4 free agents who could save the Minnesota Vikings season

Dwayne Harris – PR/KR

For the majority of the last decade, the Vikings were able to rely on Marcus Sherels as their punt returner. Sherels rarely muffed any punts and he was always a threat to take a return to the house.

But he’s gone now (so is the ghost of him who played briefly for Minnesota in 2019) and the Vikings haven’t been able to find a reliable punt returner since his departure.

Minnesota thought rookie receiver K.J. Wright would be the answer this season. But it turns out OTAs and the preseason actually matter when it comes to the evaluation first-year players as the Vikings replaced him in Week 3 with Chad Beebe.

Beebe might be a solid placeholder as Minnesota’s punt returner for now, but he’s not the permanent solution for the role. The Vikings need to bring in someone who has both experience and success as a returner in the NFL.

That guy could be Dwayne Harris.

Harris has been in the NFL since 2011 and during his time in the league, he’s established himself as a solid return specialist. He only appeared in three games for the Oakland Raiders last season due to an ankle injury. But with the Raiders in 2018, he led the league in punt return average.

As an added bonus, Harris could take over as Minnesota’s kick returner this season as well. The Vikings rank last in the NFL starting field position this season, so they need to do something in order to keep Kirk Cousins as far away from his own end zone as possible.