Which player contracts on the Minnesota Vikings have the best value?
This week, Patrick Mahomes inked a megadeal with Kansas City Chiefs that sent shockwaves through the sports industry. His new deal, when it takes effect, will pay him north of $50 million annually. In 2020, the Vikings will spend $22.5 million on the quarterback position. So, there’s your perspective.
In fact, the Vikings will spend $38.8 million on all of their running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends combined in 2020. This is dwarfed by Mahomes’ new salary to the tune of $11 million or so.
Overall, the Vikings have their player contract money allocated somewhat equitably up and down the depth chart. Eight players average over $10 million in earnings per season: Kirk Cousins, Adam Thielen, Danielle Hunter, Anthony Barr, Riley Reiff, Anthony Harris, Harrison Smith, and Eric Kendricks. Dealing Stefon Diggs allowed the team to get out from underneath an additional $12 million per season–which, interestingly enough, is the amount of current cap space the team has.
Of the full roster, here are the top four contracts in terms of best value, ranked from good value to great value.
No. 4 – Eric Wilson (1 year / $3.26 million)
The University of Cincinnati alumni was an undrafted find by Rick Spielman and the Minnesota Vikings in 2017. Fellow linebacker Ben Gedeon was the team’s starting linebacker, for the most part, at the position upon entry into the NFL but Gedeon fell injured in 2019, and Wilson filled in admirably.
Unlike teammate Gedeon, Wilson has displayed sublime durability. Since joining the team, he has played in every single game, though much of this was on special teams prior to 2019. In the last three seasons, Kyle Rudolph, Danielle Hunter, and Eric Wilson are the only Vikings players to claim the distinction of playing in 48 consecutive games.
He’s also accrued 72 combined tackles, five sacks, 10 tackles for loss, and 10 quarterback hits. His Pro Football Focus grade was 67.6 in 2019, and that has progressively risen in the last three years.
At $3.26 million, Wilson is the 13th highest-paid player on the Minnesota Vikings via annual average salary. Wilson will likely start alongside Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks in 2020. And, he will be the 59th highest-paid linebacker in the business. That’s a bargain.
No. 3 – Ifeadi Odenigbo (2 years / $1.23 million)
Ifeadikachukwu Anthony Odenigbo should be coined the EDGE Adam Thielen. For backstory, at least.
He is in the midst of surging up the depth chart, was drafted in the final round of the 2017 NFL Draft, and is doing so on a miniature deal–all very Thielen-esque. Prior to 2019, Odeigbo played just seven snaps of professional football in two seasons. And, those snaps were with the Arizona Cardinals. Last season he become a rotational player and saw action on 34% of all defensive snaps. In that one-third of all eligible snaps, he recorded seven sacks and a touchdown.
Fast forward to the offseason preceding 2020, and it appears Everson Griffen is no longer going to fill the role of starting EDGE rusher for the Vikings.
If Griffen opts to play elsewhere, the starting job should be Odenigbo’s to lose. Ifeadi commendably maximized his opportunity this past season, and it rather evident in the numbers. He leads all Minnesota Vikings players throughout the last two seasons in pressures per snap.
For the time being, he will be doing so at a wickedly affordable price of $615,000, or 10th-lowest salary on the entire team.
No. 2 – Danielle Hunter (5 years / $72 million)
Seventy-two million dollars is a lot; that’s common sense.
Yet relative to the market, Hunter’s age, and his performance–the current contract is very team-friendly. Hunter is just 25 years old and has had six or more sacks in five straight seasons. The only active players to have six or more sacks in more consecutive seasons other than Hunter are Chandler Jones, Carlos Dunlap, Cameron Jordan, Aaron Donald, Mario Addison, and Von Miller. And that is basically because they all started their careers prior to Hunter.
Since joining the Vikings by the way of LSU five years ago, Hunter has the sixth-most sacks in the NFL while only starting 49 games (61% of all games). He did not start out of the gate but managed to oust longtime Vikings defensive end Brian Robison from his starting gig in 2017.
Think of it this way: in Hunter, the Vikings have a top five defensive end, and they are paying him the wage of approximately the 18th or 19th best EDGE rusher in the league. The discrepancy between the best EDGE and 18th-best EDGE in the business is about seven million dollars per year. See Frank Clark’s $21 million annually versus Hunter’s $14.4 million. Spread out over five years and that equates to a savings of nearly $35 million.
No. 1 – Eric Kendricks (5 years / $50 million)
Any time a team has an All-Pro anything for $10 million or less per season, it is a steal of a deal (outside of maybe special teams specialists).
That is precisely what the Minnesota Vikings have with Eric Kendricks. The fifth-year linebacker from UCLA became the first Vikings linebacker since 1980 to bring home the All-Pro bacon last season. In 1980, Matt Blair was selected to First-Team All-Pro.
Heading into 2020, Kendricks is the 22nd-highest paid linebacker in the NFL (this technically includes linebackers like Von Miller and Dee Ford but they are known to line up as EDGE rushers).
The Vikings penned Kendricks to an extension in the spring of 2018 at a point where he had not quite blossomed into the mercenary he is currently. From a budget perspective, the purple and gold are getting a colossal return on investment.
Contextually, Kendricks has the most tackles per game (7.1) of any Vikings player in the last 20 years. This outranks notables such as Chad Greenway, Harrison Smith, E.J. Henderson, and Antoine Winfield.
And heck, Kendricks is not even the most expensive linebacker on the Vikings. That’s Anthony Barr.