The end of the road is probably near for center Garrett Bradbury with the Minnesota Vikings.
One Viking Is on Borrowed Time
General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah signed center Ryan Kelly from the Indianapolis Colts on Monday, the start of NFL free agency, unofficially paving the off-ramp for Bradbury, whose career in Minnesota has spanned six seasons.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted, “The Vikings are expected to sign four-time Pro Bowl Colts standout C Ryan Kelly, per me and Tom Pelissero. A key veteran addition. He gets a 2-year, $18M deal.”
Unless Minnesota wants to become the deepest “center team” in the NFL — that would be weird — Adofo-Mensah will likely trade Bradbury or release him.
Cutting Bradbury would save Minnesota up to $5.2 million.
Some Vikings fans believed Bradbury would remain attached to the club in 2025. Head coach Kevin O’Connell dialed back iOL replacement theories at the NFL Combine a couple of weeks ago when a reporter asked him if he’d remain committed to replacing iOL players.
O’Connell replied: “The replace word, I don’t know if I would necessarily use that. It was more just an emphasis on how I believe we need to play, and we need to be able to have a level of execution and a level of physicality that holds up over 17 games.”
“Then, as we learned this year, after playing well in December, which was a goal of ours, we got to find a way to get back in the dance and put our best foot forward in January.”
But the Vikings did end up replacing players — two, in fact. Kelly and his Colts teammate, Will Fries, turned purple this week.
Bradbury has played in Minnesota since 2019, drafted from Round 1 by former general manager Rick Spielman in 2019. He’s not the best pass-blocking center imaginable, but he’s a decent commodity on the whole.
Meanwhile, the Vikings will presumably start quarterback J.J. McCarthy in 2025, a 22-year-old, and partnering him with Kelly is on the way.
Some have speculated that Bradbury could try on the offensive guard position for size, though that’s just a spitballed theory in March. Why would Bradbury turn into an efficient pass-blocker a few inches over in the trenches?
Minnesota, too, could trade Bradbury. A team like the Atlanta Falcons has bubbled to the surface because Bradbury’s college coach, Dwayne Ledford, now works in Atlanta as the offensive line boss. The Falcons lost center Drew Dalman to the Chicago Bears on Monday.
Bradbury will turn 30 this summer, and any would-be trade for his services would likely fetch a negligible late-round pick.
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 MIN 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.
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