Smoot a bargin

[sportscurmudgeon]

Vikes are under the cap and will stay under the cap and the reason can be explained in two words:

Red McCombs


He is trying to sell the team and so it behooves him to have the team as far in the balck as possible to extract as high a price as possible. In the event that the current bid for the team falls through, he wants the next owner to be looking at a tidy profit potential from the git-go.

The Vikes may make Smoot an offer the Skins cannot match but it will probably have deferred bonuses because I can't see McCombs putting his name on a huge up-front check now with the possiblity that he will not own the team after 1 May. So Smoot might get $15M in guarantees, but it might be $3M this year and $6M roster bonuses in 2006 and 2007...