6-year deal for Madieu with Vikings

By Mark Curnutte
mcurnutte@enquirer.com

Madieu Williams is a former Bengal.

The four-year veteran safety has agreed on parameters on a six-year contract with the Minnesota Vikings and is on a plane now headed to Minneapolis, agent Kenny Zuckerman said late this morning.

The contract with worth a total of $33 million.

"Leslie gave Minnesota the advantage," Zuckerman said of former Bengals defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, now with the Vikings.

Frazier was Bengals coordinator in 2003 and 2004 before being fired by head coach Marvin Lewis and replaced with Chuck Bresnahan, who was fired in January and replaced with Mike Zimmer.

Williams said Frazier is as good a coach as he ever had.

The Bengals made no offer to Williams but asked Zuckerman to check back with them with information about any other offers he had received.

As many as four other teams showed serious interest in Williams, Zuckerman said.

Williams was the second of two Bengals second-round draft choices in 2004. He played in 13 games with 13 starts last season, finishing sixth on the defense with 73 total tackles, including two sacks. He had two interceptions.

Williams finished the season on the injured reserve list after sustaining a thigh injury in the Pittsburgh game.

The Bengals started two rookie safeties down the stretch in Marvin White and Chinedum Ndukwe and now appear comfortable moving forward with them as their starters. Veteran Dexter Jackson might be an offseason salary-cap casualty.