Now More than Ever, Vikings Appear to be a Prime Landing Spot for Stud Defender
Milton Williams can add a Super Bowl ring to his impressive 2024 season, one that’s going to culminate in the stud defender receiving a large contract in the offseason.
Already, the Eagles’ defensive tackle has been connected to the Vikings. The issue has been discussed several times on PurplePTSD (Exhibit A & Exhibit B) in response to the work from PFF (Exhibit A & Exhibit B). What’s the appeal? Why the connection to the Vikings?
Vikings Appear to be a Landing Spot for Milton Williams
Start off with some of the basics.
Mr. Williams was drafted No. 73 overall back in the 2021 NFL Draft. He has since played four seasons for the Eagles, proving to be an adept pass rusher as a defensive tackle who comes in at 6’3″ and 290 pounds. The most recent season involved snagging 24 tackles, 5 sacks, 10 QB hits, 7 tackles for loss, 1 pass defended, 1 forced fumble, and 1 fumble recovery. He picked up these stats while playing 501 snaps, just 48% of the total for the defense.
In the Super Bowl, Williams snagged 4 tackles and 2 sacks. In a more general sense, Williams was part of a defensive line that was perhaps the main reason why Kansas City failed to make it three Super Bowl triumphs in a row.
One of Minnesota’s main roster needs rests at defensive tackle. DT1 Harrison Phillips is in town to shut down the run, something he does with great regularity. Otherwise, there are young DTs in Taki Taimani, Jalen Redmond, and Levi Drake Rodriguez. These guys, quite possibly, could prove to be part of the solution at defensive tackle, but they still need to prove capable of doing so.
Williams, in contrast, has shown that he can operate at a high level, especially when it comes to getting after the quarterback. Still only 25 (he’ll turn 26 in April), Williams showed off impressive strength and athleticism moving into the draft by running a 4.67 forty while tossing up 34 reps on the bench press. He has been able to take his physical abilities and translate them into becoming an excellent player for the Eagles.
PFF has been impressed with what he’s been capable of doing. Bradley Locker writes that the Vikings “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.”
Not to be outdone, Mason Cameron offers his assessment: “Williams made great strides as a pass-rusher in 2024, earning the second-highest PFF pass-rush grade (90.4) among interior defenders and recording top-five marks in win rate (17.2%), pressure rate (14.6%) and pass-rush productivity rating (8.3) during the regular season […] Brian Flores is known for his aggressive blitz packages but tends to find pressure without blitzing, having ranked 28th in total pressures (144) without the blitz. Williams would fit well in Flores’ scheme at 5-technique, where the Vikings‘ highest-graded pass-rusher failed to eclipse a 65.0 PFF pass-rush grade.”
Currently, Minnesota is working with roughly $58 million in cap space. Adding Williams to the defensive front would seem to be the final piece of the puzzle given the presence of high-end options at edge rusher and off-ball linebacker.
Free agency gets going on Monday, March 10th with legal tampering. The real thing — being able to officially sign players to contracts — will occur on Wednesday, March 12th.
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, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.