The Minnesota Vikings agreed to terms with former New Orleans Saints edge rusher Marcus Davenport on March 13th, the first day of the legal tampering period. The Vikings finally got a signed contract one week later and there were questions as to why.
According to a report from Pro Football Talk, the hangup was a pre-existing shoulder injury. Mike Florio spoke to a source with knowledge of the situation and got the details on how the injury impacts the contract.
As it relates to his $2 million in per-game roster bonuses, he’ll get the payments if he ends up on injured reserve — unless the injury arises from “a deterioration, aggravation or re-injury to Player’s following Pre-Existing Conditions: right shoulder and related structures, and all associated pathologies resulting from degenerative changes, labral repair, previous infection, etc.”
We knew that there were injuries that have clouded Davenport’s career, but his shoulder wasn’t expected to cause issues. They got the deal done and he was officially introduced at a virtual press conference on Thursday afternoon.
