Questions Answered: Vikings’ Spending Spree, Marshon Lattimore, The Jordan Addison Naysayers
The following questions are about current Minnesota Vikings topics, answered by VikingsTerritory. Today is the July 9th edition, addressed in a from-the-hip fashion. If you have questions, please email them to [email protected].
Questions Answered: Vikings’ Spending Spree, Marshon Lattimore, The Jordan Addison Naysayers
Also, please note: These are opinion-based responses. Some answers will be incorrect from time to time. But we’ll try to keep that to a minimum.
Q: Because the Vikings still have $26 million in cap space, do you expect them to go on some kind of a spending spree before the end of summer?
Answer: No.
The free-agent market is pretty much picked over. We’re four months after the start date of legal tampering. If Minnesota signs any players — in addition to Cam Akers, who most believe will make a deal official with the Vikings soon — it will probably be a cornerback like Stephon Gilmore or Xavien Howard.
Both veteran corners have ties to Brian Flores from the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins days. And after last weekend’s unthinkable tragedy, Minnesota might need another cornerback, at least when it’s appropriate to think about football again in that respect.
Otherwise, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah will roll over the 2024 cap space into 2025. That’s not a bad thing.
Q: Do you think there’s anything to the trade rumors involving New Orleans Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore?
Answer: Unfortunately not. That was just an idea from Bleacher Report.
BR published four high-profile trade ideas last weekend, and Minnesota was included with a swap of draft picks for Lattimore. The price for Lattimore according to Bleacher Report? A 2026 3rd-Round pick and a 2025 5th-Rounder.
For now, Minnesota has Byron Murphy, Shaquill Griffin, Mekhi Blackmon, Akayleb Evans, and Andrew Booth on tap to vie for playing time in 2024. A Lattimore trade would assuredly plop into the CB1 role, with the others fighting for CB2 and CB3.
The only knock on Lattimore is injury. He’s missed 50% of all games in the last two seasons. On the whole, however, he’s a four-time Pro Bowler.
We don’t believe this one will happen for one main reason — Minnesota doesn’t have much draft capital to trade after sending assets elsewhere for the pick that landed Dallas Turner a few months ago.
Q: Can Jordan Addison outdo his rookie season, or will he have a sophomore slump like some are speculating?
A: We don’t envision a sophomore slump for Addison.
Perhaps if T.J. Hockenson was healthy and/or the Vikings had a high-profile WR3, a quasi-slump would make sense. Some pundits — especially fantasy football heads — are low on Addison because Kirk Cousins skipped town.
Still, whether the football is coming from the fingers of Sam Darnold, J.J. McCarthy, or Nick Mullens, it has to go somewhere. Suggesting Addison might encounter a slump would mean that Justin Jefferson catches all Vikings passes — and then that’s just it. Nobody else. Just Jefferson.
We’re not buying it. Minnesota will find some quarterback from its current foursome to feed Jefferson and Addison on Sundays.
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 MIN obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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