The Minnesota Vikings won 14 games in the 2024 season and are not satisfied in the slightest. They were on the precipice of getting the number one seed in the NFC playoffs but lost to the Detroit Lions 31-9 before losing to the Los Angeles Rams in the wild card round.

How do the Vikings need to approach the offseason? Will they keep Sam Darnold? There are quite a few different ideas that the Vikings could prioritize while having multiple different pathways to a successful season.

My path to glory for the Vikings is simple: trying to marry what I think the Vikings would do with players they should be targeting.

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What the Vikings need

The Vikings need a multitude of positions to fortify their roster going into the season. Combined with the NFL Draft and free agency, the Vikings need to get the following positions fortified with some being more prudent than others. It could be a very pressing, dire need or you just need a body to fill the spot.

• QB
• RB
• RB
• RB
• WR
• WR
• TE
• OT
• IOL
• IOL
• EDGE
• EDGE
• DT
• DT
• ILB
• CB
• CB
• CB
• CB
• S
• S

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Players set to leave

The Vikings won't be able to keep everybody with the cap space and roster constraints that they have. Plus, the Vikings might not want to keep everyone that was on the roster last year.

In this path of glory, the Vikings will move on from the following players:

• QB Sam Darnold
• QB Nick Mullens
• QB Daniel Jones
• WR Brandon Powell
• TE Johnny Mundt
• IOL Dalton Risner
• IOL Jeremy Flax
• IOL Dan Feeney
• LT Cam Robinson
• DE Jerry Tillery
• EDGE Pat Jones II
• ILB Kamu Grugier-Hill
• CB Stephon Gilmore
• CB Shaquill Griffin
• S Camryn Bynum

While they will choose to move on from multiple players, they will bring back plenty.

• RB Aaron Jones: 2 years, $9 million, cap hit of $4 million in 2025
• RB Cam Akers: 1 year, $1.5 million
• WR Trent Sherfield: 1 year, $1.79 million
• RT David Quessenberry: 1 year, $1.5 million
• DE Jonathan Bullard: 1 year, $3 million
• EDGE Jihad Ward: 1 year, $2.5 million
• CB Fabian Moreau: 1 year, $1.79 million
• CB Byron Murphy Jr.: 4 years, $72 million, cap hit of $7 million in 2025
• S Theo Jackson: 1 year, $1.2 million
• P Ryan Wright: 1 year, $1 million

These contracts have a grand total of $25.28 million in salary cap hits in 2025. However, we get to deduct the bottom 10 contracts from the salary cap since only the top 53 get accounted for, which deducts $16.52 million from the top. That leaves the Vikings approximately $46.8 million. They still need to address the following positions:

• QB
• RB
• WR
• TE
• IOL
• IOL
• EDGE
• DT
• ILB
• CB
• CB
• S

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Free agency additions

Now comes the fun part. The Vikings still have nearly $50 million to play with to sign multiple players with a high likelihood of 2-3 high-profile players being added. It's less about the high-profile ones and more about getting the right players.

• QB Jimmy Garoppolo: 2 years, $7 million, cap hit of $2.5 million in 2025
• WR Robert Woods: 1 year, $2 million, cap hit of $2 million in 2025
• OG Teven Jenkins: 4 years, $48 million, cap hit in $5.2 million in 2025
• DT Roy Lopez: 1 year, $3 million, cap hit of $3 million in 2025
• EDGE Dante Fowler: 1 year, $4 million, cap hit of $2.5 million in 2025
• ILB Devin Bush: 1 year, $1.5 million, cap hit of $1.5 million in 2025
• CB Charvarius Ward: 3 years, $42 million, cap hit of $6.2 million in 2025
• CB Jeff Okudah: 1 year, $5 million, cap hit of $3.5 million in 2025
• S Jevon Holland: 4 years, $72 million, cap hit of $7.2 million in 2025

This is a very interesting group of free agents. Jenkins fills the Vikings' need at right guard, while the secondary is in a solid spot going into the season, allowing for flexibility to attack it in the NFL Draft without having to make it a major priority.

The big additions are to the secondary. Ward is still a top-flight cornerback with the ability to play man coverage and it will allow the Vikings to do more of that with Murphy and Mekhi Blackmon in tow as well. Okudah is a solid option at 4 or 5 with Moreau also returning.

The other additions are of the short-term variety that Adofo-Mensah has liked to use over the years. The one that really strikes me as an interesting one is Lopez. He was a great run defender with the ability to kick Harrison Phillips to 4i instead of playing nose tackle.

Going into the NFL Draft, the Vikings will have around $22 million after the first waves of free agency.

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NFL Draft picks

There are only three true needs that have to be filled going into the NFL Draft:

• RB
• TE
• IOL

None of these are major needs (well, depending on who you ask), but they should be addressed in some way. With how free agency panned out, this is how the Vikings ended up addressing the NFL Draft

Trade: The Vikings traded pick 24 to the Washington Commanders for picks 29 and 79

• 29. Shavon Revel Jr., CB, East Carolina
• 79. D.J. Giddens, RB, Kansas State
• 97. Deone Walker, DT, Kentucky
• 139. Jalin Conyers, TE, Texas Tech
• 160. Miles Frazier, IOL, LSU

In this simulation, the Vikings addressed every need while getting younger at important positions across the board. Revel and Giddens can start on day one, while Walker is a great calculated dart thrower on the defensive line. He has freaky movement skills, but his unorthodox build and poor leverage issues move him down to the third round.

This is a great route for the Vikings to take to improve their team in 2025 and beyond.

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