The Vikings Got Another Player To Ditch The Jets With A $75K Signing Bonus

Wide receiver Jeff Badet spent last season on the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad with no clear indication of what his future with the team would be. It wasn’t until the Jets came creeping around for the player going into his second season that the Vikings demonstrated just how much they valued Badet’s talent.

In an attempt to retain the speedy receiver, Minnesota gave Badet a $75,000 signing bonus to add onto his $495,000 base salary on a futures deal to re-sign before the start of the new league year on March 13, according to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Badet admitted to Tomasson that the Vikings had sweetened the deal to keep him from going to New York, but didn’t specify the numbers that were offered—Tomasson cites “a source” in his report.

“The Jets were calling, so I was going to go there to the Jets,’’ Badet said. “It was between (the Jets and Vikings), but I wanted to be here, though.’’

Badet said he had worked out for the Jets before being undrafted in 2018 out of Oklahoma and he said they “kept an eye on’’ him last season.

“I’m a speed guy and they wanted somebody to take it over the top, somebody going in there to match what (Jets receiver) Robby Anderson was doing,’’ Badet said.

The duo sounds incredible in theory. Anderson broke out last season as one of the league’s top speedy threats. To combine that with Badet, who didn’t play in the regular season but clocked a 4.27 40 time at his Oklahoma Pro Day last year, and Le’Veon Bell would provide Sam Darnold with a solid collection of talented targets to overthrow in 2019. But that offensive squad will have to remain hypothetical as Badet joins the likes of linebacker Anthony Barr and quarterback Kirk Cousins as the latest player to spurn New York for Minnesota—which tells you all you need to know about how players view the Jets.