Vikings

FREE AGENCY: Day One Minnesota Vikings Recap

After a quiet tampering period where very little came in the way of Vikings rumors leaking to the public, the Vikings made a key move to shore up the offensive line as well as clean up some minor details with their remaining contracts. They also swung and missed on other free agents, and those are worth speculating about as well.

The Vikings cleaned up some business. They tendered Adam Thielen with a second-round offer sheet worth $2.8 million for one year. If another team wants to sign Thielen, they can provide him with a standard, possibly multi-year contract but the Vikings have the right to match that offer with an identical contract and automatically retain Thielen. If Minnesota declines, that team signs Thielen but must provide a second round pick to the Vikings as compensation. If no team attempts to sign Thielen, he must sign that one year contract or not play in the NFL.

They also signed Jeremiah Sirles to a one-year, $690,000 contract and Zac Kerin to a one-year, $615,000 contract.

The Vikings also have some clear needs that weren’t exactly easy for me to anticipate going into free agency. I had figured that the Vikings would re-sign punter Jeff Locke and tight end Rhett Ellison, but that’s not the case.

Ellison signed with the Giants on a four-year, $18 million deal, with $8 million guaranteed at signing. Jeff Locke signed with the Colts to replace recently retired Pat McAfee. I doubt he follows McAfee’s footsteps and becomes a comedic sports personality.

This expands the Vikings needs list to include a punter and a tight end, even though the Vikings have a potentially capable Taylor Symmank and almost provably capable David Morgan on the roster at those positions.

Easier to anticipate leaving was left tackle Matt Kalil, who many expected would be gone. Unexpected was the deal he struck with Carolina, which averages over $11 million and has a whopping $25 million guaranteed.

Worth watching is what happens with cornerback Captain Munnerlyn, as it seems like the Carolina Panthers are interested in bringing him back into the fold.


The biggest news to report aside from those details would be the big Riley Reiff signing in order to shore up the offensive line. While his name doesn’t excite the fanbase as much as player like Kevin Zeitler or Ricky Wagner seems to, he’s a solid addition that can provide help on the right or left side of the line.

Details haven’t leaked about his contract yet, and that may be by design—if the Vikings are still negotiating with other offensive linemen, and tackles in particular, they’ll want to keep the details secret for as long as possible so that they have the maximum possible leverage in those negotiations.

And it certainly seems like the Vikings are still in the offensive line market. They were competing with the Los Angeles Chargers for Russell Okung after the Reiff news had resolved itself. Even if the Chargers committed a faux pas by contacting him ahead of schedule (sans agent), the penalty will be in the form of a fine or late-round draft pick and not the sudden re-emergence of Okung into the free agency market.

Before that, they were also in the market for Wagner, though it may have been the case that the Vikings only pursued Reiff because they were priced out of Wagner, as Darren Wolfson’s reporting seems to imply.

If that’s so, then Reiff primarily seems to be a right tackle option for the Vikings as they pursue other options (like Okung) at left tackle. That doesn’t make him an impossible fit at left tackle given his experience there, but it’s worth noting that Reiff was “the next guy” down from right tackle Ricky Wagner, while Okung was independent of that.

Not only that, former first-round pick for the Los Angeles Chargers, D.J. Fluker, seems to be on the Vikings’ radar. Whether they see him as a tackle or a guard remains to be seen, but his best work (what little there was) in San Diego was at guard. The Vikings need a guard as badly as they need a tackle, so further movement there makes sense.

They also seem to be interested in center Nick Mangold, and that might mean either kicking Berger to guard or planning for what might be a Berger retirement.

The Vikings are also potentially in the market for T.J. Lang. Lang was reported to be in the mix for the Vikings and the Broncos a week ago, but so far has not scheduled a visit with Minnesota as far as we know. Instead, he has two visits scheduled: one with Detroit and the other Seattle. He also may return to Green Bay.

They also may host their former camp invite, Mike Remmers, who has improved significantly since his time in Minnesota but still managed to be a bit of a liability in Carolina. Despite that, he’d be an upgrade over Matt Kalil and a significant upgrade over T.J. Clemmings.

There will be a list of free agent offensive linemen at the bottom of the piece.


Aside from pursuing offensive linemen, the Vikings were evidently in the market for wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey and missed out despite offering a longer, more secure contract than his eventual signees, the Philadelphia Eagles. This is because Carson Wentz is awesome.

