Roster Moves: Greg Lewis? Oh Right, Him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un3B7Og-FS0
He caught that one touchdown pass, remember? ITEM! The Minnesota Vikings announced yesterday that they had re-signed seldom seen, even lesser heard, even more infrequently ball catching, Greg Lewis to a one year contract for 2010. Lewis, who is a whopping 30 years old (that’s like pepaw age in receiver years), probably did the smart thing by not trying to fluff his nuts in the free agency market and instead just did a pile drive straight into that stack of cash upon re-upping with the Vikings. And can you blame him? This is a guy who’s career highlight is being the only Eagle to catch a Super Bowl touchdown pass, and you know it was one of those freak of nature things. After going undrafted out of Illinois (oop, there’s another reason to remain dubious of him!) I’d say that’s a pretty good career for him. But why stop there?! Maybe he can parlay his Vikings contract into being a wide receivers coach for the Vikings some day! Hey, a guy can dream, right? Regardless, Lewis is the first of five unrestricted free agents that the Vikings have and want to (apparently) re-sign this offseason. So, he’s got that to his name as well. Congrats! FACT! You may remember Greg Lewis in 2009 as that guy who serendipitously came into for a winded Percy Harvin at the end of the San Francisco 49ers game, week three of the 2009 season. If you’ve seen the video, you’ve also seen that every other single receiver on the field had decided to stop their route short, with no time left on the clock, at about the 15 or 10 yard line. BUT NOT GREG LEWIS! Not that wily old veteran. It’s like he peered into the soul of Brett Favre on that last play and whispered delicately into his ear “I got chu, Brett, gimme dat bawl” and zip! Touchdown, bitch. Truly a magical moment that in the end didn’t mean a fucking thing, because Favre decided to throw an interception on the last offensive play of the season. It makes you think though … what if Greg Lewis had been in on the play at the end instead of Rice? Or? OR TAHI IN THE HUDDLE??!! Eh, they still would have lost. Also, last player to wear 17 for the Vikings in the regular season? Maurice Mann. Yeah. And that turned out SWELL. SO? From a talent stand point, with a ridiculously deep draft upcoming, I’m not quite sure why the Vikings did this. First of all, it totally kills the broner that all the training camp homers had for no namers like Jaymar Johnson and Darius Reynaud. Greg Lewis is consistently thought of as the fourth receiver for this team which pushes those two douchers back to five and six respectively, even though we all know Chester and Visanthe were passing options before all three. “But didn’t awesome dude Cris Carter say before the season that Jaymar could be a starter in the NFL??!! I WANT JAYMAR!!” Yeah, well, Carter isn’t in the Hall of Fame either, so what does he know. Message board fodder, Twitter feeds, and maybe I read this somewhere type mentality all suggest that Lewis was pretty good on special teams in 2009, though. Is that verifiable? I don’t know. The 2009 special team squad wasn’t near as craptacular as the 2008 squad, so I guess Lewis helped out. So … at least he’s got that going for him, which is nice. CONCLUSION! While curious timing for this signing, it does kind of make sense in the end. Lewis has never been a big time threat but has experience with big time players (McNabb, Terrell Owens, et al) and this downs syndrome run West Coast Offense that Childress employs. I’ve always liked the idea of having a veteran receiver on the squad that can teach the younger guys a thing or two about the receiver position, like how to run your route to a spot, how to pat your quarterback on the back after he pukes in a Super Bowl-esque game, or how to end up in the endzone on the last play of the game to at least TRY and score a touchdown. Those things are good to know. Lewis is probably comfortable in Minnesota and understands that, especially with Percy Harvin playing like a sex offender at a prom night, he’s probably pretty low on the totem pole. But that’s ok for some guys. We call Greg Lewis a “character guy” in the blogging business (Note: No one actually calls him that) and depending on what he was signed for (anything less than $1.5 million and I am TOTALLY changing my opinion) I’m ok with this move. Of course, he’ll be cut Bobby Wade style by the regular season, so I don’t know why I just wrote all of this.