5 best Minnesota Vikings free agents who are still available
By Nik Edlund
Everson Griffen – DE
The hearts of Minnesota fans across the nation were broken last week with the news that Everson Griffen would be playing for a new team in 2020. The longtime Vikings great was a fan favorite for his energetic play on the field and also his high energy off of it.
What made it harder to swallow was the fact that Minnesota head coach Mike Zimmer expressed confidence at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine that Griffen would be back with the team for 2020. Griffen, himself, even said he wanted to finish his career in purple.
None of these things happened though, as the Vikings and the veteran pass rusher reportedly couldn’t agree to a deal.
With Griffen’s decision to sign elsewhere, Minnesota suddenly became very thin at defensive end and had to go out and bring in Anthony Zettel, who is quite the downgrade.
Griffen is coming off a great season. At age 32, he had eight sacks, 41 tackles, and he was exploding off the football. He played like a man 10 years younger and there is no question he has at least two productive seasons of football left in him.
Griffen can definitely help a team out in 2020 and he can have some say now in where he wants to play. There were some early rumors linking him to the Dallas Cowboys, but those were shot down. The Seattle Seahawks have also been mentioned, as he played his college ball for Pete Carroll at USC, but nothing concrete has come out of that either.
No matter where he goes, Vikings fans will monitor closely how he performs next season and they will be rooting for him, as long as he isn’t facing his former team.