The Minnesota Vikings are investing a low-risk, one-year contract in a receiver who could provide much-needed help in the passing game.

Those factors are enough to offset the perceived character concern that follows former Cincinnati Bengals receiver Jerome Simpson after he pleaded guilty of a felony drug charge on March 1.

Based on his staff’s evaluation, Vikings general manager Rick Spielman said Simpson, who agreed to a one-year deal with the Vikings on Tuesday, April 24, is not a character problem and deserves a second chance.

Simpson reportedly will be suspended by the NFL for three games in light of a 15-day jail sentence and three years probation after two pounds of marijuana were shipped to his home in northern Kentucky last September.

Efforts to reach Simpson, who visited the Vikings on Saturday, were unsuccessful.

“If we didn’t feel comfortable enough with all the information that we have gathered, we probably wouldn’t have had him in on a visit,” Spielman said. “We had very direct conversations and felt very strongly that Jerome Simpson … did he make a mistake? No one is going to say he didn’t make a mistake. But I also think he has a chance to be one of those success stories as well.”

Spielman cites the Vikings’ willingness to embrace players with previous off-field troubles and success with those players “not only on the field but as citizens.”

In some cases (Percy Harvin, Jared Allen), Spielman is right. In others (Chris Cook and, to a lesser extent, Everson Griffen), that’s yet to be determined. Cook has been absolved of separate gun and assault charges since the Vikings drafted him 34th overall in 2010, but he has to regain trust in Winter Park.

Griffen, a fourth-round draft pick the same year, was arrested twice in Los Angeles shortly after his rookie year on separate charges of battery and public intoxication. He hasn’t been in trouble since and is emerging as a key contributor for the Vikings.

All four of those players committed to long-term deals with the Vikings, while Simpson is essentially a 13-game rental. Though full terms of the deal have not been disclosed, he is likely not getting outrageous money.

There’s no other way around it: The Vikings desperately needed help in the passing game. And after an unproductive first three seasons, the second-round draft pick from 2008 is coming off career highs in receptions (50), yards (725) and touchdowns (four) – including one of the plays of the year, flipping over an Arizona Cardinals linebacker and into the end zone for a touchdown in Week 16.

“He is a generic (genetic) freak type athlete,” Spielman said. “We were very interested in him when he came out of Coastal Carolina in 2008. He was here on a Top 30 visit.”

On that visit, Simpson remembered all the executives and coaches he met with, said Spielman, who sounded impressed.

Though Simpson showed explosiveness last season with three 100-plus-yard games, he also had seven games with two or fewer catches – including a combined zero catches in two games against AFC North rival Pittsburgh.

As it stands, the Vikings could place Harvin in the slot, with Simpson and Michael Jenkins on the outside. It wouldn’t be surprising if Jenkins enters the season ahead of Simpson because of his experience and consistency, but Simpson will have opportunities to impose his will on the job.

As for the draft, the Simpson signing shouldn’t change the Vikings’ plans much. If they don’t select Justin Blackmon in the first round, the Vikings likely will take a receiver in the second or third round.