And Then There Were 2: Only a Pair of Vikings Draft Picks Remain Unsigned
Josh Frey
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The Minnesota Vikings made a ton of headway on signing their draft picks over the past week. After fifth-round pick Jacquelin Roy was one of the first prospects in the entire draft to agree to a contract, last week, the Vikings signed three other draft picks to their first contracts as well: DB Jay Ward, CB Mekhi Blackmon, and QB Jaren Hall.
Now, just a pair of Vikings draft picks remain unsigned at this point in the offseason: WR Jordan Addison and RB DeWayne McBride. Ironically, these prospects were the first and last selections of the Vikings draft class.
Addison, the 23rd overall pick in the draft, spent his first two seasons of college football with the University of Pittsburgh. With the Panthers and Kenny Pickett as his quarterback, Addison emerged into a star, particularly in 2021. During that season, he caught 100 passes for 1571 yards and 17 TDs.
Following those two seasons at Pittsburgh, Addison transferred to USC in 2022 where he wasn’t quite as productive on the boundary compared to when he played largely from the slot in 2020 and 2021, but he still put together a respectable year, catching 59 passses for 875 yards and 8 TDs.
Now, Addison heads to the Vikings and will hopefully be the successor to Adam Thielen, who was released by Minnesota this offseason and signed with the Carolina Panthers on a three-year contract worth a total of $25 million. In 2022 with the Vikings, the veteran receiver was targeted 107 times and caught 70 of them for 706 yards and 6 TDs. Presumably, many of these targets are now headed Addison’s way.
Meanwhile, McBride was one of the most productive running backs in college football over the past few years before being picked 222nd overall by Minnesota. This past season at UAB, he recorded 233 carries for 1713 yards (a whopping 7.4 yards per carry) and 19 TDs. The yardage and touchdown totals each ranked among the top three in FBS.
Dalvin Cook remains on the roster for now, but in all likelihood, the Vikings will move on from the veteran running back in order to free up more cap space both now and in 2024. If such a move did happen, it opens the door for McBride to take over a role with the Vikings offense this summer.
Overall, it shouldn’t be setting off alarms that Addison and McBride have not signed to contracts yet in the offseason. Vikings fans will remember that last year, Ed Ingram remained unsigned well into July and still won the starting right guard job for the fall. He remained there for all 17 games of the regular season as well as the Wild Card game against the New York Giants.
In all, there are still 21 of 31 first-round picks that remain unsigned as of Tuesday morning. This list includes each of the top five picks as well.
Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho and managing editor of PurplePTSD.com. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.