All Things 2026 Minnesota Vikings Off-Season Thread

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ESPN: 2026 NFL offseason: NFC teams' best and worst deals, picks

Minnesota Vikings​

Best: Signing Kyler Murray to a one-year deal. Well, this one's easy. Even if you think Murray is the 20th-best quarterback in football, we've seen lesser QBs sign for massive deals in recent years in free agency. Malik Willis just got $45 million guaranteed over two years with the Dolphins. Justin Fields took home just over $20 million for his one year with the Jets. Daniel Jones, who might be a roughly comparable quarterback, landed a $50 million guarantee from the Colts while coming off a torn Achilles.

The Vikings are getting Murray for the league minimum, with the Cardinals on the hook for the majority of what's owed to the former first overall pick in 2026. There's more to roster-building than sheer surplus value, but no deal has the potential to offer more upside in 2026 than this one. And given that the Vikings were facing down another season with J.J. McCarthy as their primary option under center, Murray addresses what might be their biggest position of need.

Barring the opportunity cost of finding out that McCarthy's suddenly the quarterback they expected to land in the first round two years ago, the Murray acquisition offers virtually no downside and a massive amount of upside.

Worst: Trading Jonathan Greenard for two third-round picks. I can understand why the Vikings traded Greenard. Although he was excellent when healthy in his two years with Minnesota, injuries limited him to three sacks in 12 games in Year 2 after he racked up 12 sacks in Year 1. The Vikings traded significant draft capital in 2024 to move up for Dallas Turner in the first round, and while I'm not sure his eight-sack total from 2025 really reflects Turner's true impact on the field, you can understand why the Vikings want to open up a starting role for the Alabama product. With Greenard wanting a new contract, a trade made sense.

However, defensive tackles like Quinnen Williams and Dexter Lawrence landed first-round picks in deals, and edge rusher Maxx Crosby (briefly) netted the Raiders two first-rounders. Did the Vikings really do themselves any favors by waiting until late April to deal Greenard? They landed only a pair of third-round picks from the Eagles. One of those picks was the 98th selection in this year's draft, and it would be a surprise if the 2027 third-rounder landed anywhere before No. 90. Two late third-round picks isn't a ton for a player as explosive as Greenard, who was still blowing by people on tape at less than 100 percent a year ago.

The Vikings were facing a difficult cap situation this offseason, but the four-year, $98 million deal Greenard signed with the Eagles is structured in a team-friendly manner. Greenard will have cap hits of $6.2 million in 2026 and $11.1 million in 2027. The Eagles will face a potential dead cap hit for Greenard well down the line, but the Vikings could have opted to give Greenard this same deal while reducing his cap number by nearly $16 million in 2026 and more than $11 million in 2027 in the process.

I understand wanting to open up more snaps for Turner, but for what they landed and what they apparently needed to pay Greenard to make him happy, I'd rather have kept one of my best players around for another year or two.

www.espn.com

2026 NFL offseason: NFC teams' best and worst deals, picks

We're picking out the offseason's highs (Vikings getting Kyler Murray on the veterans minimum) and lows (Niners taking Kaelon Black in Round 3) for every NFC team.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Skol Vikes!!
 


BleedGopher said:
ESPN: 2026 NFL offseason: NFC teams' best and worst deals, picks

Minnesota Vikings​

Best: Signing Kyler Murray to a one-year deal. Well, this one's easy. Even if you think Murray is the 20th-best quarterback in football, we've seen lesser QBs sign for massive deals in recent years in free agency. Malik Willis just got $45 million guaranteed over two years with the Dolphins. Justin Fields took home just over $20 million for his one year with the Jets. Daniel Jones, who might be a roughly comparable quarterback, landed a $50 million guarantee from the Colts while coming off a torn Achilles.

The Vikings are getting Murray for the league minimum, with the Cardinals on the hook for the majority of what's owed to the former first overall pick in 2026. There's more to roster-building than sheer surplus value, but no deal has the potential to offer more upside in 2026 than this one. And given that the Vikings were facing down another season with J.J. McCarthy as their primary option under center, Murray addresses what might be their biggest position of need.

