Vikings Have a Strange Cut Candidate
As the free agency period approaches, the Vikings are looking forward to perhaps parting ways with a player or two who haven’t lived up to their contracts. If you’d ask Skol Nation, fans would name guys like Ed Ingram or Garrett Bradbury as goodbye candidates.
Vikings Have a Strange Cut Candidate
In the last few years, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah wasn’t shy of forcing some roster turnover. However, cutting beloved long-time Vikings like Eric Kendricks, Adam Thielen, and Dalvin Cook was mainly viewed as the right decision due to the age-related decline and significant salaries.
Someone who fits neither reason to be put on the chopping block is safety Joshua Metellus, a staple of the Brian Flores defense and surely a veteran who is an annual Pro Bowl candidate, although he has not drawn a nomination yet.
Still, Metellus was included when Over The Cap released a league-wide list of 100 cut candidates last month.
Financially, cutting Metellus makes sense. His 2025 salary is not guaranteed, and the Vikings could save $6,375,000 in cap space by releasing him. But everyone who’s watched a game of Vikings football in the last two years knows that he is worth much more than that.
Metellus arrived in the Twin Cities in the 2020 draft. The sixth-rounder out of the University of Michigan was waived after his first training camp. Instead of the 53-man roster, Metellus was stashed on the practice squad.
That was the opportunity for other teams to poach him, but the Vikes got lucky and promoted him to the active roster a couple of weeks into his first NFL season.
Since then, he has remained on the team, playing 15 games as a rookie, 16 in his second campaign in 2021, and all 17 games in each of the last three years. In 82 games, Metellus logged four interceptions, made 283 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and forced five fumbles.
Flores’s arrival in the 2023 offseason changed the script for the defender. Metellus had primarily been used on special teams. He didn’t start a game as a rookie or sophomore and made three starts in 2022 when Harrison Smith needed some time off.
In that year, he recorded 258 defensive snaps after playing 70 in the first two seasons combined. Still, he brought some value as a backup and was an outstanding special teamer.
Under Flores, however, Metellus was suddenly more than a special teamer and backup. The coach looked at his roster, saw his talent, and adjusted his scheme to give him more snaps. Those more snaps resulted in 1,065 in 2023 and 991 in 2024, playing 94% and 87% of all defensive snaps.
His versatility made it possible. Metellus can play as a true safety; he can line up as a slot defender, linebacker, or on the defensive line. Flores found his Joker, who he could move around depending on his team’s needs.
Adofo-Mensah made one of the best moves of his tenure ahead of Metellus’ breakout season. He handed him a big contract for a special teamer and backup or rotational player, but he quickly outplayed that deal.
Last offseason, the Vikings pushed some of his money into the 2024 season while adding some void years to spread the cap hit into the future. He was not eligible to extend his contract in consecutive offseasons.
In all likelihood, Metellus will sign a new deal at some point this offseason.
His role will be fascinating to watch with the potential departures of starting safeties Harrison Smith and Cam Bynum. Will the Vikings keep him as their do-it-all guy or move him to the safety position full-time?
Regardless, one thing is clear: The 27-year-old will continue to wear the purple jersey in 2025.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Pro Football Reference helped with this article.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt