With Griffen and Rhodes locked up, who’s next for a Vikings extension?
Aj Mansour
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It’s already been a busy offseason for the Rick Spielman, Rob Brzezinski and the Minnesota Vikings front office locking up two of the Vikings key assets through the 2022 season. While Everson Griffen’s 4-year extension seemed to come out of nowhere we all saw yesterday’s Xavier Rhodes news coming from a ways away, a 5-year $78 million extension. Either way, it shows us that while competing in 2017 is still top priority, planning for a big future is also in the mix for the Vikings plans.
According to general manager, these actions are right in line with the organization’s plans for the future.
“Well what we are going to focus and hone-in on trying to keep as many of these core young guys together as possible.”
Spielman went on to mention that the team was presently in the mix working on other extensions “with a couple of these young guys.” Working the timeline backwards, one of them was clearly Xavier Rhodes, but who would be next on the Vikings wish list to get locked up on a big deal holding them here in purple into the foreseeable future? There’s a few options, so let’s break them down and rank them by priority.
QB Teddy Bridgewater
It appeared as if Teddy Bridgewater was on the path to topping this list of the most important players for the Vikings to lock down before his injury, but all of that changed nearly one-year ago on that practice field in Eden Prairie. The future for Teddy is completely in-flux and nobody knows for sure whether or not he’ll return to the football field let alone hop back on the career trajectory that he was on prior to getting hurt. For that reason, and because the team opted to not pick up Bridgewater’s fifth-year option for 2018 I’ll include Teddy on this list, but with low priority since he hasn’t returned to practice form yet.
LB Anthony Barr
I’ll throw Anthony Barr on this list as the thought continues to be that Barr is in line to be one of the cornerstones of this defense – BUT- he needs a wakeup call and rewarding him with boatloads of cash right now would be concerning to me. He doesn’t seem to have the motivation as it is now, make him play for that big contract, give him that extra motivation to prove he’s worth it. With Chad Greenway retired, Barr is not the elder statesman in the starting LB corps. He looked dynamic and explosive as a rookie, toned it down a bit as a sophomore and then had a good but rather non-descript third season last year. Barr very well may be an important anchor for this team’s future, but he might need the wakeup call to start acting like it and leaving him hanging one more year is the best way that you can do it.
QB Sam Bradford
The second quarterback on this list already but maybe the most important one. Bradford set an all-time record last season for completion percentage but the team has yet to lock him up past the end of this season. The reality of the gigantic question mark hovering over the Vikings QB room is a concerning one. You don’t know what you have coming back with Teddy, Sam could be expensive and you’d like to see if last year was a trend or a mirage, but most of all you’d like to avoid drafting a young quarterback to jump in and learn as the rest of your team is set and poised to win now. This is why Bradford is a top-level priority and should be treated as such. Last we heard, it doesn’t sound like either side is in a gigantic hurry and seem comfortable to remain patient.
NT Linval Joseph
I’ve told this story a million times it seems like, but shortly after being hired as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings Mike Zimmer invited a handful of us media members to Winter Park for a pizza party where he walked us through Cincinnati Bengals film so we could learn his style. The main takeaway from that meeting was that the most important position on the Bengals defense, the Zimmer defense was that nose tackle spot. Bringing in Linval Joseph, getting him healthy after being shot in the leg and getting up to speed in the system was key. Since he’s done that, he’s been awesome and to a man in that locker room they’ll tell you he’s the most important piece. Lock him down and you have your anchor.
DE Danielle Hunter
Drafted in the third round a few years back, Danielle Hunter was thought to be a high level talent with very raw football skills. Well, those skills have come along nicely through two seasons and Hunter’s ceiling appears to be sky high. It’s expected that he’ll roll into a starting role in 2017 and have even more reps to build off of his 12.5 sack season a year ago. You’ve locked down the right side with Everson through 2022, go do the same with Hunter on the left and you’ll be wreaking havoc on the opposition’s backfield for years to come. People oogle over Watt and Clowney, I’m telling you that sort of potential is there for Griffen and Hunter as well. He’s young, he’s still raw and still growing, but he’s already dominating. Lock him up soon before he even starts seeing the dollar signs that come with looming free agency.
That’s the order I rank them in, how do you see it? Is Hunter your number one? Did I leave someone important off this list? Am I a complete idiot? We want to know, leave us your thoughts in the comment section below!