4 Free Agents for Vikings to Explore in 2025: An Early Peek
The Minnesota Vikings have one regular season game remaining, and the playoffs are around the bend.
4 Free Agents for Vikings to Explore in 2025: An Early Peek
Folks are very much invested in the current season, as one should when the club owns a 14-2 record.
But no matter what, the offseason will arrive in the next month or so, and Minnesota should pursue these four players (or at least some). They’re ranked in ascending order (No. 1 = best free agent to pursue).
4. Amari Cooper (WR)
Cooper will be 31 by the time 2025 rolls around, and he’ll probably know his role as a high-end WR3 at this age.
Minnesota has a decent WR3 in Jalen Nailor, but Nailor might be best served as a WR4.
Cooper is scheduled to hit free agency and won’t utterly break the bank. The Vikings should dangle a decent contract for him to finish his sweet career in purple. As recently as 2023, Cooper tallied 1,250 yards in a single season.
3. Charvarius Ward (CB)
Ward experienced a quiet season in 2024 by his usually lofty standards, which may have driven his price tag down.
Still, not too many proven veteran cornerbacks will hit the open market, and if Minnesota wants a battle-tested option, it’s Ward (if not the last guy on this list).
Before 2024, Reed routinely produced 80.0+ PFF seasons and acted as one of the NFL’s top defensive backs. The man was 2nd-Team All-Pro and a Pro Bowler in 2023.
2. Jevon Holland (S)
Jevon Holland might be the best safety in the NFL, and he’ll somehow hit free agency in 2.5 months.
Right now, Minnesota doesn’t need any safeties — it has Harrison Smith, Camryn Bynum, and Josh Metellus. But Smith could realistically retire, and Bynum is a free agent who is not guaranteed to return.
Thereafter, in that scenario, the Vikings would need a new starting safety and defensive coordinator Brian Flores has ties to Holland from the 2021 Dolphins draft and season.
1. D.J. Reed (CB)
Reed told Go Long’s Tyler Dunne this week, “I’m ready to go to free agency, bro. I’m ready to see what’s next for me.”
That sounds like a man ready to leave, and Minnesota needs a cornerback.
Reed habitually produces seasons with PFF scores north of 70.0 and 75.0. Minnesota can afford him, and he should be the primary free-agent target.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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