2014 Minnesota Vikings: Vikings Sign Brandon Fusco to a 5-Year Extension

The Minnesota Vikings have signed Brandon Fusco to a five-year, $25 million contract extension on top of his current (expiring) deal. This gives Fusco an average of $5 million for the final five years of the deal, which ranks 16th among all guards in average salary, according to Spotrac—though only 3.7% of the salary cap at signing, unlike those around him who largely committed their teams to over 4% of their salary caps at signing. $6 million of Fusco’s contract is guaranteed, which sounds like a signing bonus with first year’s salary guaranteed.

Fusco has quietly become one of the best guards in the country after beating out an injured, but better, Geoff Schwartz in a camp competition two years ago to become the starting right guard after Anthony Herrerra would not longer fulfill that role. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the top right guard in 2013, and center John Sullivan said Fusco was the best-performing lineman of last year when I talked to him in camp.

Pro Football Focus called Brandon Fusco a “secret superstar,” which I wrote about here. Two GIFs from that piece:

Great signing by the Vikings. Offensive guards are extremely difficult to find, and are one of the shallowest position groups in the NFL.