The Vikings’ Controversial Cut Candidate
Best guess is that Dalton Risner is the Vikings’ starting left guard in Week 1. After all, that’s the position he held for the majority of 2023. Is that an ironclad certainty, though?
For a long time, it looked like Risner would head elsewhere. Plenty of guards got major money during the offseason and yet the veteran Viking was left to defend himself on social media, writing, “Just In case anyone was wondering… I’ve started 73 games over 5 years in the league… missing only 4 games due to injury… earning the starting spot amongst 3 different coaching staffs… I’ve never asked for a bag, simply just a starting guard contract.”
Not too long afterwards, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did a sitdown conversation with KFAN’s Paul Allen. Re-signing Risner came up and the GM was mostly evasive, giving a non-answer that allowed the conversation to keep proceeding into different topics.
Move forward by a couple months and things changed. On May 31st, Adofo-Mensah re-acquired Risner for just a single season and $2,410,000. Look under the hood and only $1,100,000 exists as guaranteed money. How secure is Risner’s roster spot?
The Vikings’ Dalton Risner and The Roster Spot
Minnesota has a chance at complete continuity.
If the desire is there, Minnesota can roll out this front five: Christian Darrisaw — Dalton Risner — Garrett Bradbury — Ed Ingram — Brian O’Neill. Not without flaw, no, but better than a lot of recent iterations of Minnesota’s o-line. The tackles are tremendous and it’s possible the interior o-line takes a step forward.
Risner did pretty well last season. Not vintage Quenton Nelson, but certainly a starting-level player.
The 6’5″, 312-pound lineman played 746 snaps for Minnesota’s offense. Along the way, Risner committed a trio of penalties. However, he didn’t allow a single sack, a testament to his pass blocking and an effort that doesn’t stop until the whistle. Genuinely, Risner plays with great energy, finishing off the play on an every-down basis.
He did, however, get dinged with allowing 11 hits and 30 pressures. So, not a perfect report card within Kevin O’Connell’s offense.
The main competition are Blake Brandel and Ed Ingram, a pair of players who could reasonably snag starting spots. After all, Brandel got brought back on a three-year deal for $9.5 million. Plus, OC Wes Phillips has discussed giving him a chance to be the starting left guard.
Ingram, meanwhile, has started at right guard since being acquired in the 2nd Round of the 2022 NFL Draft. His rookie season was a disaster but he showed off some good improvement as a sophomore. What’s in store for Year 3? Continued improvement will be very welcome since the ’22 draft class is less than inspiring.
Otherwise, the main competition is coming from Dan Feeney and Michael Jurgens. Upon first glance, Dalton Risner seems like an easy choice over those two, but they have something that Risner doesn’t: the ability to play center.
Someone needs to fill the Austin Schlottmann role — a backup at guard and center — and Feeney looks like the main option. In fact, Minnesota’s website lists Feeney as a “C/G,” underscoring the versatility that O’Connell values so much in his depth pieces.
Plus, cutting Feeney would actually lead to accepting more dead money while receiving less cap savings.
Meanwhile, Jurgens is someone who has been praised as a technician by the GM. Being a 7th-Round selection guarantees very little but he, too, can be either a left guard or a center, playing both in college. Even more appealing is that he has youth (and a cheap contract) on his side.
Add it all together and it’s not entirely impossible to see a scenario where Dalton Risner is either cut or traded. Unlikely? Yes, most certainly, but not something that should catch us totally off guard (no pun intended).
The contract took a long time to materialize and the total compensation is pretty modest. Minnesota, in short, didn’t feel hugely compelled to keep him, risking losing him as a free agent for a long time.
Risner turned 29 on July 13th.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.
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