Vikings Free Agent Additions

In recent years the Minnesota Vikings, to the disappointment of many of their fans, have spent more resources on retaining their own free agents than signing those of other teams. The Vikings are rarely big spenders in free agency. They typically keep their own free agents and make modest investments in outside free agents. In total, they usually bring in more players than they lose. This offseason was a little different. They lost more players than they added. That should help a little when compensatory picks are handed out next year but doesn't much matter now. The Vikings made their usual, again to the disappointment of many of their fans, modest investment in outside free agents. As a group, they're under-the-radar free agent additions but they could be very important additions.

Riley Reiff, OT
Mike Remmers, OT
Datone Jones, DL
Latavius Murray, RB
Case Keenum, QB
Michael Floyd, WR
Will Sutton, DT

At a glance, the one thing that the Vikings, and all of their fans, want to see from this group is that Case Keenum never sees a significant snap. Nothing against Keenum, he's a fine young man, but his not seeing a significant snap means that Sam Bradford sees all of them. That's a good thing.

The Vikings biggest need this offseason was to improve the offensive line. Their first two additions were two offensive tackles. They spent heavily to secure Riley Reiff. He's now the starter at left tackle. They spent less heavily, but still significantly, on Mike Remmers. He's the likely starter at right tackle. The offensive line is already improved. That says more about how bad the line was last year than the addition of Riley and Remmers. They added a toughness that was missing, solid run blocking, and improved hope that Bradford can be safer in his second season as the Vikings starting quarterback than he was in his first. He saw way too many free rushers off the edge last season. Way too many. It was incredible, even miraculous, that he survived the season in one piece.

The Vikings gave multi-year contracts to three players. Reiff, Remmers and Latavius Murray. The sad departure of running back Adrian Peterson this offseason left a giant hole at the position. Murray was signed to help fill it. The Vikings running back job will be a committee. A strange concept in Minnesota due to the decade-long domination of the position by Peterson. Along with Jerick McKinnon, rookie Dalvin Cook, Murray will play a part in that rotation. He has one 1,000-yard season on his resume', he's 6'3" and 230 lbs, he's effective as a receiver, and he can contribute significantly in pass protection. He'll have a solid role in the running back committee.

One of the biggest question marks for the Vikings as they inch closer to training camp and the 2017 season is the football future of defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd. When he's on the field he's an explosive, disruptive, difference-maker. Unfortunately, he's missed chunks of time to injury. His most recent injury, a minor knee injury, has turned into a football nightmare. A mishap during routine surgery on his knee last fall resulted in a "nicked" nerve. The nerve has yet to respond and Floyd's football career is in jeopardy. That uncertainty has resulted in uncertainty at the critical 3-technique position of the Vikings defense. Shamar Stephen started in place of Floyd last season. Stephen is solid against the run but he's not the disruptive, penetrating pass rusher that the Vikings need/want from the position. Tom Johnson can do that on a situational basis but can wear down with increased snaps. The Vikings need a defensive tackle like Floyd if he can't return to the field. Datone Jones played that position at UCLA but the Green Bay Packers selected him in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft to play a different position. At first he was an end in their 3-4 defense. Then he was an outside linebacker. Then he was a free agent because neither really worked. Perhaps he can show that first round talent by playing the position that got him drafted there. Will Sutton was a late free agent addition. Like Jones, Sutton may have had his pro career stunted by being moved away from what he does best. At Arizona State he was twice named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. He's a short, stout, quick, disruptive, penetrating under tackle/3-technique in the mold of Vikings Hall of Famer John Randle, Geno Atkins of the Cincinnati Bengals, and Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams. Sutton is at his disruptive best when only about 290 lbs are on his 6'1" frame. For some reason he added weight his senior season, playing at about 300 lbs. He was still dominant enough to repeat as the conference defensive player of the year but not quite as dominant as the year before. Perhaps that's why he was still available for the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 2014 NFL Draft. When John Fox was hired as the Bears coach in 2015 he brought along his 3-4 defense. That defensive switch eventually pushed Sutton into a possibly uncomfortable 320 lb-nose tackle role. The Bears released him on May 11. The Vikings signed him six days later. It's a safe bet that they expect him to return to something closer to his 290 lb Arizona State days. If Floyd can return to the football field this summer, the Vikings will have an abundance of players that can rotate into that all-important 3-technique position. If Floyd can't return, the additions of Jones and Sutton won't let the position become the relative weakness that it was last season.

When it came to the backup quarterback position I was hoping that the Vikings would give Taylor Heinicke first crack at it. He was impressive as a rookie in the 2015 preseason. He might've gotten first crack this summer if he hadn't put his foot through a window and severed a tendon last summer. That injury kept him out of training camp and most of last season. He's still an unknown and the Vikings couldn't go into training camp with an unknown backing up Bradford. They had to sign a veteran and they signed Case Keenum. It sounds cold and it may be cold but the hope here is that he never sees a meaningful snap.

Michael Floyd. He was supposed to be a superstar at this point in his NFL career. It looked like he was well on his way in 2013 when he caught 65 passes for 1041 yards in only his second season in the league. He's been one of the game's better deep threats since the Arizona Cardinals selected him with 13th pick of the 2012 NFL Draft. An extreme DUI offense in December forced the Cardinals to release him, the New England Patriots picked him up, he played a little, got a ring, and then no one wanted him. No one wanted him because of his off the field issues, that DUI charge and resulting prison sentence, and a probable suspension by the NFL. The Vikings signed him after the draft and hope that a return to the area in which he was raised, a support system of family and friends, and especially a desire to turn his life (and career) around will result in his immense potential showing itself on the field. At best, this is a dynamite signing by the Vikings because Floyd has the talent to be a dynamite player. At worst, it's a low-risk, low-cost signing. It's all on Michael Floyd right now. If he takes advantage of this opportunity both he and the Vikings win in the end.

There's the Minnesota Vikings free agent additions of 2017. On the surface they aren't earth-shaking additions but each (except, hopefully, Case Keenum) has the opportunity to be difference-makers for the Vikings. Riley Reiff, Datone Jones, and Michael Floyd were each first round draft picks. They are very good, talented football players. So is Will Sutton. So is Latavius Murray. As fans, it's easy to get optimistic your team this time of the year. The weather's getting warmer and training camp's creeping closer. Hopefully the Vikings free agent additions of 2017 fill some of the holes on the team. Perhaps some of them take starring roles.