Minnesota Vikings Pre-Free Agency Roster

The Minnesota Vikings have been working toward the 2021 NFL season since their 2020 season ended on the first Sunday of January. Mike Zimmer remade his coaching staff. I believe that he still needs to add an assistant special teams coach. New Special Teams Coordinator Ryan Ficken needs and deserves some assistance. He works with nearly the entire roster. That’s a lot of players. Zimmer might have to add an assistant strength and conditioning coach as well. Chaz Mahle appears to have vanished from the team’s website. Now comes the usually fun part of team-building. The players. The Vikings presently have about 73 players on the roster. It’s tough to get an exact look at who’s on the team and who’s not. The roster on the team’s website includes Aviante Collins. He signed a reserves/futures contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this month. Khalfani Muhammad is also included on the website’s roster. He signed a reserves/futures contract with the Arizona Cardinals. Pulling from a few sources I think that I’ve pieced together a fairly accurate 73-man roster of the Minnesota Vikings. 58 of those 73 players are currently under contract for the 2021 season. 15 are set to become free agents in a couple weeks. Seeing as the Vikings are in a bit of a salary cap crunch, a couple of the 58 players currently under contract for the 2021 season soon may not be.  They have to trim the roster or restructure some of the contracts. Sadly, tight end Kyle Rudolph was the first to be trimmed. It’s tough to lose one of the Vikings best and most respected players of the past decade. On and off the field, Rudolph has given Minnesota so much. This was as much a difficult football decision as it was a difficult money decision. Rudolph wanted a greater pass-catching role in the offense. He wanted more snaps running routes and fewer snaps blocking. The Vikings saw the tight end position a bit differently and Rudolph didn’t fit moving forward. It’s Irv Smith Jr’s time. It’s Tyler Conklin’s time. The week wasn’t all about sad subtractions. There was a reunion when defensive end Stephen Weatherly was signed. Originally drafted by the Vikings in 2016, he departed to Carolina in free agency last offseason. As soon as the Panthers released him on February 19, I hoped for a reunion. At the very least, he’ll provide strong depth at a position of significant need. Anyway, here’s a look at the roster of the Minnesota Vikings in advance of the chaos of free agency. Hopefully it’s an accurate look at the roster. 

Minnesota Vikings Roster

Offense (32 Players)

Quarterbacks (4)
 8 Kirk Cousins
 4 Sean Mannion

 3 Jake Browning

 7 Nate Stanley

Sean Mannion will be an unrestricted free agent. 

Running Backs (4)
33 Dalvin Cook
25 Alexander Mattison

31 Ameer Abdullah
23 Mike Boone

Ameer Abdullah will be an unrestricted free agent. 

Mike Boone will be a restricted free agent. 

Fullbacks (2)
30 C.J. Ham

34 Jake Bargas

Receivers (6)
19 Adam Thielen
18 Justin Jefferson
81 Olabisi Johnson
12 Chad Beebe
17 K.J. Osborn
85 Dan Chisena

Chad Beebe will be a restricted free agent.

Tight Ends (4)
84 Irv Smith Jr.
83 Tyler Conklin

86 Brandon Dillon

87 Hale Hentges

Offensive Tackles (5)
71 Riley Reiff
75 Brian O'Neill
69 Rashod Hill
74 Oli Udoh

64 Blake Brandel

Rashod Hill will be an unrestricted free agent.

Guards (5)
78 Dakota Dozier

72 Ezra Cleveland

68 Kyle Hinton

73 Dru Samia

65 Zack Bailey 

Dakota Dozier will be an unrestricted free agent.

Centers (2)
56 Garrett Bradbury

61 Brett Jones

Brett Jones will be an unrestricted free agent. 

Defense (37 Players)

Defensive Ends (7)
99 Danielle Hunter

95 Ifeadi Odenigbo
57 D.J. Wonnum

91 Stephen Weatherly

90 Jalyn Holmes

79 Kenny Willekes

67 Jordan Brailford

Ifeadi Odenigbo will be a restricted free agent.

Defensive Tackles (6)
93 Shamar Stephen

97 Michael Pierce
96 Armon Watts
94 Jaleel Johnson
66 James Lynch

51 Hercules Mata’afa 

Jaleel Johnson will be an unrestricted free agent.

Linebackers (9)
55 Anthony Barr

54 Eric Kendricks
50 Eric Wilson

45 Troy Dye

59 Cameron Smith

40 Todd Davis

57 Ryan Connelly

48 Blake Lynch

47 Hardy Nickerson Jr. 

Eric Wilson, Todd Davis, and Hardy Nickerson will be unrestricted free agents. 

Cornerbacks (9)
20 Jeff Gladney
27 Cameron Dantzler
21 Mike Hughes

29 Kris Boyd

26 Chris Jones
38 Harrison Hand

39 Dylan Mabin

32 Cordrea Tankersley

36 Tae Hayes

Chris Jones will be an exclusive rights free agent. 

Safeties (6)

22 Harrison Smith
41 Anthony Harris

44 Josh Metellus

43 George Iloka

46 Myles Dorn

35 Luther Kirk

Anthony Harris and George Iloka will be unrestricted free agents. 

Special Teams (4 Players)

Kicker
 5 Dan Bailey

    Greg Joseph

Punter
 2 Britton Colquitt

Long Snapper
42 Andrew DePaola