Published: Tuesday, March 6, 2001

VIKINGS REPORT

Hatchette, Williams could be next to go

Pioneer Press

---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- BILL WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- The Vikings' free agency exodus may soon resume. Wide receiver Matthew Hatchette visited Miami on Monday, and the visit went well. The Dolphins are talking with Hatchette's agent, Mitch Frankel. While no deal is imminent, the Dolphins, according to sources, believe they may be able to sign Hatchette soon. The Vikings will not try to keep Hatchette. He was overtaken as the No. 3 receiver last season by veteran Chris Walsh. Walsh is an unrestricted free agent, but the Vikings are talking to his agent about an extension. Free-agent defensive tackle Tony Williams also could be on the verge of leaving the Vikings. He is in Cincinnati for a visit today. The Bengals like him, but they also had a fruitful talk with tackle Ted Washington, who played for Buffalo last season. The Vikings are not expected to re-sign Williams, who will visit Seattle later this week. They lost free-agent linebacker Dwayne Rudd to Cleveland on Sunday. Saturday, John Randle signed with Seattle. The Vikings released Randle on Thursday. Unrestricted free agent Corbin Lacina may visit Arizona this week, although the Cardinals plan to talk to Jeff Hartings and Pete Kendall first. If Hartings or Kendall signs with the Cardinals, Lacina would likely not visit. The Vikings are talking with unrestricted free agent Fernando Smith. His agent, Jeff Durand, said both sides appear to want to come to an agreement. With Randle and Williams out of the picture, Smith is in line for a starting job. In addition to Walsh and Smith, the Vikings have interest in re-signing tight ends John Davis and Johnny McWilliams and defensive end Bryce Paup. The Vikings re-signed wide receiver Jo

-- Mark (Karch 222@aol.com), March 06, 2001

Answers

The bottom of this article did not get posted. Here is the missing portion:

>>The Vikings re-signed wide receiver Joey Kent on Monday.<<

Gee, and we all thought the Vikings were just sitting around doing nothing.

-- Mark (Karch 222@aol.com), March 06, 2001.

To anyone who feels the Vikes were "just sitting around doing nothing", let me remind you... In addition to Monday's re-signing of Joey Kent, a few weeks ago the Vikings signed running back Marvin Wel!

-- Clark (cdvike@mindspring.com), March 06, 2001.

What do you mean the Vikings are doing nothing? Isn't that what they always do? The only early signing of note I can ever remember was Dixon Edwards. Green will just pick up a couple of over the hill guys in July and claim that his system is the greatest and that he expects to win the Super Bowl because all of the malcontents (Randle, Steussie, Rudd) are gone. Unfortunately he probably will still make the playoffs and thwart the Orkin man once again. I look for him to take a long hard look at the Buscuit, just sounds like his type of signing. I wouldn't be surprised to see him go after a guy like Darryl Williams or DeRon Jenkins either.

IZ

-- Iz (izmorrow@aol.com), March 06, 2001.

SEE YA!!!!!

-- Tom (BMatheus@aol.com), March 06, 2001.