Barring the opportunity cost of finding out that McCarthy's suddenly the quarterback they expected to land in the first round two years ago, the Murray acquisition offers virtually no downside and a massive amount of upside.

Worst: Trading Jonathan Greenard for two third-round picks. I can understand why the Vikings traded Greenard. Although he was excellent when healthy in his two years with Minnesota, injuries limited him to three sacks in 12 games in Year 2 after he racked up 12 sacks in Year 1. The Vikings traded significant draft capital in 2024 to move up for Dallas Turner in the first round, and while I'm not sure his eight-sack total from 2025 really reflects Turner's true impact on the field, you can understand why the Vikings want to open up a starting role for the Alabama product. With Greenard wanting a new contract, a trade made sense.

However, defensive tackles like Quinnen Williams and Dexter Lawrence landed first-round picks in deals, and edge rusher Maxx Crosby (briefly) netted the Raiders two first-rounders. Did the Vikings really do themselves any favors by waiting until late April to deal Greenard? They landed only a pair of third-round picks from the Eagles. One of those picks was the 98th selection in this year's draft, and it would be a surprise if the 2027 third-rounder landed anywhere before No. 90. Two late third-round picks isn't a ton for a player as explosive as Greenard, who was still blowing by people on tape at less than 100 percent a year ago.

The Vikings were facing a difficult cap situation this offseason, but the four-year, $98 million deal Greenard signed with the Eagles is structured in a team-friendly manner. Greenard will have cap hits of $6.2 million in 2026 and $11.1 million in 2027. The Eagles will face a potential dead cap hit for Greenard well down the line, but the Vikings could have opted to give Greenard this same deal while reducing his cap number by nearly $16 million in 2026 and more than $11 million in 2027 in the process.

I understand wanting to open up more snaps for Turner, but for what they landed and what they apparently needed to pay Greenard to make him happy, I'd rather have kept one of my best players around for another year or two.

www.espn.com

2026 NFL offseason: NFC teams' best and worst deals, picks

We're picking out the offseason's highs (Vikings getting Kyler Murray on the veterans minimum) and lows (Niners taking Kaelon Black in Round 3) for every NFC team.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Skol Vikes!!
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Woof.... the "worldwide leader" decided to weigh in on the Vikings offseason. The take on Greenard is just plain batshit crazy, massively overvaluing Greenard
 





Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
About what I would have expected, JJM will most likely be getting next to zero mentoring from Kyler Murray. Which is completely fine

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I was not impressed with JJM's presser. He sounds like a whiny high school kid that isnt getting his way. When he starts throwing out well the team decided they needed to bring in another QB says it all for me. I wouldnt be surpised if there was a trade request prior to or during training camp.
 








Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
Woof.... the "worldwide leader" decided to weigh in on the Vikings offseason. The take on Greenard is just plain batshit crazy, massively overvaluing Greenard
Click to expand...
his PFF rating is quite good. I don't think they're overvaluing him, but is a matter of what is the dropoff and if he was going to hold out. If he was going to hold out, the Vikings have no leverage. Greenard never said he was going to, so I get where they're coming from in saying you hold onto him and play him given the combined pick value the vikes got is less than a single 2nd and that the estimated hit rate at that position in the draft getting a starter is about 20% or a little less.


that all said, there were not that many moves made by the vikes. I guess you could've gone with taking Banks early? There's otherwise not really much to criticize in the offseason one way or the other
 



Ben Leber weighs in....

One thing that occurred to me yesterday that folks should take with a grain of salt as the offseason unfolds. Every single report (more than likely anyway) that comes out on the QB race will likely be coming from a position of bias one way or the other, a preconceived bias about where that particular person wants the competition to end up or previously predicted it would end up. I think you'll see very little reporting that isn't slanted at least a little bit.

