One Vikings Player Has Seen a Certain Role Completely Vanish
Throughout his career, Josh Metellus has become known as a Swiss Army knife for the Minnesota Vikings.
While he has been formally dubbed as a safety, Metellus oftentimes has lined up all over the field for Minnesota from free safety all the way to defensive line.
However, the do-it-all player has seen that status start to disappear throughout the early portions of 2025.
Josh Metellus Losing His Swiss Army Knife Status with 2025 Vikings
Metellus began his NFL career mainly as a special teams player for the Vikings. From 2020-2022, he played 262, 298, and 381 snaps on special teams, respectively. During his rookie season in 2020, he was named the Vikings’ Special Teams Player of the Year.
Even in 2023 and 2024 when he became a starter on Minnesota’s defense, he still compiled 194 and 210 snaps on special teams while also playing 1065 and 984 snaps on defense.
So far in 2025, though, that role has been almost nonexistent for Metellus. Through five games, he has totaled just four snaps on special teams. He played two snaps in punt coverage during Minnesota’s Week 1 game against the Chicago Bears, and he played two snaps with the punt return team in Week 5 against the Cleveland Browns.
Of course, there could various reasons behind this. For one, the Vikings’ special teams unit has been very good so far this year, so there hasn’t been much of a need for Metellus there. However, it doesn’t stop there.
The departure of Camryn Bynum in free agency left a void at the free safety position that needed to be filled by somebody, and Harrison Smith’s absence for the first two games this season further amplified that need.
So far, it’s been a combination of Metellus and Theo Jackson filling that role. Metellus has played 139 snaps at free safety while Jackson has played 277 snaps there. Those 139 snaps at free safety for Metellus are just 11 below his career high for a full season when he played 150 snaps there during 2022 when he replaced Smith for three games in the starting lineup.
This need at safety has also impacted Metellus’ availability to line up in other areas. In 2023, Metellus played 72.7% of his snaps either in the box or in the slot. In 2024, the percentage jumped to 81.7%.
In 2025, Metellus’ snaps in the box or the slot have plummeted to 44.6%. With Bynum gone and Smith a limited participant in the defense at age-36, this may just be the new reality for the Vikings’ once do-it-all player.
Still, it’s not a bad one as the safety has been one of the more productive players on Minnesota’s defense, grading out as PFF’s 15th best safety among 76 to play at least 150 defensive snaps.
Perhaps Metellus’ do-it-all role comes back at some point, but if not, Minnesota has found itself in good hands with the former sixth-round pick.
Editor’s Note: Statistics for this article were found via Pro Football Focus.
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