The Minnesota Vikings have a handful of players who don't deserve to be back with the team for the 2024 NFL season.
The Minnesota Vikings 2023 season has been in the books for well over a month. The team is now making preparations for free agency and the draft, and they need to decide who to keep, who to get rid of, and who to go after.
The Vikings need to improve their roster on both sides of the ball if they are going to catch the Detroit Lions and reclaim their throne as the kings of the NFC North.
When improving this roster and ensuring the best 53 players make the team this August, they need to look back and decide on players who proved they don't deserve to be back.
Maybe these players didn't perform up to expectations, maybe they can't get on the field due to constantly being injured, or maybe some are regressing to the point a change needs to be made.
No matter what the reason, the players listed today have shown that they do not deserve another year in Purple.
That doesn't mean they won't be back, as there are a ton of different factors that go into these decisions. However, Minnesota would be better off if they moved on from these players who don't deserve to be back.
Player No. 1
Akayleb Evans - CB
Akayleb Evans entered the year as the starting cornerback opposite Byron Murphy. He had an up-and-down, injury-plagued rookie season, but he had a stellar 2023 training camp, and he earned a starting job.
Throughout the majority of the season, his play was inconsistent. He had some very good games and then would follow those up with some stinkers. He did manage to stay healthy for the majority of the season and started 15 games.
His stats don't look too bad either, as he racked up 65 tackles, three forced fumbles, seven passes defensed, and intercepted one pass. What these stats fail to show is how badly his play fell off at the end of the year.
Evans was horrible in the last couple of games. It's unclear if this was a confidence issue or if he was hurt and not letting it be known, but Evans couldn't cover anyone.
He looked lost on the field and unsure of his assignment. Almost routinely, his man was running wide open across the field, giving opponents easy completions.
It got so bad he was benched in favor of undrafted rookie cornerback Jaylin Williams. He even was benched a game, and then when he was given another chance, he failed again.
Evans was so bad there's no reason to bring him back. The Vikings will likely add a corner in free agency and the draft, and with Byron Murphy, Mekhi Blackmon, and even Andrew Booth (who started to show a little bit at season's end), Evans could be the odd man out.
He likely will be kept for depth, but his play was so awful late last season that he deserves to be cut.
Player No. 2
Alexander Mattison - RB
Alexander Mattison finally got his chance to be a starting running back in the NFL. After years of getting leftover scraps from Dalvin Cook, Mattison was re-signed by the team to be the man, and he failed miserably in that role.
Mattison was awful as a lead-back. He ran the ball 180 times for 700 yards and no rushing touchdowns. How does a starting back in today's NFL not get a single rushing touchdown with 180 carries?
It's something that rarely happens in the NFL, and until 2023, it had never happened in the history of the Vikings. Mattison also had three fumbles on the year, was sketchy as a receiver, and, at one point in the season, led the entire league in drops.
Mattison has always lacked vision, and that showed up this season as he failed to find the holes or show enough wiggle to avoid defenders and pick up yardage when it wasn't there.
Mattison proved he's better off as a complementary back, and that is the role he needs to go back to. He doesn't deserve to be back as the primary ball carrier, as the Vikings can find a similar back in the mid-rounds of the draft or off the street in free agency.
However, he likely will be because the Vikings aren't going to save much by cutting him and will also face a pretty hefty amount of dead money.
Player No. 3
Lewis Cine - S
The Vikings might as well just suck it up and admit Lewis Cine was a mistake.
It's hard for Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to swallow as he was his first-ever draft pick, and in the trade down, he passed on a lot of quality players like Kyle Hamilton, Trent McDuffie, and Jordan Davis. But the truth is that Cine may just not ever figure it out at the NFL level.
Yes, Cine broke his leg in year one, and that set him back. Let's not forget he was fourth on the depth chart before that.
This season, he came back ready to roll, and instead of moving up the depth chart, he slid down to it to become the fifth safety on the team. Theo Jackson surpassed him and saw much more playing time than the former first-round pick.
Cine was primarily a special teamer in 2023. He did see some defensive snaps late and even registered his first career defensive tackle. That's not the kind of return one wants to see through two years from a first-round pick.
Cine has a chance to ascend the depth chart this season. Harrison Smith likely won't be brought back due to his massive contract and regression on the field. However, the Vikings could sign a free-agent safety or draft one, and that would put Cine right back to being on the fringe of this roster.
Cine should've shown some signs of hope last season. Yes, he was learning a new system and getting his legs back under him after being out with that horrible injury, but he generated next to no buzz.
The only thing he's proven is that he deserves to not be on this team moving forward, and there's a good chance he won't be.
Player No. 4
Garrett Bradbury - C
It was a mild shock when the Vikings brought Garrett Bradbury back during the 2023 offseason. He was coming off another subpar season and it was expected the team would look elsewhere for a center, especially with a new front office and coaching staff in place from the one that drafted him.
He was always okay as a run blocker, using his athleticism to get to the second level, but his issue has always been with pass protection. Bradbury simply lacks the lower body strength to anchor against bigger defensive linemen. When facing a bullrush, more times than not, he would end up in Kirk Cousins' lap.
Bradbury can be easily replaced and upgraded with a free-agent signing. A mid-round rookie could also contend for his job, and that is a route the Vikings should explore this April.
There's no question Bradbury will be on this team in 2024, but he doesn't deserve it. His zero pass-blocking grade that he earned late last season proves that point.
Here's hoping a rookie can contend with him and take his job. Otherwise, it'll be more of the same this season.
Player No. 5
Dean Lowry - DL
Dean Lowry wasn't an overly exciting signing by the Vikings last year, but one that many deemed solid.
The reason it was seen that way was that Lowry was a guy who just quietly went about his business and did his job.
In his previous three seasons with the Packers, he averaged just under three sacks a season and about 40 sacks. That was the baseline that many Vikings fans were expecting to see from him.
Lowry fell way below that line. He totaled just 14 tackles and recovered one fumble. He was so quiet, that many forgot he was ever even signed.
He ended up getting hurt and missing a handful of games, but it was clear he was a free-agent bust well before that.
The Minnesota Vikings are going to invest heavily in their defensive line in free agency and the draft. They need to get more talent across the board, and when they do that, Lowry will end up at the bottom of the depth chart.
It appears his best football is behind him, and he clearly showed he doesn't deserve another season with the Vikings, and he probably doesn't even deserve another season in the NFL.