Minnesota Vikings extend contract of GM Rick Spielman

Yesterday, when I was putting together the update on the Compensatory Draft Selections that the Minnesota Vikings could, potentially, receive in the 2020 NFL Draft, I speculated that Rick Spielman might be more interested in using some future picks to move up in this year’s NFL Draft, because he was in the last year of his contract and would probably want to take another swing right now.

Well, it took less than 24 hours for Zygi Wilf to make a liar out of me.

Chad Graff of The Athletic reported earlier in the day on Tuesday that the Vikings did, indeed, give Rick Spielman the same treatment that they gave Mike Zimmer earlier this offseason. They have extended Spielman’s contract for one more year, meaning that both he and Zimmer are under contract to the team through the 2020 season.

(The report was later confirmed by other sources, but kudos to Chad Graff for getting it first.)

Spielman has been with the Vikings since 2006, and has been since the Triangle of Authority/Rhombus of Reason/Dodecahedron of D’oh dissolved during the 2012 offseason. It was then that Spielman was installed as the team’s General Manager, and the person who has the final say over all of the team’s personnel decisions. Over the years, there have been some questionable picks by Spielman as the Vikings’ top executive, but I think it’s pretty fair to say that he’s had significantly more hits than misses.

I’m not sure that having a “lame duck” General Manager would affect an NFL team in quite the same way that having a “lame duck” head coach would. I’m not sure how much the players would care, to be honest. But, whether it would be an issue or not, it’s no longer an issue that the Vikings need to concern themselves with.

(Also kudos to Sean Borman of Vikings Territory for having this one before we did.)