Minnesota Vikings Free Agents

The Minnesota Vikings have 20 players currently on pace to become free agents when the new NFL year opens on March 16.

Unrestricted Free Agents

Anthony Barr, LB

Patrick Peterson, CB

Sheldon Richardson, DL

Tyler Conklin, TE

Xavier Woods, S

Mackensie Alexander, CB

Rashod Hill, OT

Nick Vigil, LB

Mason Cole, IOL

Everson Griffen, Edge

Jordan Berry, P

DeDe Westbrook, WR

Dakota Dozier, IOL

Sean Mannion, QB

Wayne Galman, RB

Luke Stocker, TE

Chad Beebe, WR

Tashawn Bower, Edge

Chris Herndon, TE

Restricted Free Agent

Greg Joseph, K

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The good news is that none of the 20 scheduled free agents are absolute, must re-signs. The respective ages of the most prominent players have a little to do with that. 

Anthony Barr 30

Patrick Peterson 32

Sheldon Richardson 32

Everson Griffen 35

The biggest obstacle for re-signing any of the above the players is the team’s cap situation. The Vikings are currently about $16 million over the cap. The team’s new decision-makers have some work to do before they are in position to re-sign or sign any players. 

For mostly sentimental reason, I’d like to see Anthony Barr, Patrick Peterson, and Sheldon Richardson return. I like all three players. It’d be nice to have their veteran presence and influence at each of the three levels of the defense. When a team is in a salary cap hole it’s difficult to justify keeping players for sentimental reasons. Barr probably has the most left of the three. His best play of the past few seasons was the final several games of last season. For the first time in a long time, he was healthy. He would provide inside-outside versatility in the Vikings new 3-4 defense. I’m talking myself into Barr being a must re-sign. 

Tight end Tyler Conklin is probably the closest to a must re-sign. If Irv Smith Jr. returns at 100% from the knee injury that erased his 2021 season, Conklin will be TE2. A very productive and capable TE2. That leaves a dilemma for player and team. Does Conklin accept a TE2 role and pay? Can the Vikings pay him enough to play in the hopefully healthy shadow of Smith? 

This is the first year in perhaps forever that the Vikings have no pending free agents that absolutely must return. The players that I’d most like to see return:

Anthony Barr

Tyler Conklin

Greg Joseph

Greg Joseph is a restricted free agent. If the Vikings new decision-makers like what he did last year, he’ll be back. As for Barr and Conklin, I hope that both really like playing in Minnesota. Despite Barr’s age and recent injury issues, I believe that he’ll be offered more by another team, or teams the Vikings can afford. One thing that might keep Conklin’s offers down is the number of quality tight ends available. 

The next 13 days will be interesting.