Possible Vikings free agent target No. 1: Laviska Shenault
2023 Team: Carolina Panthers ($1.659M cap hit)
Another player who had some early success in his career but has somewhat disappeared is Laviska Shenault. He is another receiver who the Minnesota Vikings could bring in and evaluate to see what the problem was in Carolina.
Shenault was a target machine during his early career with the Jacksonville Jaguars. In his first two seasons, he was thrown at 179 times and turned that into 1,219 yards and five touchdowns. It has been a different story with the Panthers where he only had 42 targets in 21 games played.
An ankle injury in 2023 put him on the shelf, but the Panthers definitely didn't get their two draft picks worth of value out of their trade with Jacksonville. Since Shenault wasn't productive in Carolina, he sunk to fifth on their depth chart.
Leviska Shenault is also no stranger to kickoff returns. He averaged 27.7 yards on nine returns for Carolina but his potential shown earlier in his career would be the reason to take a chance on the 25-year-old pass catcher.