The Revamped Strengths of the Vikings Roster
It won’t be long until the Minnesota Vikings are on your living room television screens, venturing into the J.J. McCarthy era at quarterback.
The Vikings used free agency and the draft to get better in the last couple of months, and these spots improved the most.
It’s a brand new day for the purple team, embarking on a dealings with a young quarterback for the first time in 10 years when Teddy Bridgewater gave it a whirl.
And with free agency and the draft in the rearview, here’s where the roster improved the most, with No. 1 representing the most improvement.
5. Wide Receiver
Notable New Additions:
Rondale Moore
Tai Felton
Tim Jones
Silas Bolden
The Vikings shocked fans by drafting Felton from Round 3 three weeks ago, the team’s second pick of the event. And before that, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah signed Rondale Moore, a former 2nd-Round pick by the Arizona Cardinals in 2021.
Minnesota injected speed into the wide receiver room, especially with Felton, Moore, and Bolden.
And that’s on top of Jalen Nailor at WR3, whose nickname as is — is Speedy.
4. Running Back
Notable New Additions:
Jordan Mason
Tre Stewart
Most predicted the Vikings would land a new running back, but the consensus suggested a fresh rookie from the draft. No cigar.
Instead, Adofo-Mensah shipped a 6th-Round draft pick to the San Francisco 49ers for Jordan Mason, a pick he had obtained from trading offensive lineman Ed Ingram to the Houston Texans. The Vikings essentially swapped Ingram for Mason.
Stewart is an undrafted free agent wildcard who may or may not be any good.
But Mason, on the whole, was the prize. He filled in wonderfully for Christian McCaffrey in 2024.
PurplePTSD‘s Brevan Bane opined on Mason last month: “Jordan Mason isn’t a conventional ‘power back,’ but he does up the ante in terms of physicality in the Vikings running back room. Per NFL Pro’s Next Gen Stats, Mason led the NFL in Forced Missed Tackle Rate at 37.1%, meaning one out of every three tackle attempts on him was met with denial. Mason also led the NFL in Weeks 1-8 (while Christian McCaffrey was out) in total broken tackles with 51.”
“Furthermore, Mason brings a legitimate rushing threat against stacked boxes. Per NFL Pro, Jordan Mason faced stacked boxes on 33.3% of his rushing attempts, the most frequent rate in the NFL in 2024, and .01% more than Derrick Henry at 33.2%.”
Mason is in the prime of his career at 25 years old.
Bane added, “As the Vikings’ most frequent rusher last season, Aaron Jones saw stacked boxes only 18.4% of the time — the 26th most frequent in the NFL in 2024. This is huge because Mason’s numbers would’ve been even more impressive if he wasn’t facing stacked boxes all the time, and he will see less in Minnesota, considering opposing defenses have all of the Vikings’ other threats to worry about downfield.”
“One of the things Jones and Mason shared in common in 2024 on their respective teams was the frequency of their rushing attempts from under-center offensive formations. A whopping 82.7% of Jones’ rushing attempts came when the QB began the snap under-center, which led the league. Jordan Mason took rushes from under-center formations 73.9% of the time, 5th in the league.”
3. Center
Notable New Additions:
Ryan Kelly
The Garrett Bradbury experiment formally ended in March when Adofo-Mensah signed four-time Pro Bowler Ryan Kelly from the Indianapolis Colts. Kelly was a bit old, 31, for Adofo-Mensah’s typical modus operandi in free agency, so many fans crossed him off their wishlists early in the offseason.
Yet, contending for a Super Bowl as early as now, Minnesota signed Kelly nonetheless, let Bradbury bolt for the New England Patriots, and suddenly, the center spot is in great shape.
2. Defensive Tackle
Notable New Additions:
Jonathan Allen
Javon Hargrave
Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins
The days of DT mediocrity fell by the wayside on March 11th. Adofo-Mensah signed not one, but two, defensive tackles in Allen and Hargrave from free agency, modeling the defensive trenches after the Philadelphia Eagles, a club that won the Super Bowl in February because of a supreme defensive line.
To top it off, the Vikings chose Ingram-Dawkins in Round 5 three weeks ago, so new blood at DT flowed all over the place.
1. Guard
Notable New Additions:
Will Fries
Donovan Jackson
Offensive guard takes the top spot on the list for two reasons: a) Fries and Jackson are younger than Allen and Hargrave b) The combo and upside of Fries and Jackson might be a tad better than Allen and Hargrave.
Minnesota offloaded Ed Ingram and Dalton Risner in favor of Fries and Jackson. Blake Brandel remains on the roster, probably as the primary reserve guard.
The Vikings’ days of half-buttocks offensive guard repairs are over. They signed the top guard on the market and used Round 1 capital on a guard for the first time in 37 years. That’s good enough for No. 1 per roster revamps.
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