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Minnesota Vikings News & Rumors

North Notes: Bears, Packers, Tomlin, Browns

September 4th, 2020 at 7:07pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Bears became the latest team to work out Jamon Brown, with SI.com’s Albert Breer tweeting the guard was in Chicago for an audition. The free agent guard, a Falcons cut last month, has already worked out for the 49ers. Brown was a full-time Rams starter in 2017, but a 2018 suspension derailed his momentum. The Rams waived him shortly after he returned from that ban, but he ended the ’18 season as a Giants first-stringer. The Bears are returning four starters from last season and have been trying ex-Seahawks right tackle Germain Ifedi at guard.

Here is the latest from the North divisions:

  • The Steelers will let Mike Tomlin enter a contract year. Signed through 2021, Tomlin will not be extended this year, Art Rooney II said (via The Athletic’s Ed Bouchette, subscription required). The Steelers gave Tomlin his most recent extension last July, and he managed an eight-win season despite the largely Ben Roethlisberger-less Steelers ranking 32nd in offensive DVOA. Rooney said he plans to address the contracts of Tomlin and GM Kevin Colbert, who just signed a one-year extension, in 2021.
  • One of the league’s healthiest teams last season, the Packers may be down a starter in Week 1. Billy Turner suffered a knee injury during a scrimmage and is uncertain for Green Bay’s opener, Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com notes. Turner played guard for the Packers last season but is competing with free agency addition Ricky Wagner at right tackle this year. Lane Taylor, who missed all of last season, is expected to play right guard opposite emerging talent Elgton Jenkins on the left side.
  • For the second time in three weeks, the Browns brought in Cody Parkey for a visit. The veteran was part of a kicker group to work out for the Browns in August, though it was reported at the time the team was organizing a COVID-related emergency kicker list. Parkey briefly kicked for the Titans last season.
  • Bears training camp coaching intern Henry Burris will stay on the team’s staff all season, Matt Nagy announced. Known mostly for his 17-season CFL run, Burris also was a Bears quarterback for a short time in the early 2000s. This will be his first NFL coaching gig.
  • Vikings linebacker Cameron Smith underwent successful open-heart surgery recently, according to the Associated Press. Mike Zimmer said the second-year defender, who landed on Minnesota’s IR list, will remain in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future to recover.

Contract Details: Decker, Mixon, Ngakoue, Dotson

September 2nd, 2020 at 5:00pm CST by Ben Levine

There have been a handful of extensions, reworked contracts, and brand-new deals signed over the past few weeks. We’ve provided updates on some of those notable deals below:

  • Taylor Decker, LT (Lions): Four-year, $60MM extension. Includes $7.5MM signing bonus (paid out in 17 installments in 2020). Salaries: $6.85MM (2020), $13MM fully guaranteed (2021), $14.75MM fully guaranteed (2022), $13.7MM (2023), $12.95MM (2024). $250K workout bonuses (2022-2024), $500 roster bonus (2024). Via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport on Twitter.
  • Joe Mixon, RB (Bengals): Four-year, $48MM extension. Includes $10MM signing bonus. Salaries: $1.3MM (2020), $8MM (2021), $8MM (2022), $9.4MM (2023). $9.6MM club option in 2024. $500K in playing time bonuses, $200K in offseason workout bonuses (each season). Via Rapoport on Twitter.
  • Yannick Ngakoue, DE (Vikings): One year, $12MM reworked deal. $8MM base salary and $4MM signing bonus. Via Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling on Twitter.
  • Demar Dotson, RT (Broncos): One-year, $3MM deal. $1.15MM salary ($400K guaranteed). $100K roster bonus, $250K game-day roster bonuses. $1.5MM in incentives. Via Mike Klis of 9News on Twitter.

Minor NFL Transactions: 9/2/20

September 2nd, 2020 at 3:42pm CST by Zachary Links

We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves here:

Atlanta Falcons

Carolina Panthers

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

  • Acquired via trade: 2021 7th-Round Pick (from Giants)

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

New York Jets

  • Signed: RB Pete Guerriero
  • Waived: LB B.J. Bello, DL Sterling Johnson

San Francisco 49ers

Tennessee Titans

Vikings, Riley Reiff Agree To New Deal

September 1st, 2020 at 1:00pm CST by Zachary Links

Riley Reiff is staying put. The Vikings are on the verge of finalizing a restructured contract that will keep the starting left tackle in Minnesota, as Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. 

