The Minnesota Vikings’ defense has been one of the most dynamic groups in the NFL since Brian Flores took over in 2023. Few defensive schemers display the illusion of complexity as effectively as Flores, which has hidden some weak points — for the first ~80% of the season, anyway.
Everything on the defense is intertwined, so it can be difficult to isolate the main issue. You could make a fair argument for the interior pass rush. Still, the lack of consistent top-end cornerback play has sometimes hamstrung Flores as a playcaller.
Byron Murphy Jr. was a Pro Bowler last season and is a pending free agent in 2025. Nonetheless, like most modern defenses, the Vikings had five or more defensive backs on the field most of the time, with Murphy moving inside to the slot or Josh Metellus added to the package as a third safety in lieu of a third cornerback. Older vets like Stephon Gilmore and Shaq Griffin were serviceable, and Flores occasionally could lean on them. Still, Flores operated in a way that insulated his boundary corners from the most strenuous matchups.
The Vikings spent roughly 50% of snaps in either Cover 2 or Cover 4.
Bill Belichick once said, “You could find a Cover 2 corner at 7-Eleven.” There are nuances to the assignment, but it puts very little stress on the cornerback, whose responsibility is to cover the flat to his side of the field with safety help over the top and linebacker help to the inside.
The rules for corners in Quarters and all their variations become much more complex, but they tend to play out similarly. Quarters cornerbacks can maintain outside and deep leverage. Many of the best defenses in the league are confident and comfortable in any coverage. Still, reliable cornerback play is crucial to achieving that mindset.
It is not just a man/zone proposition nor a one-safety/two-safety proposition. The cornerback position and its role within the defensive scheme are a confluence of all required elements. Griffin and Gilmore are smart, experienced veterans who make few mental mistakes, so a zone, split-safety-heavy approach maximized their skill sets. Still, it put a ceiling on Flores’ creativity.
Luckily for the Vikings, D.J. Reed will be available in free agency in an offseason where Minnesota wields the most cap space of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s tenure. Whether Reed is the final piece in the secondary is contingent upon whether they retain Murphy. The Vikings need an addition at cornerback, not a replacement.
The fully realized version of Flores’ defensive scheme would require at least two cornerbacks he can trust with any assignment. The Vikings rolled out some dynamic, more man-zone balanced game plans against teams like the Arizona Cardinals or New York Jets, who did not have more than one reliable separator. But they couldn’t, or weren’t keen on, deploying similar game plans against the deeper receiver groups they faced last year.
This season, the Vikings saw how effective Reed can be against one of the best receiving corps in the league — their own.
Reed’s play jumped off the tape in Week 5. Opposite one of the most highly regarded corners in the league in Sauce Gardner, Reed held his own and formed a formidable tandem with Sauce over the past two seasons. In London, the Jets deployed the most man coverage the Vikings had seen to that point in the season. While Jefferson and Addison drew their fair share of defensive pass interference calls, Reed was glued to his assignment all across the field.
The 28-year-old Reed’s overall numbers from the 2024 season don’t accurately illustrate his talent level. After the Jets fired head coach and defensive play-caller Robert Saleh following that London game, the performance of nearly every Jets defender declined.
The four best PFF coverage grades of Reed’s season came in the first five weeks under Saleh. Despite that, Reed finished the season with seven pass deflections and a 70.1 pass-coverage grade. That’s a good grade, and it was Reed’s worst since his rookie season. It’s more reflective of his apathy toward New York’s direction than his skill at this stage of his career.
Reed played over 90% of his snaps as an outside corner, so he would project to fill Gilmore’s 2024 role. With Reed, Murphy, and a healthy Mekhi Blackmon or potentially another solid free agent, Minnesota’s cornerback room would go from a relative weakness to a demonstrable strength.
Adding Reed would be a splash signing. Spotrac projects a four-year, $58.6 million contract for the cornerback, and interested teams could drive that number could be driven up further. It is a strong free-agent cornerback class, but Reed may be the best. His age, skill level, Minnesota’s cap space, and the team’s need at the position create a match made in heaven.
With Reed in tow, Brian Flores could access more man coverage and single-high safety structures against the NFL’s contenders. If Reed can hang with Justin Jefferson in coverage, there is not a receiver in the league he couldn’t handle as a member of the Purple.
