Minnesota Vikings officially sign Anthony Barr

The Minnesota Vikings have locked down their first pick of the 2014 NFL Draft as the team officially agreed to a contract with linebacker Anthony Barr on Tuesday morning. The news comes as somewhat of a relief to Vikings fans as we’ve seen rookie contracts sometimes take a while to hash out, but Barr’s deal is done and he can now solely focus on getting better prepared for his much anticipated rookie season.

News of the deal was passed along thanks to Vikings beat writer Ben Goessling.

Barr was an interesting choice for the Vikings at no. 9 overall as they traded back and allowed the Cleveland Browns to take a player in Justin Gilbert that many believed could have been a perfect fit for the Vikings secondary. But linebacker was a glaring position of need, especially with the aging Chad Greenway the only really threat for Minnesota, and adding Barr was not only the smart move but seemingly the only move.

There was talk of Minnesota picking up a quarterback at no. 9 overall but they elected to take care of that by trading back into the first round to select Teddy Bridgewater.

But while he’s perhaps the most anticipated player of the Vikings rookie class, Barr may end up being one of the more important pieces as he fills a big need and can create a linebacker tandem with Greenway that could develop into one of the more powerful units in football.