Signing TE John Carlson makes sense for the Vikings

Today the Minnesota Vikings announced they had signed former Seattle Seahawks tight end John Carlson to a five year $25 million contract. He effectively replaces Visanthe Shiancoe who is expected to sign elsewhere and end his career with another team. Carlson, 27, had previously been the Seahawks starting tight end, but was effectively replaced by Zach Miller in Seattle last season after Carlson suffered a season-ending injury early in the year.

Carlson’s signing makes a lot of sense for the Vikings. Shiancoe’s departure was going to leave a large hole in the Vikings’ receiver options for quarterbacks Christian Ponder and Joe Webb and was going to put an unreasonable amount of pressure on the Vikings’ three remaining tight ends: Kyle Rudolph, Mickey Shuler Jr., and Allen Reisner. With Carlson’s arrival, however, the Vikings now have a very experienced, but still very young tight end who can assist in the development of the three young tight ends already with the Vikings. He is huge at 6-5 and when teamed with the 6-6 Rudolph in the two tight end set, the two can pose a lot of problems for opposing defenses. He and Rudolph can be targets to whom Ponder and Webb just need to throw the ball up over the smaller defenders in order to reach. Carlson also has the experience of having played in some big games for Seattle in his career, the biggest being the Seahawks’ stunning 2010 playoff victory over the Saints, a game in which Carlson played a huge role. In the victory, he had three catches for seventeen yards and two touchdowns and recovered the onside kick at the end of the game to seal it. His experience in these situations will be valuable as he assists in Rudolph, Shuler and Reisner’s development.

The signing of Carlson continues the interesting Vikings-Seahawks free agent history which has evolved over the past several years. Back in 2006, in the infamous “poison pill contract” case, the Vikings signed away the Seahawks all-pro guard Steve Hutchinson, breaking up one of the Seahawks’ greatest team strengths at that time. The Seahawks then retaliated by signing Vikings receiver Nate Burleson to a similar poison pill contract, decimating a Vikings receiving corps already very thin on talent. In 2010, after the lockout ended, Seattle signed away three former Vikings: quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, receiver Sidney Rice and special teams ace linebacker Heath Farwell. Carlson’s signing now leaves the Seahawks with only one proven tight end in Zach Miller and an uncertain backup in Cameron Morrah along with some other fringe players at the tight end position.

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