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Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting that Matt 'three yards and a touchdown' Asiata will sign a one year contract with the Vikings tomorrow. Terms of the deal were not released, but on Twitter Tomasson also said this:
Terms not immediately available on Asiata's contract. But it has a lot of incentives and is for less than $1 million.
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) March 10, 2015
In 2014, both Asiata and Jerick McKinnon took on an expanded role in the wake of the Adrian Peterson saga, and Asiata responded with career highs in all rushing and receiving categories. He also had nine rushing TD's, which was tied for third in the entire NFL.
He also proved to be an adequate receiver out of the backfield, and considering everything that happened with Vikings running backs in 2014, Asiata proved to be the most consistent runner out of the backfield.
Does this telegraph any possible move on Adrian Peterson? No, I don't think so. For one thing, it's only a one year contract, and secondly, it's an oncentive laden deal, so it appears to be a very cap friendly deal. And whether or not Peterson returns or not, the Vikings are going to need three backs, and they're probably going to get a guy in the draft as well, so this makes a lot of sense depth wise.
So as free agency sets to officially kick off tomorrow, the Vikings appear to have taken care of all their pre-free agency business. Get ready for a wild NFL ride in the next few days, kids.