 


upnorthkid said:
his PFF rating is quite good. I don't think they're overvaluing him, but is a matter of what is the dropoff and if he was going to hold out. If he was going to hold out, the Vikings have no leverage. Greenard never said he was going to, so I get where they're coming from in saying you hold onto him and play him given the combined pick value the vikes got is less than a single 2nd and that the estimated hit rate at that position in the draft getting a starter is about 20% or a little less.


that all said, there were not that many moves made by the vikes. I guess you could've gone with taking Banks early? There's otherwise not really much to criticize in the offseason one way or the other
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People most upset about the draft compensation haven't really been able to offer much of a valid comparison. Greenard is a lot closer to Rashon Gary from the Packers than he is to someone like Dexter Lawrence. Nobody was giving up a 2nd round pick for a solid pass-rusher who wanted a new deal. That was the dumbest thing I had ever heard when people were speculating that.

The Packers got a 4th round pick from Dallas for R. Gary. For the Vikings to get two 3rds (one of them in next year's draft which is widely known to be LOADED) is a respectable haul for a guy who wanted a new contract, was coming off an injury and had barely gotten into the new contract he had signed recently.
 

Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
People most upset about the draft compensation haven't really been able to offer much of a valid comparison. Greenard is a lot closer to Rashon Gary from the Packers than he is to someone like Dexter Lawrence. Nobody was giving up a 2nd round pick for a solid pass-rusher who wanted a new deal. That was the dumbest thing I had ever heard when people were speculating that.

The Packers got a 4th round pick from Dallas for R. Gary. For the Vikings to get two 3rds (one of them in next year's draft which is widely known to be LOADED) is a respectable haul for a guy who wanted a new contract, was coming off an injury and had barely gotten into the new contract he had signed recently.
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I guess? I just don’t view saying we didn’t get much out of a guy who’s been pretty damn good for us on a team we’re selling as contender (so holding onto him should be under consideration) is “batshit crazy”.

On Gary, advanced analytics are massively in style and his sucked and have gotten worse. That’s why he was worth next to nothing. Greenards have remained quite good even when the sack numbers have fluctuated. Whether that’s a good or bad strategy, that’s part of the talking point reality.

It’s not like the said the move was an f and completely fucked the Vikings
 

upnorthkid said:
I guess? I just don’t view saying we didn’t get much out of a guy who’s been pretty damn good for us on a team we’re selling as contender (so holding onto him should be under consideration) is “batshit crazy”.

On Gary, advanced analytics are massively in style and his sucked and have gotten worse. That’s why he was worth next to nothing. Greenards have remained quite good even when the sack numbers have fluctuated. Whether that’s a good or bad strategy, that’s part of the talking point reality.

It’s not like the said the move was an f and completely fucked the Vikings
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I think it was a move they had to make. Greenard kinda put them in that position by asking for more money the offseason after he missed games due to injury. You could make an argument that the very reason they drafted Turner was to ultimately replace Greenard. And here we are.

I get that the "worldwide leader" had to write something so they went with this. Not a big deal. The Vikings moved a solid player and got a solid return.

The Vikings aren't better because of it, no doubt, but if there was a position to move on from a solid player, with Turner directly behind him on the depth chart, this was it. And the cap savings makes it even more palatable
 

I wouldn't hate this pick for GM. Allegedly a very, very strong eye for identifying and finding talent.

Or this could be a big nothing-burger

 







kg21 said:
It's 4 -3 and the pack sat their starters last year at our place.
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Per Google, we’re both wrong- that sounds about right🤠. I don’t care if they sat their starters or not🤷‍♂️

As head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, Kevin O'Connell holds a 5–3 career record against the Green Bay Packers. [1]

Game-by-Game Breakdown

Season [1, 2, 3]DateGame ResultLocation
2022Sept. 11, 2022Win, 23–7Home
2022Jan. 1, 2023Loss, 17–41Away
2023Oct. 29, 2023Win, 24–10Away
2023Dec. 31, 2023Loss, 10–33Home
2024Sept. 29, 2024Win, 31–29Away
2024Dec. 29, 2024Win, 27–25Home
2025Nov. 23, 2025Loss, 6–23Away
2025Jan. 4, 2026Win, 16–3Home
 

^^^^^ yes, 5-3, if you count that joke of a game last year to end the season.

If we had sat our starters, and they played their starters, it's 4-4
 




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