One Viking’s Pending Free Agency is a Mystery
One Viking appears ready for a major raise.
Fourth-year edge rusher Patrick Jones II is having a career year. Last season, Jones largely struggled in the transition to the Brian Flores defense, finishing his season with a single, lonely sack. Across the opening seven games of 2024, however, Jones looks like a new player. Already, he is sitting on a career high with 5 sacks. How much will be get paid in the offseason?
Vikings Edge Rusher Patrick Jones
Part of the issue in Minnesota is that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah invested heavily in the position during this past offseason.
Jonathan Greenard has been having a wonderful season. He’s operating within the first season of his four-year agreement that’s tipping the scales at $76 million. What is a $5,740,000 cap charge in 2024 is going to balloon to $22,300,000 in 2025. No doubt, it’s a dramatic jump.
So, too, will Andrew Van Ginkel see his cap charge increase.
The stud outside linebacker is playing football at an elite level, proving himself to be the ideal chess piece for Brian Flores’ defensive front. The $3,400,000 cap charge in 2024 is going to swell to $12,400,000. Again, quite a bit larger.
And then there’s the presence of Dallas Turner, someone who is going to have a manageable cap charge due to his rookie contract.
Turner’s cap hit goes from $2,866,702 to $3,583,378. The issue isn’t a dramatic increase in the budget but, rather, the need to give the young fella more snaps. At some point, the No. 17 pick is going to (ideally) prove himself worthy of plenty of playing time, making the return of Patrick Jones even trickier.
With all of that being said, the point: a new deal with the Minnesota Vikings is far from a sure thing.
In fact, one could argue that it’s likelier he’ll be heading elsewhere once free agency gets underway. But, in fairness, some (such as yours truly) picked him as a cut candidate coming into the season, so he has a track record of proving people wrong.
Picked at No. 90 in the 2021 NFL Draft, Jones arrived in Minnesota with some reasonably large expectations. After all, Minnesota has had some impressive success of turning mid-round edge rushers — Danielle Hunter (No. 88, 3rd Round), Everson Griffen (No. 100, 4th Round), Brian Robison (No. 102, 4th Round) — into success stories. Would Jones follow?
His sophomore season offered some reason for optimism. Operating as a backup, Jones snagged 4 sacks and 8 TFLs in the largely overwhelmed Ed Donatell defense. Keep in mind that he was playing behind Hunter and Za’Darius Smith at the time, so he was constrained to just 306 defensive snaps. Plus, there was D.J. Wonnum to contend with, so Jones was down in the EDGE4 role.
Working for Flores in 2023 didn’t lead to flourishing, though. His snaps more than doubled, going from 306 to 635. Even still, his numbers took a good step back, such as his sacks dropping from 4 to 1 and his TFLs going from 8 to 5.
The fine folks at PFF largely corroborated the basic stats and eye test, suggesting that Jones’ play dropped precipitously; his grade went from 65.6 in 2022 down to 37.5 in 2023.
Minnesota will have the financial freedom to bring him back if they so desire. The budget looks ample in 2025 and moving forward, so prioritizing Patrick Jones isn’t an impossibility. The question at this stage rests in how high his stats go and how large his impact becomes. From there, the next question will rest in how large of a deal he can command.
Keep an eye on Jones as the season continues to unfold. His play alongside his impending contract situation is an underrated storyline for the Vikings.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
The Easy-to-Fix Vikings Problem from Week 7
K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.