Vikings GM Nolan Teasley has interesting roster questions ahead with the market booming at multiple positions
We don’t know how new general manager Nolan Teasley is going to handle the roster long-term, and the market is showing interesting things.
When the Minnesota Vikings hired general manager Nolan Teasley at the end of May, it came with a lot of questions. He spent his entire NFL front office career with the Seattle Seahawks, meaning you can make some projections on players he might want to target. Even with those moves he was a part of with the Seahawks, he wasn’t the decision-maker, so it’s hard to know which moves he was a huge part of or not.
With Teasley being in Minnesota for just two months, he’s only had time to make two decent-sized moves with the roster, and they both happened within the last week.
- Signed LB Jamal Adams
- Extended RT Brian O’Neill
NFL contracts rising creates new challenges
It’s never a bad idea to lock down your right tackle to a long-term deal, even when they are as old as O’Neill at age 31. Right tackles often age very well, which makes it a good bet for the Vikings.
When it comes to Teasley, it’s a good thing to see him extend O’Neill. It keeps the bookend tackles that every team needs to have. Where things will get interesting with Teasley is simple: how will he navigate the rising contracts at premium positions?
We know that premium positions are huge for winning football games at a high level, but how those players are acquired and retained will showcase a lot of what Teasley’s plan will be.
Cornerbacks are already getting over $30 million per season, which is a hefty price, especially for how volatile things can get on the outside. We’ve seen it happen with Xavier Rhodes, going from an All-Pro to cut in two seasons. The Vikings right now have a projected cornerback room that will cost less than the contract extension that Denzel Ward just signed with the Cleveland Browns.
The other element of rising contracts that piques my interest is defensive tackle. Jalen Carter just signed a four-year deal with an average annual value of $38 million. The Seahawks did pay Leonard Williams a three-year deal worth $21.5 million average annual value. Before they extended wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and left tackle Charles Cross to market-level extensions, they were doing a good job of finding value signings with very good players like Williams and edge rusher Demarcus Lawrence, who signed for $12 million AAV when many thought he was washed.
With the Vikings having drafted two defensive linemen, will that be the preferred path versus possibly extending Jalen Redmond? Or will Redmond get a similar contract to what Williams got and it meshes with the Seahawks’ plans? What about wide receiver Jordan Addison, who is likely due a contract worth around $30 million? Will Teasley be willing to pay that kind of money for a WR2?
All of this to say that where he finds his edges will be interesting, especially when you look at the structure of the Seahawks’ roster. In fairness, some of their edges came with elite drafting and maximizing the return of the Russell Wilson trade. Even so, most of their bigger contracts are not large, market-level deals.
With more Vikings extensions coming due, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered with Teasley and his future plans. Even more frustrating is that I have no conclusions on anything, just more and more questions.
These massive extensions signed at the start of training camp have piqued curiosity on how the Vikings will be built. Nothing is certain right now, but these will be important conversations over the course of the next six to seven months.
