (The franchise tag for a cornerback for 2009, by the way, is $9.957 million, the average of the NFL’s five highest-paid corners.)

One point of interest will be to see if Winfield shows up at the Vikings’ OTA practices that begin next week. Webb declined to say if that will happen; and if Winfield skips the Vikings’ three-day mandatory minicamp at the end of this month that would be a significant move, considering he would be fined for being absent.

Of course at the end of the day, leverage is what these negotiations are all about and the player and team are always trying to get the upper hand. Webb declined to get into any discussions on if talks could pick up again before training camp. “That’s a long [time] from now so I don’t want to comment on that,” he said in a text message. But it certainly would not be surprising to see something get done around the time camp opens. Remember, the rhetoric of contract talks is just that.

A recent example: Less than two years ago, July 2007 to be exact, the agent for nose tackle Pat Williams declared he had ended negotiations on a contract extension with the Vikings after telling the team that if a deal wasn’t in place by the time training camp opened, his plan was to cease talks. Just over a month later, Williams signed a three-year, $22 million extension.

In that case, Williams was willing to give the Vikings a bit of a discount so he could remain in Minnesota. It’s unclear if Winfield would do the same, but Williams’ contract was just another example that until a player signs elsewhere, it’s dangerous to assume he definitely isn’t coming back.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.