Earlier this week, we heard that Reiff was expecting to be released by the cap-crunched Vikings. Thanks to the recent addition of Yannick Ngakoue, the Vikes were skittish about paying Reiff his scheduled $10.9MM in base pay and thinking about dropping him for $8.8MM in cap space. Heading into Tuesday morning, the Vikings had just $1.2MM in cap room, the lowest total in the league. The Vikings asked Reiff to decide on whether to take a pay cut or be cut by today, and he’s rendered his verdict.

Per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, Reiff has agreed to drop his salary from $10.9MM to $6MM (Twitter link). He can earn $2MM of that back via playing time incentives, with Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network tweeting that Reiff will earn an additional $1MM if he plays in 86% of the team’s snaps in 2020 and another $1MM if he plays in 93.75% of snaps. Reiff was on the field of 85.7% of Minnesota’s offensive snaps in 2019, so the incentives are reachable but will be considered not likely to be earned for cap purposes, meaning that they will not count as a cap charge.

Reiff, 31, signed with the Vikings in 2017. Since then, he’s made 43 regular season starts at left tackle, though the Vikings were once thinking about moving him to the interior. In April, the Vikes tapped versatile lineman Ezra Cleveland in the second round, but they believe that he’s still too green for significant playing time. With quality tackles in short supply, the Vikings are glad to have struck middle ground with Reiff.

Vikings’ Riley Reiff Expecting Release?

August 31st, 2020 at 1:23pm CST by Sam Robinson

Riley Reiff‘s Vikings tenure may be capped at three years. The team, which just took on a hefty salary with Yannick Ngakoue‘s reduced franchise tag, is eyeing a pay cut for its veteran left tackle.

Set to make $10.9MM in base salary this season, Reiff does not appear to foresee a solution coming. He has told teammates he expects to be released, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports (on Twitter). Should the Vikings release Reiff, they would gain $8.8MM in cap space. Following their Ngakoue acquisition, the Vikings hold an NFL-low $1.2MM in cap space.

Reiff is not expected to be at practice Monday, according to ESPN.com’s Courtney Cronin, who adds that the team has given him a Tuesday deadline to determine if he’ll accept a pay reduction or be cut (Twitter link). The sides failing to compromise would send Reiff back to free agency. He signed with the Vikings in 2017 and has made 43 regular-season starts at left tackle.

Reiff, 31, was a rumored cap casualty earlier this year, but the Vikes kept him around. They then drafted Ezra Cleveland in the second round. Cleveland was seeing time at guard earlier in camp. However, the Boise State product can be viewed as Reiff’s eventual successor. The team, however, does not view Cleveland as ready to play just yet, Florio notes, adding that the more likely post-Reiff O-line configuration would be right tackle Brian O’Neill moving to the left side and Rashod Hill on the right edge.

Vikings’ Yannick Ngakoue Takes Pay Cut

August 30th, 2020 at 8:00pm CST by Zachary Links

Yannick Ngakoue really, really wanted out of Jacksonville. The former Jaguars defensive end has agreed to a new one-year deal with the Vikings that will pay him just $12MM, according to NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero (Twitter link). Under his terms of his one-year tender, Ngakoue would have made $17.8MM. 

[RELATED: Vikings Acquire Yannick Ngakoue From Jaguars]

Furthermore, the new deal does not include a no-tag clause. The Vikings will retain the right to cuff Ngakoue in 2021, which would delay his free agency by yet another year. Opinions are split on Ngakoue because of his pressures-to-sacks ratio and his social media spats with Jaguars brass. Regardless, it’s hard to see this acquisition as anything but a major victory for the Vikings. The Vikings got the promising 25-year-old edge rusher for a second-round pick and change, and they’re now getting him at a ~25% discount.

Ngakoue is not particularly strong against the run, but he has averaged over nine sacks per season over his first four years in the league, and he has also shown some serious play-making ability. He has forced 14 fumbles to date and he boasted a pass-rush win rate of 21% as an edge rusher last season. That topped the win rate of his new partner Danielle Hunter (15%) as well as Everson Griffen (17%), who has moved on to the Cowboys.

Vikings To Acquire Yannick Ngakoue From Jaguars

August 30th, 2020 at 7:55am CST by Rory Parks

Yannick Ngakoue finally got his wish. As Adam Schefter of ESPN.com was the first to report, the Jaguars have traded their disgruntled defensive end to the Vikings in exchange for a 2021 second-round pick and a conditional 2022 fifth-round selection that could become a fourth- or third-round choice.

Ngakoue has wanted out of Jacksonville for some time. Last July, he became upset when then-executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin abruptly ended extension negotiations with the 2016 third-rounder, and while he did suit up for the club in the 2019 season, he made it clear this offseason that the relationship between him and the team was beyond repair.