They also might be in the market for Cleveland wunderkind Terrelle Pryor, who played (mostly) wide receiver for the team flush with drafted receivers. He’s the only member of the team who gained 1,000 yards (rushing or receiving) and beat out the next-most prolific pass-catcher by 400 yards. He did this despite having five different quarterbacks in addition to himself attempting to heave the ball.

They even seemed interested in home-grown Michael Floyd, another receiver who could compete for significant playing time. He was drummed out of Arizona and ended up playing a marginal role in New England, but still has NFL-quality talent.

There could be some speculation, then, that the Vikings don’t have the utmost confidence in first-round pick Laquon Treadwell. With Stefon Diggs on the roster and Thielen locked up, attempting to sign a star like Alshon Jeffery or a clear starter like Terrelle Pryor would signal that they don’t feel completely comfortable with entering the season keeping Treadwell on as a third receiver.

That’s not the whole story—the Vikings don’t have Cordarrelle Patterson re-signed yet, and it’s not clear if they made an offer competitive with the rest of the market. They also did not tender receiver Charles Johnson, meaning they don’t want to keep him around. That leaves Jarius Wright—a capable third receiver, but one pushed down the depth chart in 2016.

Still, applying resources to receivers almost guaranteed to keep Treadwell off the field is different than finding ways to round out some suddenly missing depth.


The Vikings are known to need a running back and are evidently hosting former Packers RB Eddie Lacy. It’s unlikely that Lacy would end up being a primary back (he is, after all, visiting another team better set up for a committee situation in Seattle), and so would complement Jerick McKinnon as a bruiser with explosive capability—if he can fulfill his potential.

Adrian Peterson returning may be a possibility as well. Reports are that he wildly overestimated his market and teams are currently wary, with Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk conveying information that no team has made him a serious offer.

https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/839505464102645761

That might make him palatable for Minnesota and ameliorate concerns about him feeling disrespected.


Free agents left to re-sign (or not):

  • Captain Munnerlyn, CB
  • Terence Newman, CB
  • Cordarrelle Patterson, WR/KR
  • Adrian Peterson, HB
  • Matt Asiata, HB
  • Zach Line, FB
  • Shaun Hill, QB
  • Audie Cole, MLB
  • Justin Trattou, DE

They also need to determine whether or not Joe Berger is retiring.

I left off Charles Johnson and Andre Smith because those seem quite unlikely. If those do not get resolved, then the Vikings don’t just have a need at left tackle, right guard, running back, linebacker and tight end, but also backup quarterback, fullback (maybe), center and kick returner.

Here’s a list of potential offensive linemen (provided by Spotrac, though some of these players may have been signed or might be restricted free agents in some way), with their most recent Pro Football Focus grade.

Name Pos Age Orig. Team PFF Grade
T.J. Lang OG 29 GB 87
Nick Mangold C 33 NYJ 78
Austin Pasztor OT 26 CLE 77.3
Jahri Evans OG 33 NO 76.8
Joe Hawley C 28 TB 76
Stefen Wisniewski C 27 JAC 75.2
Andrew Tiller OG 26 SF 72.7
Tim Lelito OG 27 NO 70.5
Marshall Newhouse OT 28 NYG 69.4
Byron Bell OT 28 TEN 67.4
Brian Schwenke C 25 TEN 67
Mike Remmers OT 27 CAR 66.1
William Beatty OT 32 NYG 63.7
D.J. Fluker OG 25 LAC 63.7
Chris Chester OG 34 ATL 62.5
Eric Winston OT 33 CIN 59.5
Michael Person C 28 KC 56.2
Oday Aboushi OG 25 HOU 55.5
Ryan Wendell C 31 CAR 54.5
Brandon Fusco OG 28 MIN 52.8
Sebastian Vollmer OT 32 NE 50.3
Menelik Watson OT 28 OAK 49.4
Ryan Clady OT 30 NYJ 47.2
Kelvin Beachum OT 27 JAC 44.3
Breno Giacomini OT 31 NYJ 44.3
Jordan Mills OT 26 BUF 44.2
Jermon Bushrod OG 32 MIA 43.5
Gosder Cherilus OT 32 TB 42.2
Mike Adams OT 26 CHI 40.8
Andre Smith OT 30 MIN 39.3
Bradley Sowell OT 27 SEA 34
Earl Watford OT 26 ARI 33.9

 

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