A Risky Vikings Gamble that May Age Poorly
For the most part, the Eric Wilson re-signing was met with applause. After all, he’s a very good football player who shined under the tutelage of DC Brian Flores. There’s nevertheless a Vikings gamble that’s taking place.
In all likelihood, the best case scenario involves Mr. Wilson replicating — not improving upon — his performance from 2025. He’s 31 and has mostly been a backup linebacker and special teams ace for the majority of his career. He’s now being leaned on to start, tasked with shining once there. How risky is that new job description?
A Vikings Gamble: The Pricey Wilson Contract
Consider, to begin, a basic recap of what Wilson did last year.
He came back to the Twin Cities for the promise of $2.6 million on a single-season deal. What followed was a seventeen-game effort (sixteen starts) that saw him pile up 115 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 6.5 sacks, 10 quarterback hits, and 4 forced fumbles.
These statistics arrived within his 965 defensive snaps and 173 special teams snaps. A major part of what made his snaps so valuable is that he proved capable of doing a variety of different things well. Most prominently, Wilson got kicked up to the defensive line for 336 snaps, pinning his ears back as an edge rusher.
Consider all that has been said and there’s a clear conclusion: retaining Eric Wilson does have merit. He’s excellent. Simply note that saying “yes” to Wilson means saying “no” to other options since cap space is finite.
Someone who comes to mind is Leo Chenal, a 25-year-old linebacker who has won a pair of Super Bowls in Kansas City. He signed with the Commanders — where former Vikings coach Daronte Jones is now the DC — for a three-year agreement sitting at $24.75 million (Wilson’s came in at three years and $22.5 million). Look at the side-by-side cap breakdown.
| Eric Wilson Cap Hits: | Leo Chenal Cap Hits: |
| 2026: $4 Million | 2026: $4.3 Million |
| 2027: $8.8 Million | 2027: $9.9 Million |
| 2028: $9.6 Million | 2028: $10.4 Million |
The numbers aren’t identical but they’re pretty darn close. Part of what makes the deals notable is that Chenal is easier to cut going into his second season. Doing so would save close to $1.3 million while leaving behind $8.6 million in dead cap. Meanwhile, a Wilson cut in the second year of his deal would mean forfeiting close to $200,000 in cap space while seeing the dead money up at $9 million.
Would it have been better to add the ‘backer who is six years younger? He has better size and was only a touch more expensive. So, too, is he someone who gets kicked up to function as a pass rusher. Oh, and he went to Washington, a team that now has some defensive overlap with the Vikings, as evidenced by interviewing Coach Flores for the DC vacancy before hiring one of the defensive assistants in Minnesota.
The point, folks, is not to insist that Eric Wilson was a bad signing. Neither is the argument that the Vikings gamble won’t pay off. The expectations do change, though, when the compensation surpasses $20 million rather than $2 million.
A Vikings roster that’s in need of high-end youth allowed some youth to sign elsewhere for deals that resemble the business that got done with in-house talent. Might the money have been better spent elsewhere?
Free agency is ongoing. The Vikings don’t have a pile of cap space but there’s modest wiggle room.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, PFF, and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
