Vikings To Bring Back Mackensie Alexander
After a season in Cincinnati, Mackensie Alexander will return to the Twin Cities. The veteran cornerback agreed to terms with the Vikings on Friday night, according to his agent (Twitter link).
Alexander joined Trae Waynes in moving from the Vikings to the Bengals last year but will return to the team that drafted him in the 2016 second round. The Vikings made Alexander an offer during the legal tampering period; 10 days later, the slot corner committed to come back to Minnesota.
It’s a one-year deal worth the veteran minimum, Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com tweets, marking a considerable reduction from Alexander’s 2020 salary.
Although the Clemson product will wear a familiar uniform next season, he will mostly have new teammates in Minnesota’s secondary. Waynes is still under contract with the Bengals, who gave him a long-term deal while agreeing with Alexander on a one-year pact worth $4MM last March, and Xavier Rhodes will return to the Colts. The Vikings still have Mike Hughes, but their cornerback corps now features recent acquisition Patrick Peterson and 2020 draftees Jeff Gladney and Cameron Dantzler.
Following the Vikings’ defense falling to a Mike Zimmer-era low point, their coverage corps will feature more experience in 2021. Alexander, 27, worked as a nickel cog under Zimmer during his first Minnesota stint. Last season, Alexander started a career-high 13 games with the Bengals; Pro Football Focus graded the five-year vet as a middle-of-the-pack cornerback. He will be back in a familiar scheme next season.
Cardinals Trade C Mason Cole To Vikings
The Cardinals have traded center Mason Cole to the Vikings, according to Mark Sanchez of ESPN (on Twitter). The news has also been confirmed by NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (Twitter links), who adds that Cole may be shifted to one of the guard spots. 
In exchange for Cole, the Vikings will send a sixth-round pick to Arizona. It’ll be Minnesota’s compensatory pick at the end of the sixth round — the No. 223 overall choice.
Cole, a Michigan product, has appeared in 46 games with 32 starts for the Cardinals. The 2018 third-rounder was first-string 14 times last year, but the advanced metrics didn’t look fondly upon his work. Cole finished out with a 54.4 overall Pro Football Focus grade, ranking him 31st out of 36 qualified centers. After acquiring Rodney Hudson, the Cardinals were no longer in need of Cole’s services.
Cole is slated to make upwards of $2MM in 2021, the final season of his four-year rookie deal. That’s significantly cheaper than, say, Nick Easton, who doesn’t seem all that interested in a Vikings return.
Vikings To Re-Sign Ameer Abdullah
The Vikings have agreed to a new deal with Ameer Abdullah (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter). Terms of the deal are not yet known,
Abdullah had lots of hype coming out of Nebraska in 2015. The Lions’ second-round pick was reasonably productive as a rookie, averaging 4.2 yards per carry plus added 25 catches for 183 yards. His follow-up season was mostly lost to injury and he was unable to reassert himself in 2017, as he averaged just 3.3 yards per tote. In 2018, he found his way to the rival Vikings as a backup RB.
Abdullah, 28 in June, has only seen 31 carries across two-years-and-change in Minnesota. Still, he’s suited up for every possible game across the last two years with much of his time spent on special teams. He also serves as the Vikes’ main kick returner with a career average of 26.4 yards per attempt. This year, he may see more time behind Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison now that Mike Boone is out of the picture.
Health Issue Holding Up Giants’ Kyle Rudolph Deal
The Giants’ contract agreement with longtime Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph is no longer a certainty. An injury issue emerged during Rudolph’s physical, and the sides are determining how to proceed, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets.
Following the physical, the Giants’ medical staff expressed concern about a foot issue, and Giants doctors believe Rudolph will require surgery, according to Garafolo. This could scuttle Rudolph’s two-year Giants accord. The sides previously agreed to terms, but Rudolph has not signed a contract.
This deal does not appear to be dead, however. Rudolph is still in New York and will meet with the Giants tonight, Garafolo tweets. Rather than send Rudolph back to free agency, the Giants may move forward despite the veteran needing to undergo surgery.
