Who are the fastest players on the Minnesota Vikings current roster?
In the 2006 film Talladega Nights, actor Will Ferrell’s character, Ricky Bobby, declares, “America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, badass speed.”
Mr. Bobby is on the right track in this thinking and it also applies to professional football, to an extent. Several other in-game factors affect a player’s speed such as agility, explosion, and elusiveness.
The 2020 Minnesota Vikings have about a dozen players on their roster who have below-4.5 speed (using 40-yard dash as the metric). Not all of them will make the team’s final depth chart this year, but this will be hashed out in the next two months.
Left out of this analysis are players that will “probably” not make the Vikings 53-man roster for the 2020 season including Dan Chisena (4.32), Mark Fields (4.37), Dillon Mitchell (4.46), and Tony Brooks-James (4.49). This is not intended to disrespect their prospect of making the team, but instead, it serves as a nod to those on the depth chart that occupy relatively safe spots.
Three honorable mentions will not formally make this list as well.
Dalvin Cook ran a 4.49-second 40-yard dash at the 2017 NFL Scouting Combine. He is on the outside looking in for the top five. Holton Hill ran the same 40-time at the 2018 Combine and he deserves a mention.
And lastly, Adam Thielen is said to have run a 4.45-second 40-yard dash at his Pro Day in 2014, which is phenomenal. Yet, he misses the cut for this particular top five because of age–he turns 30 this summer.
Although neither of these three men are slow (at all), they narrowly are bested by the five following players, in ascending order.
Jeff Gladney – CB
Rookie cornerback Jeff Gladney was selected by the Vikings in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft with the 31st pick. Minnesota traded their previously-held 25th overall pick to the San Francisco 49ers on draft night for the 31st, 117th, and 176th overall selections.
As for the compensation the Vikings ended up with for this six-spot backward slide, they went ahead and picked defensive end D.J. Wonnum, wide receiver K.J. Osborn, and, of course, Gladney.
At 5-foot-10 and 191 pounds, the Minnesota rookie showed off a 40-yard dash time of 4.48 at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine. Quite a few other cornerbacks were also selected in the first round of the 2020 draft and Gladney’s speed is in the conversation with most of them.
The Vikings’ two starting cornerbacks from their 2019 roster no longer play for the team. Gladney should have a feasible opportunity to win a starting spot on Minnesota’s depth chart right out of the gate this year.
K.J. Osborn – WR
As referenced with the trade that acquired Jeff Gladney, Vikings general manager Rick Spielman scooped up wide receiver K.J. Osborn out of the University of Miami in the fifth round as one of his spoils from the swap.
Like Gladney, Osborn also ran a 4.48-second 40-yard dash at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine. This particular measurement made him the 18th-fastest receiver in this year’s draft pool, a position group that was praised for its depth.
If you have a sentimental affinity to this selection, it might be because former Minnesota receiver Stefon Diggs was also drafted in the fifth round by Spielman. It turned out to be a profitable pick.
For some perspective on Osborn’s speed, he ran the same 40-time as current NFL players Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel. And his 4.48-second 40-time nudges past guys around the league like Aaron Jones, Nick Chubb, Miles Sanders, and Dalvin Cook.
There is a very, very firm possibility that Osborn will be returning punts and/or kickoffs for the Vikings inside U.S. Bank Stadium during the upcoming 2020 season.
Mike Boone – RB
As an exiting-upperclassman from the University of Cincinnati, current Vikings No. 3 running back, Mike Boone, clocked a 4.45-second 40-time at his Pro Day in 2018. Notably, that is the same time that was recently run by Denver Broncos rookie receiver Jerry Jeudy and previously by current Miami Dolphins wide receiver DeVante Parker.
Unlike the previous two speedsters, Minnesota and its fans have actually seen Boone play in the NFL.
In two seasons, he has filled the role as the Vikings’ third running back and he’s played in 24 out of a possible 32 regular-season games. Boone has accumulated 52 touches during his time on the field and he turned those opportunities into 338 yards from scrimmage.
Albeit a small sample size, Boone’s 5.6 yards per touch in 2019 puts him in the discussion with Aaron Jones (5.5 yards per touch) and Saquon Barkley (5.4 yards per touch).
He even snapped off a 59-yard scamper on the first play of Minnesota’s Week 17 game against the Chicago Bears last season. Boone detonated the Bears defense that day for 160 yards from scrimmage and touchdown.
Kris Boyd – CB
For Vikings cornerback Kris Boyd, speed will more than likely be an afterthought in 2020, in terms of an asset anyway. The team is amid a relaunch of its cornerback personnel, and Boyd figures to be a potential ingredient.
This year, he will battle current Minnesota teammates like Mike Hughes, Holton Hill, Jeff Gladney, Cameron Dantzler, Harrison Hand, Nate Meadors, and Mark Fields for a spot on the roster and subsequent playing time.
As for speed, Boyd also ran a 4.45-second 40-yard dash at the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine and it made him one of the 10 fastest cornerbacks to be drafted last year. The Vikings grabbed him in the seventh round with the 217th overall pick.
Boyd was a special teams stalwart for Minnesota last season as he was on the field for 72 percent of such snaps. He also snuck into the gameplan of the Vikings defense at times in 2019, notching a total of 96 defensive snaps.
Justin Jefferson – WR
Here’s your guy.
Justin Jefferson is currently the fastest player on the Vikings projected 2020 depth chart. His speed does not drastically outpace his fellow Minnesota teammates, but that is okay. Multiple speedsters can bode well for an indoor-heavy offense.
The rookie wideout from LSU blazed to a 40-yard dash time of 4.43 seconds at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine. It was the ninth-fastest time of any wide receiver in the 2020 draft class. More importantly, that time made him the second-fastest receiver to be drafted in the first round this year as only Henry Ruggs III topped Jefferson’s 40-time when he clocked in at a heat-seeking 4.27 seconds.
Jefferson is also the fastest wide receiver to be drafted by the Vikings since Cordarrelle Patterson back in 2013. For those curious, both basically have the same speed as Patterson ran a 4.42-second 40-yard dash at the 2013 Combine.
Jefferson’s speed will be on display during the upcoming season, among other attributes, as Minnesota will seek to replace the production void left by Stefon Diggs’ exit. Jefferson was the keynote compensation for Diggs when the Vikings finagled a deal to ship the oft-discontented wideout to the Buffalo Bills in March.
Minnesota, after draft day hopscotch, ended up receiving a fourth-round pick in 2021 from Buffalo, another fourth-round pick in 2021 from the Chicago Bears, a fifth-round pick in 2021 from the Baltimore Ravens, and former Michigan State defensive end Kenny Willekes from the seventh round of this year’s draft all thanks to the Diggs trade.