The Vikings’ Top 3 Extension Candidates Going into the 2024 Regular Season
Mercifully, the Justin Jefferson extension issue was resolved during the summer. The WR1 will be in town for a little while longer. Even more impressive is that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah extended Christian Darrisaw, too. Doing so ensures that the offense has its pair of cornerstone players in town throughout the prime of their careers.
Look around the roster, though, and there are other candidates who seem likely to earn an extension.
The Vikings’ top 3 extension candidates all exist on the defensive side of the ball. Since taking over, Adofo-Mensah has put in a ton of work trying to overhaul the defense. At times, the GM has whiffed — Andrew Booth Jr., Ross Blacklock, Dean Lowry, etc. — but there are other players who have been onboarded who deserve to stick around. Consider the candidates.
The Vikings’ Top 3 Extension Candidates
Candidate #1 — Byron Murphy, Corner
Still only 26 even after five NFL seasons, Murphy has a several years of productive football ahead of him.
Brian Flores used the former Cardinal in creative ways last season, shifting Murphy around the defensive backfield. He picked up 596 snaps out wide and 214 in the slot, but then there were the 68 snaps in the box, 19 along the defensive line, and then 9 at free safety. Does Flores have more tricks up his sleeve with Murphy?
Across fourteen games, Mr. Murphy picked up 57 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 13 passes defended. 67.3% of passes into his coverage were completed, a number he’ll be looking to improve upon during the upcoming season.
In a perfect world, Murphy sticks around on a new deal that attaches him to Minnesota for at least two or three more years. Even better would be if he could get shifted over into a high-upside CB2 role. Maybe that can happen with Stephon Gilmore in town, but Minnesota needs a long-term CB1 who can be a menace along the boundary.
Candidate #2 — Harrison Phillips, Defensive Tackle
No one is going to mistake Horrible Harry for Aaron Donald. Neither will he get tossed into conversations alongside Chris Jones, Justin Madubuike, Dexter Lawrence, or Quinnen Williams. But, to be fair, that’s never really been the hope with Mr. Phillips.
Instead, the goal for Phillips is to be a disruptive defender who specializes in making life difficult for running backs. Last season, the 28-year-old put up career highs in both tackles (92) and sacks (3). He did so while operating within a defensive line that lacked high-end talent.
Phillips thinks the game at a high level and he’s an excellent teammate (which is to say nothing of his work in the community). His ability to elevate his play from within the Brian Flores scheme is commendable. In short, he’s well-suited for the rough-and-tumble position — defensive tackle — that’s so often overlooked.
He has a cap charge sitting at $8,833,334. His strong play and the team’s ultra-thin DT spot suggests an extension makes the most sense. DTs can somewhat regularly offer productive play well into their 30s, so keeping him around for a little while longer makes sense.
The caveat: the more time goes, the more a shift down to DT2 or even DT3 would make sense. The Vikings must find a penetrating defensive tackle at some point.
Candidate #3 — Camryn Bynum, Safety
Last season, Camryn Bynum piled up a whopping 137 tackles to go alongside his 2 interceptions and 9 passes defended. More impressive is that his touchdowns allowed dipped from 8 to 3 and that the average completion yardage into his coverage went from 16.5 to 10.0.
Part of the difficulty for Mr. Bynum is that his counterpart — Josh Metellus — is commanding such a small salary. Extended for a pair of seasons at just $8 million, Metellus is already underpaid (a recent Ben Goessling cluster of tweets explained that void years have been added to the safety’s deal, potentially prefiguring an extension).
Bynum seems very unlikely to dip down to such a modest number, so Adofo-Mensah may need to find a solution that involves paying both safeties.
A college corner and NFL safety, Camryn Bynum has proven to be an invaluable part of the defense. Maybe the only thing working against him is the depth that exists in the safety room. There’s a lot of optimism about what Theo Jackson brings to the table and Jay Ward offers the versatility that’s so coveted in the Twin Cities. I’m not saying it’s likely, I’m just saying that a trade wouldn’t be altogether shocking if there’s no extension.
Bynum is 26.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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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 and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.