Minnesota Vikings Offseason Movement (so far)

The Minnesota Vikings approached the offseason on the wrong side of the salary cap ledger. They were also saddled with a giant salary cap hit from their quarterback. Despite that restrictive situation the Vikings have been fairly active over the first few weeks of the offseason. They’ve added several players and re-signed a few of their own. New general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, salary cap wizard Rob Brzezinski and the rest of the decision-makers worked the team’s salary cap from about $15 million over the cap to about $12 million under the salary cap. All while adding several new starters to a defense in desperate need of them. With the 2022 NFL Draft still to come, the Vikings have had a productive and fairly active offseason. 

Additions

Harrison Phillips, DT (Buffalo Bills)

Jordan Hicks, LB (Arizona Cardinals)

Johnny Mundt, TE (Los Angeles Rams)

Austin Schlottman, OG (Denver Broncos)

Za’Darius Smith, Edge (Green Bay Packers)

Chandon Sullivan, CB (Green Bay Packers)

Jesse Davis, OG (Miami Dolphins)

Nate Hairston, CB (Denver Broncos)

Chris Reed, OG (Indianapolis Colts)

Re-Signings/Extensions

Kirk Cousins, QB

Greg Joseph, K

Jordan Berry, P

Sean Mannion, QB

Patrick Peterson, CB

Tye Smith, CB

Project as Starters:

Harrison Phillips

Jordan Hicks

Za’Darius Smith

Chandon Sullivan-nickel corner

The clear, early focus of this offseason was the defense. They added four starters in free agency. Last week’s re-signing of Patrick Peterson bumped that total to five starters. On offense, there’s one open position. Right guard. The Vikings will have a multi-player competition for that one position. 2021 third-round pick Wyatt Davis and the three offensive linemen added in free agency are the current participants in that competition. For no reason other than a hunch, I have Chris Reed winning that competition. The draft could change that. Offseason workouts could change that. Anything between now and August might change that. In early April, I like Reed as the Vikings 2022 starting right guard. Again, it’s a hunch, a feeling. 

The draft will surely change things. With what’s been done so far in the offseason, I see the Vikings 2022 starting lineup looking something like this.

Offense

QB	Kirk Cousins
RB	Dalvin Cook
FB	C.J. Ham
WR	Justin Jefferson
WR	Adam Thielen
TE	Irv Smith Jr.
LT	Christian Darrisaw
LG	Ezra Cleveland
C	Garrett Bradbury
RG	Chris Reed
RT	Brian O’Neill

Defense

DE	Dalvin Tomlinson
NT	Harrison Phillips
DE	James Lynch
OLB	Danielle Hunter
ILB	Eric Kendricks
ILB	Jordan Hicks
OLB	Za’Darius Smith
CB	Patrick Peterson
CB	Cameron Dantzler
NB	Chandon Sullivan
S	Harrison Smith
S	Camryn Bynum

Bold: new starters/new positions

There’s been lazy chatter among some of the team’s beat writers and some fans that the Vikings new decision-makers are simply “running it back.” Are they “running it back” simply because they are sticking with Kirk Cousins at quarterback? Is anything short of nuking the entire team “running it back?” Who knows? Then again, I’ve never understood the need to put a label on everything that a team does or doesn’t do. First of all, I don’t know how a team with a new general manager, new head coach, new coaching staff is doing any sort of “running it back.” Second of all, I’m not sure how one can look at the above defense and see any similarities with Mike Zimmer’s schemes of the past eight years. Exit the 4-3. Enter the 3-4. It’s an entirely new defense. There are four new starters. The starters that return will be playing new positions. Some are playing vastly new positions. In Kevin O’Connell, the Vikings now have an offensive coach in charge of the whole thing. How is anything on this team the same? The offensive personnel is nearly 100% the same but it’s being coached, called, and taught by a coach that’s the head coach. He won’t have a defensive head coach overseeing his every action. This is a new team. It’s a whole new defense stocked by an active offseason. An offseason that wasn’t supposed to be so active. 

I’m always excited for the next Minnesota Vikings season. I believe that the newness of everything with this new Vikings team has me even more excited in April than I often am.