Vikings agree to terms with CB Chris Carr

The Vikings have agreed to a one-year deal with former Baltimore Ravens CB Chris Carr.

Former Baltimore Ravens cornerback Chris Carr is set to sign with the Minnesota Vikings after visiting the Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs as part of his free-agent tour.

Carr spent his last three seasons in Baltimore, with 2010 being the only year he was a full-time starter during his seven-year career. He has only six career interceptions, with two of those coming in 2010 and two in 2009. When he was a full-time starter in 2010, he had 61 tackles and also played a significant role for the Ravens in 2009, garnering 44 tackles.

Cornerback has been considered one of the Vikings’ biggest needs this offseason, especially after releasing former starter Cedric Griffin, but the Vikings were never really in the sweepstakes for some of the high-profile cornerbacks, like Cortland Finnegan, Brandon Carr and Carlos Rogers, who were on the free-agent market early last week.

Carr was due a $2.5 million base salary and carried a $3.45 million salary-cap figure for next season before being cut by the Ravens, Scout.com reported. Carr signed a three-year, $14 million contract last year that included a $3.8 million signing bonus.

Up until the last two years, Carr had also been a significant contributor in the return game. For his career, he has 251 kickoff returns for a 24.6 average and 146 punt returns for a 7.3-yard average. However, he returned only one kickoff in each of the 2010 and 2011 seasons and five punts over the last two years.

Carr has also played for the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders.

The only defensive backs the Vikings have signed since free agency started were former Chicago Bears CB Zack Bowman (one year, $615,000) and former Florida International point guard Nick Taylor, whom the Vikings hope to turn into a speedy cornerback and potential return man.

---

Tim Yotter is the publisher of Viking Update. Follow Viking Update on Twitter and discuss this topic on our message boards. To become a subscriber to the Viking Update web site or magazine, click here.

---