Daily Norseman
They’re among the most active teams in free agency so far
The Minnesota Vikings are making some notable splashes in free agency as they look to improve their roster for the 2025-26 campaign. They entered free agency with some $60 million in cap space available and have spent down a considerable portion of that in the opening days of free agency.
The Vikings’ decision-making so far in free agency reveals some of their priorities for improving their roster and provides some insight into how they view their existing players and current free agents.
Let’s take a deeper look by position.
The Vikings did not make much effort to retain any of their free agent quarterbacks, paving the way for J.J. McCarthy to assume the role of presumed starter for the upcoming season and beyond. The reasons were varied but make sense.
I’m sure the Vikings would’ve liked to have Darnold compete for the starting role with McCarthy, but Darnold no doubt was looking for a permanent home after a few itinerant years and having proved himself as a starter last season- with a contract to match. It didn’t make sense for the Vikings to offer Darnold anything longer term like Seattle did with a big investment in McCarthy as their GBOTF. Darnold’s market value also made the tag-and-trade options unattractive, as the cap hit on tagging him was higher than his market value on an Average Annual Value (AAV) basis. So, the Vikings opted to let Darnold hit free agency. They will likely receive a third-round compensatory pick in 2026 based on the contract he received from the Seahawks.
Mullens got a bump in salary by signing with Jacksonville- he had been getting $2 million with the Vikings. Mullens had been with the Vikings the last two seasons but had trouble holding on to the backup spot, suggesting the Vikings were always looking for something better than Mullens. His signing with Jacksonville gives Mullens a fresh start and the Vikings the opportunity to find someone better as a backup.
Jones seemed luke-warm about entering the Vikings’ first-round QB bust rehab program, and I suspect unlike Sam Darnold last season, Jones was not given any sort of promise from Kevin O’Connell of being the starter in 2025. Apparently, the Vikings’ offer for Jones was competitive with the Colts’, but Jones presumably felt he had a better opportunity to win the starting job over Anthony Richardson than J.J. McCarthy in 2025.
At present, the Vikings have only Brett Rypien on the roster behind J.J. McCarthy, and there is nothing to suggest they are content with Rypien as their only backup QB.
The Vikings are rumored to have interest in signing Aaron Rodgers,...
