We’re uncertain where free agent cornerback Mackensie Alexander will play in 2022, but it definitely won’t be in Minnesota. According to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (on Twitter), the Vikings won’t be re-signing the defensive back.
Fortunately for Alexander, he’ll be able to continue his career elsewhere. According to the reporter, there are “several teams interested” in the cornerback.
The 2016 second-round pick spent the first four seasons of his career in Minnesota before moving on to Cincinnati in 2020. He returned to Minnesota for the 2021 campaign and ended up collecting a career-high 51 tackles in 16 games (five starts).
The Vikings could have a completely different looking cornerbacks corps in 2022. Patrick Peterson is also a free agent, and some draft pundits have predicted that the organization will select a cornerback in the first round of the upcoming draft.
No surprise, he was one of the worst cornerbacks last year and with a new regime in charge he doesn’t have any supporters in management. Vikings can replace his poor play with any average Joe off the street.
I really do wonder how much of his horrible play was actually his fault, though. Alexander was among three free agent veteran starters, along with Bashaud Breeland and Nick Vigil, whose PFF season grades fell by 19 or 20 points, all the way to the worst of their careers, worse even than their rookie grades. And Eric Kendricks saw his season grade fall by 23 points. Seeing the play of four veterans fall so sharply all in one season, and none of them especially old, sounds to me like it was more of a coaching issue than something involving just the individual players.