Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Photographs.
The Minnesota Vikings will start establishing the 2025 roster in three weeks when free company kicks off.
The 4 Shakiest Spots on the Vikings Roster
The offseason arrived after a disappointing one-and-one postseason loss to the Los Angeles Rams final month. The membership in any other case had a flowery 14-3 common season.
And heading into free company, these are the Vikings’ 4 shakiest roster spots, ranked in ascending order (No. 1 = the shakiest).
4. Operating Again
Present Personnel beneath Contract for 2025:RB1: Ty ChandlerRB2: Zavier Scott
Aaron Jones and Cam Akers are tentatively scheduled at no cost company. Accordingly, basic supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah should lengthen Jones for a yr and draft a rookie tailback someplace in April’s draft. That — or spend a high-to-mid-round choose on a brand new working again if Jones walks.
Chandler gained’t earn the RB1 outright, so Minnesota wants some RB mojo, in all probability Jones and a youthful halfback.
That is Minnesota’s speeding effectivity per DVOA from the final three seasons, courting again to the daybreak of the O’Connell period:
2022: twenty seventh
2023: twenty seventh
2024: twentieth
Drafting a working again appears probably. These above-listed stats aren’t ideally suited.
3. Inside Defensive Line
Mark Hoffman/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin through Imagn Photographs.
Present Personnel beneath Contract for 2025:DT1: Harrison PhillipsDT2: Jalen RedmondDT3: Taki TaimaniDT4: Levi Drake RodriguezDT5: Jonathan HarrisDT6: Travis Bell
Minnesota already re-signed Jalen Redmond, who’s been a nice shock on the sector, a real tackle-for-loss savant.
From free company or the draft, the Vikings ought to add one other defensive sort out, the spot at the moment manned by Jerry Tillery. Vikings followers request this each offseason and often find yourself with a Shamar Stephen or Jonathan Bullard. Maybe the purple entrance workplace will lastly splash for an impression inside defensive lineman.
The twenty fourth choose, at the moment owned by Minnesota, could possibly be a major spot for this roster want.
2. Inside Offensive Line
Kirby Lee-Imagn Photographs.
Present Personnel beneath Contract for 2025:C1: Garrett BradburyLG1: Blake BrandelLG2: Henry ByrdRG1: Ed IngramRG2: Michael Jurgens
Though Sam Darnold held the soccer manner too lengthy within the pocket towards the Detroit Lions and Losn Angeles Rams to finish the season, the offensive line’s inside didn’t bail him out.
Figuring out offensive line issues was obviously apparent, however O’Connell was positive to name out the trenches. “There’s no question that we got to be able to find a way to give a quarterback time. Especially with players like Jordan Addison, Justin Jefferson, T.J. Hockenson, we got to find a way to solidify the interior of the pocket, starting first and foremost,” O’Connell advised reporters after the postseason flop.
Inside offensive line tribulation has been a frequent scourge of Vikings soccer for over 10 years.
O’Connell added, “There can be a thousand excuses made. But, for me, it’s the foundation of the interior of the pocket that we’re going to have to take a long look at.”
Fixes are coming.
1. Cornerback
Present Personnel beneath Contract for 2025:CB1: Mekhi BlackmonCB2: Dwight McGlothernCB3: NaJee ThompsonCB4: Nahshon WrightCB5: Ambry ThomasCB6: Reddy StewardCB7: Kahlef Hailassie
Mekhi Blackmon, Dwight McGlothern, and NaJee Thompson are the CB options on the books proper now for 2025, so, sure, cornerback is the highest offseason want. Write that down.
Professional Bowler Byron Murphy might return, which is incredible, however including yet another impression nook will likely be very important if Minnesota has Tremendous Bowl visions in 2025 and past.
The franchise is painfully overdue to nail a CB draft choose from Spherical 1 or 2. That final considerably profitable instance occurred 10 years in the past — Trae Waynes.
Minnesota may signal a free agent like D.J. Reed or draft a nook like East Carolina’s Shavon Revel Jr.
It’s value noting that Adofo-Mensah has about $60million in cap area to rectify all positions if he doesn’t hand Darnold a contract value $40+ million per season. In concept, if the Vikings hand Darnold a fats deal, they’d be proper again to the Kirk Cousins period of team-building — cash-strapped and hoping for one of the best with bargain-bin additions whereas boasting decent-not-elite quarterback efficiency.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the College of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his day by day YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The present options company, evaluation, and opinion on all issues associated to the purple workforce, 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 intently because the NFL.
All statistics supplied by Professional Soccer Reference / Stathead; all contractual data supplied by OverTheCap.com.
