Whether he wants to talk about them or not, Vikings general manager Rick Spielman has two huge contract decisions to make this offseason.
But Spielman was adamant he wasn’t going to discuss the situations of wide receiver Percy Harvin or coach Leslie Frazier, who will be entering the final years of their contracts after this season.
“We keep everything internally,” Spielman said in several variations, via Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com. “I won’t discuss anything on contracts.”
At the same time, he had high praise for Frazier, who is in the second year of his three-year deal, with a team that has exceeded every expectation.
“Leslie’s been doing an outstanding job,” Spielman said. “Knowing the situation, that we were going to have a lot of new faces on this roster, and I think the coaching staff has done an outstanding job. Again, we can bring in guys that are talented, but it’s our coaches who should get the credit for developing these guys. And our coaches should get the credit for playing these guys and letting them grow into the positions as they grow, because you know you’re going to have some ups and downs, especially when you have a young roster.
“But our coaches and Leslie do an extremely, very good job of working with these kids. And any chance they have, to get these guys ready to play. And I think that has shown so far this year.”
He likewise wouldn’t discuss when or if he’d begin discussions with Harvin on a new deal, or whether he’d consider working on one during this season.
“Percy Harvin is unique, unique football player, and he brings so much value to this football team, and Percy has developed into one of our core players and a leader for us on this football team,” Spielman said.
While a deal with Harvin is as simple as paying the man (which is easy to say when it’s not your cash), Frazier is a more complicated decision, since it creates a direction for the entire roster. He and Spielman seem to be on the same page, and Frazier has clearly done a good job with a young group, steering out of a skid to get them to 6-4 at the bye.
Whether that’s enough to convince the GM to commit to Frazier long-term this offseason (as opposed to letting him be a lame duck) is something Spielman’s going to have to decide, even if he won’t talk about it.