5 landing spots for Jayron Kearse in free agency this offseason

Detroit Lions

Jayron Kearse made it clear fairly early in the 2019 season, that he wouldn’t be coming back to the Vikings in 2020. It was a little surprising since, at the time, Minnesota was doing well and he was getting his fair share of defensive snaps.

He clearly believes he could start somewhere though and he could feel some resentment towards the Vikings for not giving him that opportunity. So this bitter feeling could lead him to land with a division rival. The one NFC North rival who could stand to upgrade at safety is the Detroit Lions.

The Lions currently have Tracy Walker and Tavon Wilson as their starters at safety. These guys both racked up a lot of tackles, but they didn’t make many splash-plays over the course of the 2019 season.

Behind them, Detroit’s safety depth isn’t great either. The worst case is Kearse would come in as the No. 3 safety and then compete for one of the starting jobs. He would also compete to play for some time in the slot as the Lions’ corner depth is very iffy after Darius Slay and Justin Coleman.

Detroit would also make sense for Kearse because of head coach Matt Patricia. Patricia is a defensive-minded guy from the Bill Belichick coaching tree, so he could also look to use Kearse in a variety of ways. He could line him up at linebacker from time to time and see what kind of impact plays he could make.

It would be tough for Vikings fans to see Kearse joining a division rival. But if he were to don the powder blue of the Lions, at least they’d still get to see him play twice a season.