Spielman Has No Issues With Percy Harvin

January 11, 2013

Percy Harvin is entering the final year of his contract with the Vikings. (Photo Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org)

Vikings GM Rick Spielman seems to have grown tired of the speculation that there is a major tiff between WR Percy Harvin and the Vikings organization. In something that has been going on for quite awhile, Speilman finally tried to quell the idea that personal conduct issues were a factor in putting Harvin on season ending Injury Reserve.

“Percy comes to work every day. Everybody sees what Percy puts on the field. He plays the game as hard or harder than anyone else in the NFL, the effort that he puts up out there,” Spielman said. “So, we have no issues with Percy Harvin.”

Harvin compiled a team leading 62 catches for 677 yards this season, despite missing seven games of the season. That stat alone speaks to the effort and ability the diminutive wide receiver provides the Vikings, although it also speaks to the incredible dropoff at the WR position after Harvin.

While Spielman wanted to set the record straight on the team’s relationship with Harvin, whether Harvin will be resigning with the Vikings is still unclear. Harvin has one year remaining on his rookie contract, which will pay him a $1.55 million base salary (and will apply a $2.68 salary-cap hit for the Vikings).

“We’re going to go through our process first before we make any decisions on any of our players, our UFAs (unrestricted free agents), any extensions,” Spielman said when asked if the team was considering an extension for Harvin. “All that stuff will be done over the next month here as we lay the game plan going forward.

“There’s a lot of guys out of Percy’s draft that are playing for us that are going into the final year of their deal. Like I said, we go through every single guy on our roster, look at when their deals are coming up. Should we extend them or try to get it done a year early, how does that fit our work with Rob Brzezinski (VP of football operations), who is great at what he does keeping us straight on our cap situation and how we can keep a competitive roster. Right now, I’m looking at the ’14 and ’15 roster, too, and potential guys that are coming up.”

The Vikings WR core is terrible. Resigning Harvin should be one of the highest priorities of the off season, in addition to finding a down field threat. Now it’s simply wait and see.