The Jaguars put the franchise tag on him, valued at $17.8MM, but he did not sign the tag, and all indications were that, if he wasn’t traded, he was going to stay away from the team until Week 10 of the 2020 season. That would have been the deadline for him to be able to count 2020 as an accredited year towards free agency.

Given his very public unhappiness with Jacksonville, the fact that the deadline for tagged players to sign an extension passed on July 15, and his high franchise tag number, the Jags didn’t have a ton of leverage. But GM Dave Caldwell managed to finagle two draft picks out of the Vikings, and Schefter says the 2022 fifth-rounder will become a fourth-rounder if Ngakoue makes the Pro Bowl in 2020 and will become a third-rounder if he makes the Pro Bowl and the Vikings win the Super Bowl.

From the Vikings’ perspective, that’s a relatively small price to pay for the chance to bookend Ngakoue with another talented young pass rusher, Danielle Hunter. The team lost longtime stalwart Everson Griffen to the Cowboys earlier this month, and as Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com notes, Minnesota began working on an Ngakoue deal as soon as it became clear Griffen wasn’t coming back (Twitter link).

In order to make the trade work, the Vikings did have to create some cap room. Further proving just how desperate he was to get out of Jacksonville, Ngakoue reduced his 2020 pay from $17.8MM to just below $13MM to facilitate the deal (Twitter link via Albert Breer of SI.com). Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com reports that Minnesota could also rework an existing contract and names LT Riley Reiff as a potential restructure candidate. Cronin says the team will not cut a player just for salary cap purposes (Twitter links).

However, Cronin points out that the Ngakoue acquisition could mean that the team is not going to reach an extension with running back Dalvin Cook (Twitter link). The two sides recently agreed to table contract negotiations, and without a major cost-cutting move or two, Cook may be destined for free agency in 2021.

But that’s another story for another day. For now, the Vikings have solidified their status as one of the top teams in the NFC, and the Hunter-Ngakoue combination will be a formidable one for opposing offenses, especially when considering the similar excellence the team enjoys in its LB and DB corps.

Ngakoue is not particularly strong against the run, but he has averaged over nine sacks per season over his first four years in the league, and he has also shown some serious play-making ability. He has forced 14 fumbles to date, and as Schefter writes, the Maryland product is directly responsible for five of the 12 defensive touchdowns the Jaguars have scored since 2016. Cronin observes in a full-length piece that Ngakoue had a pass-rush win rate of 21% as an edge rusher last season, which ranked higher than Griffen (17%) and Hunter (15%).

Ian Rapoport of NFL.com notes that the Vikings plan to sign Ngakoue to a long-term deal after the 2020 season (video link). While Minnesota will have a number of other contract issues to address, pairing Ngakoue and Hunter together for the foreseeable future will be an indubitably tempting proposition.

Minor NFL Transactions: 8/26/20

August 26th, 2020 at 3:12pm CST by Zachary Links

Today’s minor moves:

Carolina Panthers

Cincinnati Bengals

Cleveland Browns

Indianapolis Colts

  • Signed: TE Dominique Dafney
  • Released: RB Bruce Anderson III

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

Philadephia Eagles

  • Waived: LB Dante Olson
  • Placed on IR: TE Josh Perkins

Tennessee Titans

NFL Workout Updates: 8/24/20

August 24th, 2020 at 4:19pm CST by Sam Robinson

Here are Monday’s notable workouts:

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Las Vegas Raiders

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

Pittsburgh Steelers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Vikings Host S George Iloka

August 21st, 2020 at 4:52pm CST by Sam Robinson

Bengals 2012 draftees are resurfacing on NFL radars Friday. In addition to Dre Kirkpatrick booking a Cardinals visit, George Iloka also met with a familiar team.

The Vikings brought in the veteran safety for a visit, per NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero (on Twitter). Iloka played for Mike Zimmer for two seasons in Cincinnati (2012-13) and was a Viking in 2018. That marked Iloka’s most recent game action. He sat out the 2019 season.

Now 30, the former Bengals fifth-round pick follows Jahleel Addae in visiting the Vikings, who did not end up signing Addae. Iloka played in 16 games with the Vikings two years ago, starting three. Anthony Harris used 2018 as a breakout slate, becoming a full-time starter alongside Harrison Smith that year. An Iloka role in Minnesota this time around would certainly feature him as a backup to Smith and Harris. The Vikings lost Jayron Kearse in free agency and feature a much younger secondary than they have in recent years.

Iloka was a five-year Bengals starter, beginning that run with 16 starts under Zimmer in 2013. He made three starts for the Vikes in 2018. He has 79 starts’ worth of experience but has been out of the league since his previous one-year Vikings contract expired.

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