Rudolph agreed to a two-year, $12MM Giants pact that can max out at $14MM. However, after they agreed to terms with Rudolph, the Giants have been aggressive in free agency. The team has authorized high-end deals for Kenny Golladay and Adoree’ Jackson. The Giants also already have a No. 1 tight end, with Evan Engram going into a contract year.
A foot injury ended Rudolph’s 2020 season. The Vikings placed him on IR ahead of Week 17, doing so after their longtime tight end had missed the previous three games.
Draft Pick Updates: Vikings, Saints, Raiders, Patriots
The Vikings are down a draft pick. Per Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press (on Twitter), the Vikings have forfeited a seventh-round pick in this year’s draft (No. 242).
“A mistake was made, we take responsibility and we respect the league’s decision and will move forward,” general manager Rick Spielman said in a statement.
Per Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com, the punishment is regarding an infraction from 2019. There was some kind of violation of a practice squad player’s contract, but it’s uncertain who the player was or what the violation was.
Three Vikings executives were also fined $10K each, per Smith.
Some more draft notes from around the NFL:
- Neither the Saints nor Raiders will lose a draft due to violations of the COVID-19 policies, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com. “They are not forfeiting them,” McCarthy said. “Neither team will lose those picks.” According to the reporter, there were rumblings that New Orleans would lose a seventh-round pick following a “mask-less locker room celebration,” and the Raiders were expected to lose a sixth-rounder due to multiple violations. While the NFL didn’t provide any context on their decision, Florio assumes both organizations appealed their penalties and were successful.
- When the NFL announced the compensatory picks for the 2021 draft, the Patriots did not have a fifth-round pick. However, a source confirmed to PFT that New England had indeed received a fifth-rounder in the upcoming draft. According to Smith, the NFL “realized a mistake in its calculation of the complex formula for determining compensatory picks,” leading to the extra Patriots selection.
- Thanks to the aforementioned compensatory-pick audit by the NFL, the Falcons are also moving two slots in the fifth round, according to Smith. Further, while the NFL only allows the addition of 32 compensatory picks each year, they’ve made an exception this time around. Thanks to the additional Patriots draft pick, the Bears normally wouldn’t have received that final compensatory pick; the NFL and NFL Players Association allowed Chicago to ultimately keep that selection.
Vikings Sign CB Patrick Peterson
Patrick Peterson is moving on from Arizona. The Vikings have agreed to a one-year, $10MM deal with the decorated cornerback, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (via Twitter).
Now 30 (31 in July), Peterson is one of the most accomplished defenders in Cardinals history and is a member of the Hall of Fame’s All-Decade team for the 2010s. He is not, however, the player he once was. He was hit with a six-game PED suspension to start the 2019 campaign, and after Pro Football Focus graded Peterson fifth among corners in 2018, he slipped to 41st in ’19 and 83rd in ’20. Quarterbacks throwing in Peterson’s direction last season collectively completed passes at a 67% clip — nearly 10 points higher than they did in 2018.
But he did pick off three passes in 2020, to go along with eight passes defensed. He has also been tremendously durable throughout his 10-year career, as the only games he has missed were due to the aforementioned suspension.
He joins a young CB room that had been fronted by a trio of recent early-round picks. Unlike Peterson, 2018 first-rounder Mike Hughes has not been able to stay healthy and has only suited up for 24 of a possible 48 regular season games in his pro career, while 2020 first-rounder Jeff Gladney struggled a bit in his rookie campaign. Cameron Dantzler, a third-round choice last year, played reasonably well as a rookie, but the group definitely needed a veteran influence like Peterson, an eight-time Pro Bowler and three-time First Team All-Pro.
Minnesota did have an offer out to Mackensie Alexander, but the Peterson signing could foreclose the possibility of an Alexander-Vikings reunion.
Mike Boone Won’t Re-Sign With Vikings
Though the Vikings wanted to keep RB Mike Boone in the fold, it seems they will be unable to do so. Per Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (via Twitter), Boone is prepared to sign elsewhere.
Minnesota non-tendered Boone this afternoon, thereby making him an unrestricted free agent. The club had hoped that it would be able to re-sign the former UDFA to a contract worth less money than an RFA tender, but Boone is seeking greener pastures.
