The Minnesota Vikings may have had the most active and impactful free agency session in the NFL, even though they didn’t sign as many new players as the Houston Texans, Chicago Bears, or Washington Commanders. According to OverTheCap, the Vikings brought in 11 new free agents with a yearly contract value of $67.7 million per year, the fifth-highest of any team in the league.
At the same time, the Vikings led the league in “lost” free agency value, with former players earning a total of $102.6 million per year in free agency with new teams. That means in total roster turnover, Minnesota ranks first in the total value of player contracts that have changed from one year to the next. The $170.2 million in average annual salary that the Vikings added or acquired easily clears the second-place Carolina Panthers ($156.7 million) and third-place Texans ($155.1 million).
They rank third in the number of players who have changed teams, tied with the Panthers. Only the Texans and Commanders exceed them in total free-agency change.
With that in mind, how did they perform when engaging in such a serious turnover of the roster?
Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter were the two most notable losses in free agency. However, losing edge rusher Marcus Davenport means that both intended starters at the edge position have departed. On top of that, the departures of starters K.J. Osborn and Jordan Hicks, and notable rotational player D.J. Wonnum, have meant that there’s been a significant movement among players that have played a big role for the Vikings.
While the net effect of Minnesota’s free-agency period has been a loss of veteran players, there has seemingly been an increase in the number of incoming players who are expected to make an impact. As a rough measure of this, one can count up the number of contracts that average over $5 million a year; the Vikings had six new players come in while only four left.
To review Minnesota’s approach to free agency, we can examine groupings of signings to see where they may have succeeded or failed.
The Vikings did not exchange Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold in a truly meaningful way – if they had, this would have been a significant downgrade and a huge mistake. Instead, the Vikings made a conscious decision to move forward at the position with a bridge quarterback and a draft pick.
By admin
