Vikings Players Who Clearly Won the Offseason
The Minnesota Vikings’ offseason began the moment they clumsily lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the 2024 postseason’s Wildcard Round.
These Minnesota Vikings players emerged as clear offseason victors, making strong impressions and boosting their stock ahead of the 2025 NFL campaign.
The club got to work, spending oodles of free-agent cash on newcomers like Jonathan Allen, Will Fries, Javon Hargrave, and Ryan Kelly, among others, and onboarded an impressive draft class six weeks later.
Along the way, existing players on the roster clearly won the offseason, securing a firm roster spot or enhanced standing on the team. These are those players ranked ascendingly (No. 1 = top offseason winner).
Vikings Players Who Came Out on Top This Offseason
Meet the purple players who ended up looking pretty spiffy in the last six months.
3. Andrew Van Ginkel | OLB
There was no buzz whatsoever for an Andrew Van Ginkel contract extension back in February and March. He signed a two-year deal in March 2024, one that was quite team-friendly.
Then, Van Ginkel exploded for the Vikings, earning his first trip to the Pro Bowl and generally helping the Vikings’ defense ranks second in the NFL per EPA/Play.
Out of nowhere, Minnesota handed Van Ginkel a $23 million contract extension in April, attaching him to the roster through the end of 2026. The 30-year-old got paid and then some, and he may not have even asked for it, at least not this soon.
The Viking Age‘s Brad Berreman wrote about Van Ginkel earlier this offseason, “Van Ginkel was a top-35 edge rusher by overall PFF defensive grade last season, with the sixth-best grade coverage grade at the position (81.0). He returned both of his interceptions for touchdowns, but his pick-six off Aaron Rodgers in London was especially good in every aspect.”
“PFF recently released their ranking of the top-32 edge rushers in the NFL entering the 2025 season. Two Vikings, Van Ginkel and fellow 2024 free agent signing Jonathan Greenard, made the list, with Greenard coming in at No. 15 and Van Ginkel two spots after that.”
The former Dolphin turned 30 this offseason but has shown zero signs of slowing down. He’s actually sped up.
Berreman added, “There are certainly some (if not a lot of) starting off-the-ball linebackers around the league who didn’t drop into coverage over 200 times last season. Van Ginkel did it as an edge rusher, and he was very effective in coverage while also tallying 11.5 sacks.”
“Flores’s highly variable and aggressive defensive scheme puts a premium on players who can do a lot of things well. Van Ginkel was a poster boy for that last season–a top-notch edge rusher and a top-notch coverage linebacker rolled into one player.”
2. Theo Jackson | S
Minnesota lost one major starter during the offseason who fans probably wanted to keep: Camryn Bynum.
Bynum chose the Indianapolis Colts as his next employer, lured to the AFC South by $60 million over the next four years. So, what did Minnesota do? Sign Jevon Holland? Sign Talanoa Hufanga? Nope.
It promoted Theo Jackson, an unsung reserve player who has bided his time for this moment since 2022. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah could also have drafted Georgia’s Malaki Starks or South Carolina’s Nick Emmanwori, two premier rookie safeties.
But he didn’t. He signed Jackson to a team-friendly deal and called it good. Jackson won the offseason because of his rags-to-riches story. He went from a practice squader to a starting safety for the Vikings, whose 2025 production gives him an inside track to Harrison Smith’s eventual replacement.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell said about Jackson last month, “I always called Jonathan Greenard the closer, but when he made that play to end practice the other day, people were coming up to me, saying that Theo had already had that nickname, so I gotta find a new one for Greenard, I guess.”
“Since we acquired him, he’s always kind of been an ascending player.”
1. J.J. McCarthy | QB
“The Viking way” is to always have a fantastic backup quarterback so that guy can come in and save the day. As Democrat voters like to “fall in love” with their presidential nominee, Vikings fans want to “fall in love” with the QB2. It’s just the way you do things.
So when Adofo-Mensah did not re-sign Sam Darnold or Daniel Jones, and he didn’t take the bait with Aaron Rodgers’ one-year proposal, it showed all the confidence in the world in McCarthy.
Sam Howell is a respectable QB2, but he’s just below the reputational cut-off where the Vikings didn’t have to host a QB1 battle this summer. This offseason, Minnesota handed the QB1 baton to McCarthy after he missed his rookie season with a torn meniscus.
McCarthy is the Vikings’ almighty offseason winner. By a mile.
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