It’s hard to blame him. The Vikings have Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison ahead of Boone on the depth chart, so he would have again been relegated to the team’s RB3 post. He has done well in that role, with a 5.3 YPC average and four TDs over his first three pro seasons, but he has only managed 71 career carries (including just 11 last year).
Per Tomasson, Boone is looking for a team that will give him a chance to be an RB2. He may have to wait until the dust settles on the first wave of free agency, but he should get that opportunity.
Keanu Neal Drawing Significant Interest
Free agent safety Keanu Neal is attracting significant attention on the open market. Per veteran NFL reporter Josina Anderson, the Cowboys, Jets, Lions, Vikings, Colts, and Panthers have all expressed interest in the Falcons’ defender (Twitter link).
After seeing his 2018-19 campaigns almost completely wiped out by injury, Neal managed to suit up for 15 games (14 starts) in 2020. He wasn’t brilliant, but he did pick up 100 tackles while grading out as Pro Football Focus’ 33rd-best safety out of 94 qualifiers. The fact that he was able to stay healthy and will only be 26 when the regular season starts is certainly driving the interest in his services.
After all, prior to suffering a torn ACL in the 2018 opener — he also sustained a torn Achilles during the third game of the 2019 season — Neal was establishing himself as one of the better young safeties in the game. He was selected by Atlanta with the No. 17 overall pick in the 2016 draft, and he racked up 106 tackles in 14 starts in his rookie campaign.
He built on that performance in 2017, starting all 16 games and piling up 116 tackles en route to a Pro Bowl nod. He moved with fluidity and demonstrated a nose for the football, as evidenced by his high tackle totals and the eight fumbles that he forced over his first two seasons in the league. Though he did not force any fumbles in 2020, nor was he as strong in coverage as he was before the injury trouble, there is reason to believe that he can return to his previous levels of performance.
Dallas, of course, has long been looking for a long-term solution at safety, while the other clubs Anderson mentions also have clear openings on the back end of their secondaries. The Jets, who recently hit Marcus Maye with the franchise tag, are an interesting fit, as GM Joe Douglas has been said to be opposed to paying big money to safeties. A Maye-Neal tandem would be a talented but expensive pairing, though trading Maye would certainly be a possibility.
One way or another, it does not sound like Neal will be returning to the Falcons, who are also preparing to bid adieu to safety Damontae Kazee and who have already parted ways with DB Ricardo Allen.
RFA/ERFA Tender Decisions: 3/16/21
Tomorrow is the deadline for NFL teams to extend tender offers to their own restricted free agents and exclusive rights free agents. We’ll keep tabs on the latest here:
RFAs
Tendered:
- Chiefs: G Andrew Wylie
- Colts: S George Odum
- Cowboys: DT Antwaun Woods
- Dolphins: OL Adam Pankey
- Packers: CB Chandon Sullivan, TE Robert Tonyan (second-round tender)
- Raiders: K Daniel Carlson (second-round tender)
- Texans: DT P.J. Hall, CB A.J. Moore
Non-Tendered:
- Packers: DL Tyler Lancaster
- Seahawks: LB Shaquem Griffin
- Vikings: RB Mike Boone, DL Ifeadi Odenigbo
Vikings Have Made Offer To CB Mackensie Alexander
Mackensie Alexander could land back in Minnesota. Ben Goessling of the Star Tribune reports (via Twitter) that the Vikings have interest in the veteran cornerback. Sources tell Goessling that Minnesota has made an offer to the free agent cornerback.
Alexander spent the first four seasons of his career with the Vikings, starting 10 of his 55 appearances. The veteran’s final season in Minnesota came in 2019, when he compiled 38 tackles, 0.5 sacks, and one interception in 13 games (four starts).
He joined the Bengals last offseason on a one-year, $4MM deal. He ended up starting a career-high 10 games for Cincinnati, collecting 47 tackles, six passes defended, and one interception. He also appeared in a career-high 61-percent of his team’s defensive snaps in 2020.
The Vikings have been relatively quiet over the past few days. The team’s one notable addition was the signing of nose tackle Dalvin Tomlinson. The team entered the offseason with just over $9MM in cap space.