Nov 27, 2022; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Baltimore Ravens tight end Josh Oliver (84) leaps for a pass against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the third quarter at TIAA Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports.
All signs pointed to the Minnesota Vikings signing a defensive player to help fix the NFL’s 30th-ranked defense per points allowed in 2022, but the front office had other plans, at least to kickstart free agency.
NFL free agency began Monday at 11 am CST with the “legal tampering,” and oodles of players flew off the board to new teams.
And with a plot twist, the Vikings thought offensively, adding tight end Josh Oliver from the Baltimore Ravens.
ESPN Mike Garafolo tweeted Monday, “The Vikings have agreed to terms with TE Josh Oliver on a three-year, $21 million deal, source says. He gets $10.75 million guaranteed and has incentives that can take the deal up to $24 million. One of the best blocking tight ends in the league.”
Oliver, a blocking TE, joins Minnesota after two seasons in Baltimore (2021 and 2022) and one with the Jacksonville Jaguars as a rookie in 2019. In 2020, Oliver broke his foot and missed the entire season.
A 3rd-Round pick from the 2019 NFL Draft, Oliver joins a Vikings team that already has gobs of tight ends — T.J. Hockenson, Johnny Mundt, Ben Ellefson, and Nick Muse. Because the club already has four TEs, most didn’t foresee signing another as the shots-fired moment during free agency week.
The Oliver move also unofficially ends the Irv Smith era in Minnesota. The Vikings drafted Smith the same night as the Jaguars picked Oliver, and onboarding another tight end in a crowded TE room puts a punctuation mark on the once-promising Vikings tenure. Smith is a free agent, too, and is expected to sign somewhere within the next few days.
Here’s the tale of the tape per Pro Football Focus for Oliver:
Oliver was the NFL’s second-best run-blocking tight end last year, recording a 74.0 PFF grade for the metric. The aforementioned Hockenson tallied a 58.2 score via the same category.
The Vikings will add more players this week in addition to the 6’5″ 250-pound San Jose State alumnus, probably on — you guessed it — defense.
Oliver’s uncle, Clancy Oliver, was an NFL cornerback in the 1960s and 1970s.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.