Okay, Robert Smith of the Minnesota Vikings announced early this year that he was retiring. In March, he became an unrestricted free agent. In June, the Vikings waived him. Huh??!!
If he was an unrestricted free agent, he had no contract and they had no rights to him. What exactly were they waiving? Anyone? BobT?
I looked all over nfl.com and vikings.com and couldn’t find any official news that the Vikings had released Smith.
THe official transactions (from http://www.vikings.com) for the Vikings since the retirement of Smith are as follows–
June 19
Signed Corbin Lacina.
June 18
Claimed Andy Crosland off waivers.
June 14
Claimed DeWayne Miles off waivers.
June 11
Signed Chris Walsh.
June 5
Signed T.J. Sutherland.
May 31
Signed Fearon Wright.
May 29
Signed Isaac Keys.
May 9
Signed Romaro Miller.
May 1
Signed John Davis.
April 26
Signed John Matich, Brian Morton, and James
Wofford.
April 23
Signed Kenny Clark, Oscar Comeaux, Jeff
Hazuga, Jeff Kostrewa, Shaun Paga, Brian
Russell, Mike Solwold, Bennitte Waddell, and
Wes Hines.
April 22
Drafted Shawn Worthen, Cedric James, Patrick
Chukwurah, Carey Scott, and Brian Crawford.
April 21
Drafted Michael Bennett, Willie Howard, and
Eric Kelly.
April 11
Released Giles Cole, Jeremy Earp, Marvin
Welch, and Keith Williams.
April 2
Signed Nate Jacquet.
March 27
Signed Lance Johnstone and Fernando Smith.
March 23
Signed Jake Reed.
March 15
Signed Byron Chamberlain.
March 14
Released Todd Steussie.
March 13
Signed Andrew Jordan.
March 8
Signed Matt Cercone.
March 6
Signed Matt Birk, Joey Kent, and Mitch Palmer.
March 1
Signed Todd Bouman and David Dixon.
Tendered offers to Matt Birk, Chris Liwienski, Jim
Nelson, and Kailee Wong. Released John
Randle and John Burrough.
February 22
Signed Ryland Wickman.
February 20
Signed Carl Kidd.
February 19
Signed Winfield Garnett.
February 14
Signed Jay Humphrey, Marvin Welch and Keith
Williams. Allocated Giles Cole, Jeremy Earp,
Tim Engelhardt, Winfield Garnett, Jay
Humphrey, Lonny Mitchell, Marvin Welch,
Keith Williams, Antonio Wilson, and Antwone
Young to NFL Europe.
February 7
Robert Smith announced retirement.
I didn’t find any report that Robert Smith was waived. However on June 1, Smith had to file formal retirement papers with the Vikings so they could free up his salary for salary cap purposes.
I checked Minneapolis Star Tribune stories for more information. And that paper covers just about anything that the Vikings do in the offseason.
The unrestricted part has restrictions. If the Vikings hadn’t made Smith an offer by June 1 and somebody signed him by July 22, the Vikings would get no compensation. However, if by July 23, nobody had made Smith an offer, then the Vikings would have the rights to him again.
So, probably what happened is that the Vikings on June 1 officially told Smith that they weren’t going to make him an offer so they lost all rights to him, even if he changed his mind about retirement.
I was all ready to start typing away about the salery cap and the effects of per June 1 cuts and post June 1 cuts.
while I went back to look for the date of Smith’s retiring.
A febuary article at the sporting news. Does state in passing that smith as to become a unrestricted free agent. here.
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/teams/vikings/20010211.html
So I am just as confused as you lemme do some more digging.
Osip
Pardon while I disagree. An Unrestricted free agent is that unrestricted. Is why it is called unrestricted! The only way a team is going to get ANY form of compensation from an unrestricted free agent is placing a Franchise or transition tag placed on him.
The Vikings would have done with Smith if he had not announced his retirement.
Restricted free agents are a whole another bucket of crackers. With the amount tendered as an offer will guarantee the draft pick compensation level if they do not match the offer from another team.
Osip
Perhaps to be clearer, I meant that if the Vikings had tendered an offer to Smith prior to June 1 (and it had to be at least 110% of what he was making last season), then the Vikings could opt to resign him after July 23, up to the 10th week of the season.
For salary cap purposes, I’m assuming that Smith’s salary still counted against the Vikings’ total, so they needed to complete some paperwork on June 1 to make sure it didn’t.
Please don’t ask about NBA free agency, it’s even weirder. Baseball is fairly straightforward.