5 NFL Free Agents for Vikings Fans to Watch in the Divisional Round of the Playoffs
In the Wild Card Round, the Vikings played horrendous football. Accordingly, Minnesota is now looking ahead to the official beginning of the 2025 offseason.
The beginning of NFL free agency occurs on March 10th when legal tampering takes flight. On March 12th, teams can officially put pen to paper with players coming from outside of the organization. Who could the Vikings be targeting? The NFL’s Divisional Round contains several notable names. Shout out to PFF for the list of top free agents.
5 NFL Free Agents for the Vikings in the Divisional Round
1) Trey Smith, Guard, Kansas City Chiefs
Getting better play at guard feels like a must for Minnesota (as Kevin O’Connell has discussed). Smith comes in at 2nd overall in the PFF FA rankings, a position that helps to point toward his on-field excellence.
Consider some of the risk, though: “The complicated element when projecting a contract for Smith is the reason he fell to the end of the sixth round in the 2021 NFL Draft: He was diagnosed with blood clots in his lungs. On the field, he is every bit of a prized free agent. Factoring in his health is the key question.”
Smith stands at 6’6″ and weighs more than 320 pounds. He has cleared 1,000 snaps in every season in the NFL.
2) Kevin Zeitler, Guard, Detroit Lions
Onboarding Zeitler would have the double benefit of weakening the Lions while fortifying the Vikings. Not bad, right?
True, he’s a bit older — he’ll be 35 in March — but is still capable of playing strong football. PFF argues that he “could be a cheap yet effective guard option on the open market.” Minnesota is desperate for a sturdier iOL, so the option is worth considering, especially if the price is right.
3) Milton Williams, Defensive Tackle, Philadelphia Eagles
In a different piece, PFF argues that Philly’s Milton Williams makes sense for the Vikings.
“With $75 million to spend this offseason,” Bradley Locker writes, “Minnesota should go big along its defensive interior. Williams turned in a career season in 2024, producing 40 pressures, a 90.4 PFF pass-rush grade and a 17.7% pass-rush win rate — good for third among qualifying defensive linemen.”
Hard to argue. Getting some penetration from the iDL would represent a huge boost for Brian Flores’ defense.
4) Levi Onwuzurike, Defensive Tackle, Detroit Lions
The Vikings have a pretty strong track record of signing free agent defensive tackles. Think Linval Joseph, Dalvin Tomlinson, and Harrison Phillips (among others). Picking up a penetrating 3T would be a nice boost to the DT spot, to say the least.
Standing at 6’3″ and weighing 290 pounds, Onwuzurike would fill a major need in Minnesota. PFF is high on him: “The former second-round pick out of Washington is the penetrating three-technique interior pass-rusher that every team covets, with his 11.2% pass-rush win rate in 2024 ranking as a top-25 mark at the position.”
He had just 1.5 sacks last season but did collect 13 QB hits. Playing time, or lack thereof, is a concern.
5) Rasul Douglas, Corner, Buffalo
Rasul Douglas is a bit older, turning 30 before the 2025 regular season begins (August 29th). Nevertheless, he’s accumulated a lot of experience over the years and offers great size at 6’2″, 209.
Even better, Douglas is a playmaker: “Heading into this season, he had recorded at least seven pass breakups in six of his seven NFL seasons and notched four or more interceptions in each of the past three seasons.”
Coming off of a bit of a down year could work in Minnesota’s favor. Any chance Kwesi Adofo-Mensah follows the pattern from last offseason by bringing in a veteran corner for a single-season prove-it deal?
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and PFF 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, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.