Oct 14th 2008 8:10PM by JJ Cooper (author feed)
Filed under: Chiefs, Vikings, AFC West, NFC North, Overpaid NFL Players
If the Chiefs and the Vikings were playing a game of chicken, the Chiefs flinched.
Kansas City was looking to trade former first-round pick Napoleon Harris. Actually looking might not be a strong enough statement, they were desperate to get something for Harris–who hasn’t been active for a game this year after signing a massive six-year, $23-million deal with the Chiefs in 2007. I guess we don’t need much further evidence of why the Chiefs are awful. In fact, in one game, the Chiefs dressed only five linebackers including a practice squad call-up, but left Harris inactive.
The Vikings (who had Harris in 2005-2006) were in rather desperate need for a middle linebacker now that E.J. Henderson is on the injured reserve and his replacement David Herron was banged up last week.
So we have the makings of a deal right? Not exactly. If the Vikings have interest in Harris, they did a good job of camoflauging it. They signed Dontarrius Thomas as a fill-in on Monday, which helped ensure that the Chiefs released Harris on Tuesday after the trade deadline passed with no deal.
Now, it would be surprising if the Vikings didn’t at least kick the tires on Harris to see if he can help them out. There is a reason to beware–like the Deltha O’Neal example with New England, there is a question whether someone who can’t help the Chiefs can actually help any NFL team. But considering that Harris will come dirt cheap and knows the Vikings defense, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of damage in bringing Harris in as a short-term fill-in. The Star-Tribune’s blog says that as of now, the Vikings haven’t called Harris’ agent.
