General News
| On 6 years ago

Vikings Release WR Jarius Wright

By Sean Borman

Image courtesy of Vikings.com

According to the team’s official Twitter account, the Vikings have released wide receiver Jarius Wright.

Wright, 28, had two years left on his contract. He was due to make $4.76 million in 2018 and 2019. Releasing him saves the team $2.64 million in cap space and will create $2.12 million in dead money.

A fourth-round draft pick of the 2012 draft, Wright saw his targets and production diminish over the last couple seasons. He recorded career-highs of 42 catches for 588 yards in 2014, but then caught 34, 11, and 18 passes the last three seasons.

Of Wright’s 153 receptions, 101 have been for first downs.

The Vikings have receivers Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen, Laquon Treadwell, Stacy Coley, Cayleb Jones, and Brandon Zylstra on the roster.

Update

According to NFL insider Adam Caplan, the Vikings may look to bring back Wright at a more reasonable cap number.

Sean Borman

Sean Borman is a writer with Minnesota roots that's a Vikings optimist. He was an intern with the Vikings during college and is an IT nerd by day. You can find him on the golf course during summer and on Twitter @SeanBormanNFL.

Tags: jarius wright

View Comments

  • I'm a bit surprised the front office didn't go through the whole "restructure the deal" dance with Wright before releasing him. I imagine it has something to do with the curlicues of the salary cap. And Caplan is right: there is no one currently on the roster who can step up and fill in for either Diggs or Thielen as well as Wright can.

    On a related note, there was a very good analysis of Cousins' strengths and weaknesses here at VT or at 1500 ESPN or one of the other Vikings sites, and it noted that he has gotten much better results out of two-TE sets than out of one-TE, three-WR or two-RB/two-WR sets, so I'm wondering if the Vikes should play to his strengths and sign an Eric Ebron - or someone better, if he's out there in free agency - to pair up with Rudolph and Morgan. And who knows, maybe Ebron will develop into a better TE with the change of scenery from Detroit.

    • They snoozed on Jimmy graham.let the pack sign him. We had him in pre-season about 2-3 yrs ago, but let him go to Seattle. He was great in pre-season, couldn't understand why we let him go.

    • I know they restructured Wright's contract before last season, so not sure why they didn't go that route again. I have to believe they're looking for another pass-catching TE, and would be surprised if one isn't acquired either in free agency or the draft.

  • "will create $2.12 million in dead money"

    "Releasing him saves the team $2.64 million in cap space"

    I doubt that Wright comes back to the Vikings. The dead money from cutting him almost equals the amount of cap room they created, and that dead money has to be fully realized once they cut him. He can't come back for less than vet minimum (on top of the dead money hit the cap already took).

    He is good enough to get more than vet minimum from some team. If the team were to bring him back at more than $2.64 million in 2018, the series of transactions would end up decreasing the available cap space in 2018 instead of increasing it as intended.

    This sounds like either 1) a restructuring scenario which was rejected by Wright or 2) the Vikings deciding they just didn't want him anymore.

    Wright was a good depth player, and probably should have been the third receiver in 3 receiver sets. I don't like the move, but Spielman doesn't care. There are a lot of receivers floating around who can replace what Wright did, and the Vikings are probably going to look to sign one of them in the second or third wave of free agency.