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Vikings complete trade with Texans for veteran Rosenfels
Published by 12th Man on February 27, 2009
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Vikings acquired quarterback Sage Rosenfels from the Houston Texans on Friday and signed him to a two-year, $9 million contract.
Rosenfels’ agent, Rick Smith, said his client “is extremely excited for this opportunity.”
The 31-year-old Rosenfels will compete with incumbent Tarvaris Jackson for the starting job.
It’s the second season in a row that the Vikings have tried to trade for Rosenfels. Last year, the two teams could not agree on compensation, so Minnesota brought in veteran Gus Frerotte as a backup.
It was not immediately clear what the Vikings gave up to land Rosenfels, but the Houston Chronicle previously reported it would be a fourth-round draft pick.
“It’s something we’ve been working on for a while and it finally came to fruition,” Smith said. “This is the first time in his career that he’s had a great opportunity to start. Nothing has been promised to him. He’s just extremely excited for this opportunity.”
Rosenfels went 2-3 in five starts for the injured Matt Schaub last season. He threw for 1,431 yards with six touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a 66.7 completion percentage.
Bringing in someone to compete with Jackson for the starting job was one of Minnesota’s biggest offseason priorities after losing to Philadelphia in the playoffs.
Jackson was benched after two losses to open last season and Frerotte went 8-3 in his place.
When Frerotte went down with a back injury, Jackson flourished to finish the regular season. He rallied the Vikings to a victory over the Lions after Frerotte got injured and won NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors the following week after throwing four touchdown passes in a road victory over Arizona.
In the first round of the playoffs, however, Jackson took a big step back against the frenetic blitzes of the Philly defense. He went 15-for-34 for 164 yards and had an interception returned for a touchdown in a 26-14 loss to the Eagles that ended Minnesota’s season.
“We need to put somebody in place that will push (Jackson) and compete with him, and I think competition is the nature of the game,” Childress told reporters at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. “At some places it may not be … (but) in our situation, we need to have a good healthy competition, because I think that makes everybody better.”
Rosenfels was up and down last season as well.
He completed 21 of 29 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns in relief of Schaub against the Vikings in November, but he also threw an interception in the end zone in the 28-21 loss.
In October, Rosenfels came in for Schaub again and had the Texans up by 17 points in the fourth quarter, but fumbled twice down the stretch as the Colts rallied to win 31-27.
But the market for quarterbacks is especially thin this offseason, with other options including Jeff Garcia, Dan Orlovsky, Rex Grossman and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Playing under Gary Kubiak in Houston, Rosenfels ran a West Coast offense similar to the one that Brad Childress employs in Minnesota. He did throw four more interceptions than touchdowns, but he had a good completion percentage, which is important in this scheme.
Jackson has struggled in that area, having yet to complete better than 59.1 percent of his passes in his three seasons in the league.
Last year he started five games and played in nine total, throwing for 1,056 yards with nine touchdowns and just two interceptions.
The trade likely means the 37-year-old Frerotte, who threw for 2,157 yards with 12 touchdowns and 15 interceptions last season, will be let go.
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