Wallace in, Jennings out? Sure, why not?

By trading exchanging draft picks, acquiring Mike Wallace and cutting Greg Jennings, the Vikings essentially traded a fifth tround pick for a seventh-round pick for what they hope will be an upgrade at receiver.

It's worth a shot.

Jennings was a disappointment, overpaid and underproductive. Wallace is younger and faster and was more productive last year.

But there are nuances here.

At the end lf last season, Wallace was feuding with the Dolphins' coaching staff. Jennings, despite having a mediocre season, was often cited by quarterback Teddy Bridgewater as the veteran who tended to say the right thing at the right time to him.

I would have made this deal, but there is risk here.

Still, Wallace is 28 and has been remarkably durable. When he played with Ben Roethlisberger, he was one of the NFL's best deep threats. The Dolphins, typical of the mismanagement that has made them mediocre for decades, spent wildly on Wallace, then installed a short-passing attack that rendered his best asset - raw speed - meaningless.

Now Bridgewater will have three complementary receivers: Wallace as a deep threat and veteran, Charles Johnson as a budding No. 1 receiver, and Cordarrelle Patterson as a catch-and-run threat.

Patterson remains the most intriguing. Last year the Vikings tried to force him to become a professional receiver, and he failed. But he's still capable of winning games playing in the limited role Bill Musgrave used him in at the end of the 2013 season. With Wallace and Johnson on the outside, there really wouldn't be anything wrong with asking Patterson to be an underneath catch-and-run receiver, even if the Vikings will always want him to be mroe than that.

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Covering high school hoops tonight, checking at St. Paul Johnson and DeLaSalle at Target Center. Richard PItino is here. So is my favorite basketball junkie, Wolves VP Jeff Munneke.

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