The Sweet Difference for Vikings Fans in This Year’s Offseason
It’s June, and that’s the part of the year when the players get together for a couple of practice sessions each week, preparing for the upcoming season. The pace will pick up in training camp in July and August and include a joint practice with the Patriots and three preseason games.
This Offseason Is Different for Vikings Fans
At this time of the year, Vikings fans usually look at the roster and the free agents and try to match the best available players with the roster holes.
In the past, the guard spots were identified as concerns, and fans were starting to beg for one or two big-name free agents to sign with the club. We can just check free agency, and three names that pop up were past items on Skol Nation’s wishlist in Brandon Scherff, Dalton Risner, and Will Hernendez.
Risner, of course, is an old friend, and fans were vocal about their wishes to bring him to the Twin Cities in each of the last two years. He ended up in purple twice and became a starter for the team a few weeks after about half a season on the sidelines.
Hernandez was a popular draft candidate in 2018. The Vikings instead selected cornerback Mike Hughes 30th overall. The guard went 34th to the New York Giants, and Minnesota’s guard problems remained.
Scherff was once one of the premier guards in football, and after years of subpar guard play, fans were willing to throw upper-tier money at him in the 2022 free agency period.
This time, however, the roster doesn’t have that weakness anymore, and it’s quite strange to sit there in June and have solidified guards instead of imploring the franchise to address the issue, just to end up with Garrett Bradbury flanked by underwhelming guards once again.
Risner once again left without a new deal and is back to flirting with fans of guard-needy organizations on social media. Fellow guard Ed Ingram was sent to Houston for a sixth-round pick, which was rerouted to San Francisco for Jordan Mason.
Only Blake Brandel remains from last year, but he has been demoted, or is at the very least expected to be sooner rather than later.
The Vikings acquired not only one but two high-profile guards. One has NFL experience, and the other one doesn’t. One arrived in free agency and the other in the draft. Donovan Jackson and Will Fries are envisioned to play next to the center in the next few years. Both are under team control for five seasons.
Fries signed a five-year deal worth $88 million in free agency. It is a risky bet to some extent for the Vikings because he was an average starter for a couple of years, followed by an elite start in 2024. Unfortunately, his season was cut short by a fractured tibia.
Jackson, meanwhile, was picked 24th overall to complete the interior offensive line overhaul that also included Fries’ former teammate Ryan Kelly. The former Ohio State guard played tackle to end his college career, but his place in the NFL is on the inside, hopefully right next to Christian Darrisaw for half a decade or more.
Strangely, we do not need to write articles about the available free-agent guards this year.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.
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