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The 2025 NFL Mix is winding down, and one week from Monday, the NFL’s “legal tampering” section of free company begins.
3 Beloved Vikings Might Be in Last Days with Franchise
The Minnesota Vikings might launch a participant or two earlier than free company, and people strikes may arrive as early as now.
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In the meantime, a handful of standard gamers might be of their ultimate days with the franchise. These are these males listed in ascending order (No. 1 = most impactful attainable departure).
3. Harrison Smith (S)
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Smith should determine on retirement or a return for 12 months No. 14.
Some new hints from KSTP’s Darren Wolfson point out that Smith may return in 2025. “Smith can still play, and I don’t think the Vikings need to break the bank to bring him back. They can figure out the money. I get it. He’s had to take pay cuts the last couple years. So, to me, there’s interest in him playing at a reasonable number. I just think it makes all sorts of sense,” Wolfson mentioned on SKOR North airwaves late final week.
The treasured Viking didn’t function a performance-related decline in 2024, and actually, typically felt very important to the protection’s again finish. In idea, if Smith had been holding on by threads and struggling each Sunday, few would care about his retirement choice. However that doesn’t apply, to not Smith.
Wolfson added, “I continue to think there isn’t a downside to bringing back Harrison Smith.”
That is your warning: your telephone may buzz anytime revealing a Hitman retirement. ‘Tis the season.
2. Camryn Bynum (S)
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ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrote about Bynum’s free company final month, “The Vikings and Bynum have had discussions about an extension. While nothing has materialized, both sides are open to it, and this could get done before mid-March.”
This one is concerning the cheddar. Would the Vikings quite spend cash on considered one of their very own, Bynum? Or an outdoor candidate like Jevon Holland or Talanoa Hufanga?
It is perhaps the Vikings’ most unpredictable and interesting free-agent conundrum to watch.
1. Byron Murphy Jr. (CB)
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The aforementioned Fowler hinted two weeks in the past that Murphy Jr. may depart the franchise whereas Bynum stayed.
“Several free agents — Byron Murphy Jr., Camryn Bynum, Cam Robinson, Aaron Jones — could get cushy deals elsewhere, but GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has shown adaptability in adding new talent. (A prime example is last season’s pass-rush duo of Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel,)” Fowler wrote.
“In the secondary, the sense here is Murphy Jr. walks but Bynum could stay under a new deal.”
ESPN just about describes it as an either-or with Bynum and Murphy Jr.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the College of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his each day YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The present options visitors, evaluation, and opinion on all issues associated to the purple group, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates again to 1996. Listed responsible pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doorways (the band). He follows the NBA as carefully because the NFL.
All statistics supplied by Professional Soccer Reference / Stathead; all contractual data supplied by OverTheCap.com.