Questions Answered: Worst Offseason Addition, The Vikings’ Top 3 Players, Nabers Galore
The following questions are about current Minnesota Vikings topics, answered by VikingsTerritory. Today is the May 28th edition, addressed in a from-the-hip fashion. If you have questions, please email them to [email protected].
Questions Answered: Worst Offseason Addition, The Vikings’ Top 3 Players, Nabers Galore
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: In your estimation, what was the Vikings’ worst offseason move?
Answer: Not signing a top-tier defensive tackle in free agency — and then landing on Jerry Tillery as the proposed solution.
Tillery actually played quite well in 2023 for the Las Vegas Raiders — a 67.7 Pro Football Focus grade — but we held out [irrational] hope that the club would sign Christian Wilkins, or more realistically, Arik Armstead, who was relatively affordable.
Since Shariff Floyd didn’t pan out due to injury a decade ago, the Vikings have notoriously skimped at the three-technique defensive tackle position. We hoped they would end the drought during free agency, but they did not.
Tillery may do good things, but it feels like another half-measured solution amid a decade of similar fixes.
Q: Rank the Vikings’ top 3 players heading into 2024.
Answer: 1) Justin Jefferson 2) Christian Darrisaw 3) Aaron Jones
We’d toss T.J. Hockenson on here at No. 3 instead of Jones, but Hockenson will probably miss the start of the 2024 season, so Jones gets No. 3 by tiebreaker.
On the outside looking in, players like Jonathan Greenard, Brian O’Neill, and Ivan Pace Jr. can reasonably nibble at No. 3 with productive 2024 seasons. Per lifetime achievement, O’Neill might even have a case for No. 3.
It’s worth noting that this list has fundamentally changed since last year — Danielle Hunter and Kirk Cousins now play elsewhere.
Q: Do you believe any of this stuff that suggests Minnesota almost traded for Malik Nabers?
A: No.
According to the Pioneer Press, Minnesota was in the mix for Malik Nabers during the draft. “Pssst. There was buzz at draft time that the Vikings wanted to move from No. 11 to No. 5, not to pick a quarterback but to get LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers, who was picked No. 6 by the Giants. Had that trade occurred, Jefferson would have been traded and Nabers would have been the No. 1 receiver,” Charley Walters wrote last weekend.
The problem with recent Nabers theory is this word choice: “There was buzz at draft time …”
Buzz. One can get away with virtually anything when buzz is attached as the source. And in all likelihood, the buzz is a Pro Football Talk nugget, so the Pioneer Press is merely re-advancing an idea from one month ago.
Minnesota needed a quarterback in the draft — above all else — and getting cute with a Nabers draft pick just doesn’t add up. Justin Jefferson is a tried-and-true asset, and Nabers is a maybe for future production.
Put simply, we don’t buy the Nabers-to-Vikings draft theories.
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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