5 Most Significant Minnesota Vikings Offseason Moves

Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah probably regrets using the term “competitive rebuild” for his first-year team-building strategy last year. The media grabbed the term and have been running with it ever since. New team regimes often blow up what they’ve inherited. Start anew. Look at the Chicago Bears. Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell decided to take the path of remaking the roster without blowing up the team. I liked it a year ago. I like it even more now. Other than a frequently frustrating defense, the Vikings 2022 season was a blast. The Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts games will probably always be two of the most memorable regular season games of my Vikings life. Add to that the beautiful dismantling of the Green Bay Packers in Week 1. Last season was a fun first season for Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell. A 13-4 record was great and fun but the defense was terrible. Without improvements on that side of the ball, the Vikings could easily be 4-13 in 2023. The biggest offensive issue were the stretches of doing little to nothing. In nearly every game, the Vikings offense seemed to go into hibernation for several possessions. It was often due to the opposing defense successfully taking receiver Justin Jefferson out of the game. The Vikings offense has to be able to make defenses suffer when they put so many resources into shutting down one of the game’s best players. In his second year guiding the Vikings, Adofo-Mensah made some moves to address those issues. He continued his “competitive rebuild.” Here are a few of the most significant moves.

5 Most Significant Minnesota Vikings Offseason Moves

1. Hiring Brian Flores as defensive coordinator

There was excitement in early February when the Vikings hired Brian Flores to coordinate the defense. There was even more excitement in late May with what was seen and said of the defense on the second day of full-team practices. Last season, the Vikings defense was a tough watch. They were slow and passive. That’s a horrible combination when offenses in today’s NFL play fast and aggressive. In last week’s practices, the first full-team practices of the offseason, the Vikings defense was fast, aggressive, and unpredictable. The offensive players were shocked. They didn’t see anything like this from their own defense all of last season. There’s no contact in these practices so a lot is left to imagination. With Flores crafting the defense, it’s difficult to imagine the Vikings defense not being greatly improved. 

2. Signing cornerback Byron Murphy Jr.

The Vikings cornerback position was completely overhauled this offseason. Patrick Peterson, Cam Dantzler, Duke Shelley, and Chandon Sullivan were the top four corners by the end of the season. All are playing elsewhere. At the start of the offseason, 2022 draft picks Andrew Booth Jr. and Akayleb Evans topped the depth chart. Fine. They were drafted in the second- and fourth-rounds, respectively, to develop into starters. The Vikings still needed some experience and leadership in the room. Enter Byron Murphy Jr. He was one of the best corners available in free agency. He’s also quite versatile. That’s a desired quality in Flores’ flexible, unpredictable defense. It’s expected that Murphy will play on the outside in base and moved inside in nickel. So, he’ll mostly be inside.

3. Drafting receiver Jordan Addison

Jordan Addison will pair nicely with Justin Jefferson. Both are beautiful route-runners. Great hands. Jefferson is a great receiver. Addison has the talent to be a great receiver as well. Jefferson, Addison, and K.J. Osborn top the Vikings receiver depth chart. That’s a more potent trio than last year’s of Jefferson, Adam Thielen, and Osborn. Addison will help the Vikings offense make defenses pay for focusing on Jefferson. I can easily see a Jefferson-Addison receiving duo being one of the league’s most dangerous in a couple years. 

4. Signing “outside linebacker” Marcus Davenport

When the Vikings signed Marcus Davenport during the “tampering window” it felt like he was added to replace Za’Darius Smith. That really didn’t happen until Smith was traded to the Cleveland Browns a couple weeks ago. Davenport will team with Danielle Hunter to form a potentially potent edge-rushing duo. Since he played in a four-man front in New Orleans, many have questioned his ability to play as a 3-4 outside linebacker. There were and still are similar questions about Hunter. Davenport and Hunter are freakishly talented football players. I expect Flores and outside linebacker coach Mike Smith to find a way to bring the best out of them. Davenport must stay on the field. Injuries have been his biggest issue over his five years in the league. 

5. Firing Ed Donatell. 

This is really 1b to the Flores hiring. With each day since the end of the Vikings 2023 season I grow more frustrated with the play of the Vikings defense under Ed Donatell. It was so bad. I just don’t get how they could play so passively for 18 games. It wasn’t working and they just kept doing it. The only thing that kept the Vikings defense from being a 100% failure was the occasional big play. Several of which won games. Nearly all of which were simply great individual plays. Those big plays kinda hid many of the issues during the season. A lot of issues are hidden when a team is finding ways to win most of their games.