Bleacher Report Predicts Vikings’ Main Roster Cut
The Minnesota Vikings’ offseason is here, and soon, the team will sign new free agents, extend players’ contracts, and onboard a fancy new draft class.
Bleacher Report Predicts Vikings’ Main Roster Cut
The franchise will also prune the roster a bit, as every offseason involves cuts to the depth chart.
And according to Bleacher Report, Minnesota’s top roster-cut candidate is tight end Josh Oliver.
BR’s collective staff wrote this week, “This signing was a bit of a head-scratcher when it happened, and it’s likely to be re-evaluated in the spring. The Vikings signed Josh Oliver to a three-year, $21 million contract in 2023, and the final year is set to be the most expensive. Oliver is a good blocking tight end, but paying him just under $10 million is a questionable value when he only played 56 percent of the offensive snaps in 2024.”
The move in 2023 was, indeed, confusing because the Vikings had recently acquired tight end T.J. Hockenson. Spending big bucks on two tight ends came out of the left field.
To Oliver’s credit, however, he’s one of the best blocking tight ends in all the land.
“The Vikings will already be paying T.J. Hockenson $16.9 million next season. Giving that much money to a second tight end is a difficult pill to swallow, and cutting Oliver would free up $5.1 million,” BR added.
Releasing Oliver this offseason cannot be ruled out, especially after June 1st, when the dead cap bill would only sock Minnesota for about $1.4 million in 2025. In addition to Hockenson and Oliver, tight ends Johnny Mundt and Nick Muse are in the purple team’s roster orbit, though both are scheduled to test free agency if general manager Kweis Adofo-Mensah doesn’t re-up their deals in the next seven weeks.
BR also name-dropped linebacker Brian Asamoah as a cut casualty, “Time is running out for Brian Asamoah to really pay off as a third-round investment. There was a clear path to playing time at linebacker when the Vikings drafted him and he still hasn’t really claimed a role on the defense three years later.”
Minnesota has around $60 million in available cap space to spend on in-house free agents and newcomers on the open market. Half the roster is tentatively on track to test free agency, so the $60 million will evaporate quickly if Adofo-Mensah re-signs “his guys.”
Oliver, 27, caught 22 passes for 258 yards and 3 touchdowns in 2024 and oddly got hot the moment Hockenson returned to the starting lineup from a torn ACL recovery.
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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