The Minnesota Vikings head into the 2020 NFL season with a handful of players who are in the final year of their contract. Some of these players have lived up to expectations, while others have had mixed results with their play and production on the field. To continue their NFL careers with Minnesota, these players will need to step up and prove to the team it is worth keeping them on the roster for years to come.
Pat elflein
Pat Elflein‘s recent struggles on the field have been well documented. After a solid rookie season where he anchored the Vikings’ offensive line, and played with toughness and aggression, the quality of Elflein’s play has drastically decreased. He did suffer shoulder and ankle injuries that both required surgery after that first season, and he hasn’t been the same since.
Even a change from center to guard didn’t improve his play, and a season ago he was one of the worst graded guards in pass blocking with a grade of just 46.8 by Pro Football Focus. His overall grade was 62.7, as he was decent in the run game. While Elflein has clearly struggled in recent seasons, he is still slated to start for the Vikings in 2020.
Elflein’s contract with the team expires after this season, and if he wants to continue his tenure with the team, he’ll have to improve his play. The Vikings have added some young talent at the guard position, so there will be guys to step in if Elflein continues to struggle. It’s simple, really: If Elflein plays like he did his rookie season, then the Vikings could see value in bringing him back for multiple years. If he looks like he has the last season and a half, his time in Minnesota will come to an end, and the team will have a new left guard in 2021.
Jaleel Johnson
Jaleel Johnson has been a frustrating player since the Vikings drafted him in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft. He’s just been very inconsistent. He has shown moments where it looks like he will be the player the Vikings envisioned he could be, but then has stretches where he is ineffective. He’s been a hybrid type of defensive tackle for the Vikings who can clog the run and also provide interior pressure. That dual role saw him as a rotational player who has started just four games in his career.
His best season was 2019 where he started three games and had 3.5 sacks, 29 combined tackles and five tackles for loss. The majority of his production came in the second half of the season when Linval Joseph was hurt and not able to play up to his usual standard. Despite his solid play last season, the team still went out and signed Michael “The Juggernaut” Pierce in free agency and drafted James Lynch in the fourth round, which goes a long way in showing the confidence they have in Johnson to be a consistent player.
Johnson is going to need to have his best season yet if he’s going to continue his career in Minnesota. It’ll be difficult for him to hit career highs in 2020, as his snap count could go down as he could lose opportunities to Lynch and Armon Watts. He’ll need to make the most out of every opportunity he gets, otherwise Johnson will be sporting new colors in 2021.
ben gedeon
Ben Gedeon is the vanilla ice cream of the Vikings’ linebacker corps. He’s not exactly good but not bad either. He is consistent, and the team knows what it’s getting when he’s on the field, though he lacks pizzazz and hasn’t registered a single sack or interception in his career. Gedeon goes out, makes a handful of tackles a game, and that’s about it. He’s a solid but very bland piece of the Vikings’ defense.
He’s coming off an injury-shortened season as the team placed him on I.R. early in December after he suffered multiple concussions. This opened the door for Eric Wilson to start, and he brings so much more to the Vikings’ defense. He’s explosive and has five sacks and 10 tackles for a loss in the same span of time that Gedeon has played. The team also drafted Troy Dye this year, an extremely athletic, playmaking linebacker who should provide the splash that Gedeon doesn’t.
While Gedeon isn’t flashy, the Vikings like his special teams’ ability and steady presence on the defense. However, with Dye on the roster and Wilson looking like a starter, Gedeon will have to impress in the preseason to even make the final 53-man roster. If he does make the final squad, he’ll need to do much more than register about 40 tackles this season to continue his career with the Vikings.
tajae sharpe
While this is Tajae Sharpe‘s first season with the Vikings, he’ll be under the gun to produce and impress, or it could be his last. The Vikings signed the big pass-catcher to provide some experience to their receiving corps. While being only 25 years old, Sharpe has been in the league for four seasons, and in that time has started 29 games and recorded 92 receptions for 1,167 yards and eight touchdowns. With rookie Justin Jefferson and second-year player Bisi Johnson being two of the top three on the Vikings depth chart, having an experienced player like Sharpe on the team is very valuable.
Despite the need for veteran leadership this year, if Sharpe can’t produce the Vikings could see no reason to keep him beyond the 2020 season. They have Adam Thielen locked up for another couple years and are extremely excited about Jefferson and Johnson’s future. The Vikings also have promising young players like Quartney Davis and K.J. Osborn and even if one those two emerge, it could be enough reason to not bring Sharpe back for a second go-around with the Vikings.
