The Minnesota Vikings linebacker is off to a rough start this season and he is scheduled to become a free-agent at the end of the year.
Heading into the 2018 offseason, the Minnesota Vikings had a number of in-house decisions to make regarding some of the top young players on their roster.
Anthony Barr, Danielle Hunter, Eric Kendricks, and Stefon Diggs were all scheduled to become free-agents in 2019. To maintain any sort of success in the future, the Vikings could really not afford to lose more than two of these players to free agency.
So during the past offseason, Minnesota was able to get extensions done for Diggs, Hunter, and Kendricks. However, the Vikings and Barr were unable to get a new deal done before the start of the 2018 season.
Minnesota Vikings
Through Minnesota’s first four games this year, not giving the young linebacker a new contract looks like a great decision by the team’s front office.
Once a defender that struck fear into opposing offenses, Barr’s performance in 2018 has been anything but frightening. After doing nothing special in the Vikings’ first two games this season, the linebacker’s weaknesses have been glaring during the past two weeks.
Against the Buffalo Bills in Week 3, Barr was embarrassed by the mobility of Bills rookie quarterback Josh Allen on multiple occasions.
Instead of pounding the rookie signal-caller into the ground, the Vikings linebacker was caught chasing Allen on a touchdown run, he was the victim of a stiff-arm by the young quarterback, and he was on the receiving end of a highlight-reel play that saw Allen hurdle right over the top of him.
During Minnesota’s matchup on Thursday against the Los Angeles Rams, Barr’s shortcomings in pass coverage were exploited to the max.
What was partly due to some miscommunications between Vikings defenders, the young linebacker was left trying to cover Rams playmakers Todd Gurley, Cooper Kupp, and Robert Woods.
Unsurprisingly, it did not go well.
In coverage on Thursday, Barr allowed four catches for 119 yards and three touchdowns. Pass coverage is obviously not a top skill of his, but he was flat out torched against Los Angeles.
Barr is on the final year of his rookie contract and he is making $12.3 million this season. When his deal runs out at the end of the year, he’s probably going to want to continue getting paid a similar amount per season.
So far though, the linebacker’s performance in 2018 is making Minnesota’s decision to re-sign him in 2019 pretty darn easy. If his Barr’s play continues to be as poor as it has this season, he’s going to struggle getting a good contract from any team in the NFL next year, let alone the Vikings.
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