The Vikings are placing a restricted free agent tender on defensive lineman Jalen Redmond, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports.
Redmond, 26, appeared in all 17 games for the Vikings last season, starting 15 games. He totaled 62 tackles, six sacks, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and five pass breakups.
He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent, signing with the Panthers out of Oklahoma in 2023. Redmond went on the physically unable to perform list during his first training camp, and the Panthers cut him.
Redmond played with the Arlington Renegades in the XFL in 2024, and then caught on with the Vikings that summer.
In 2024, he played 13 games, with two starts, and recorded 18 tackles, one sack and two pass breakups.
The Cardinals will release quarterback Kyler Murray next week. Where will he land?
DraftKings has the Vikings as the early favorites to sign the first overall pick in the 2019 draft, at -110.
The Jets are next at +175, with the Dolphins at +320 and the Browns at +450.
The Falcons, at +500, are one of the most intriguing options, given their talent elsewhere on offense. As mentioned over the weekend, however, new president of football operations Matt Ryan (a 6'5" former quarterback) will have to be content to ride with an undersized signal caller.
There’s a long shot to watch, at +7500: The Rams. They’ll likely need a replacement for Jimmy Garoppolo at No. 2 behind Matthew Stafford, and there’s an unverified (for now) rumor making the rounds that Stafford has already contacted Murray to make the case for coming to L.A.
Murray’s former head coach in Arizona, Kliff Kingsbury, is now a member of the Rams’ coaching staff. And Murray’s former Oklahoma teammate, Baker Mayfield, had a late 2022 cup of coffee with the Rams that may have helped launch his resurgence in Tampa.
The real question is whether Murray wants to play in 2026, or whether he’s content to take a step back for a year and lay the foundation for wherever he’ll be in 2027.
Either way, the clock is ticking (as it is for all of us). Murray turns 29 later this year. The high-end speed and acceleration will fade. At some point, he’ll need to transition to pocket passer if he hopes to keep playing deep into his 30s.
When the Giants benched and then cut quarterback Daniel Jones during the 2024 season, it seemed that his days of making significant NFL money had ended. They’re now back.
Jones’ long-term deal with the Giants had an average value of $40 million per year. His one-year transition tender from the Colts has a total value of $37.833 million. If/when he accepts it, the amount will be fully guaranteed — without exception or limitation, despite the fact that he’s still less than three months removed from a torn Achilles tendon.
Jones now has the ability to see what’s out there, and to determine whether a team will sign him to an offer sheet that the Colts perhaps wouldn’t match. Sometimes, teams are reluctant to devote time and effort to essentially negotiating a player’s next deal with his current employer, given the possibility that the offer will be matched. On other occasions, a team will do a favor for the player’s agents in the hopes of having the favor returned later.
Jones is represented by Athletes First. The firm has many clients. If another team is willing to make Jones an offer that the Colts would likely match, that team will have performed an important service for Jones and his representatives.
Of course, that team would have to be willing to acquire Jones under the terms that are offered and accepted, if the Colts choose not to match.
Then there’s the question of whether Jones’s agents will share with the Colts the terms of an acceptable offer sheet before Jones signs it. That would give the Colts an opportunity to rescind the transition tender and to have Jones’s departure count toward next year’s compensatory draft pick formula. (If Jones signs an offer sheet and the Colts don’t match, his departure will become irrelevant to the compensatory pick process.)
Through it all, Jones has the ability to accept the one-year offer and to receive $37.833 million for 2026. It would be a significant bump over his one-year, $14 million deal from a year ago. And it would set him up for another opportunity to hit the market in 2027, with the Colts having the franchise or transition tag available again.
Bottom line? It’s not a bad spot for Jones to be in. Especially since he’s not currently healthy.
There is another option available at edge rusher as the new league year approaches.
Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Vikings are open to trading Jonathan Greenard.
Greenard, 28, has spent the last two seasons with the Vikings. But his 2025 was impacted by injury, as he was able to play only 12 games with 10 starts. His shoulder issue required surgery to correct.
Greenard ended the 2025 season with 3.0 sacks, 10 tackles for loss, and 12 quarterback hits.
He is set to carry a $22.15 million cap number in 2026, which is part of why the Vikings are open to moving him. Schefter notes that the Vikings would like to keep Greenard, but the edge rusher’s cap number is an issue.
Minnesota would save $12.25 million against the cap with $9.9 million in dead money if the club were to release Greenard.
A third-round pick in the 2020 draft, Greenard has registered 38.0 sacks with 60 tackles for loss and 75 quarterback hits in his 77 career games.
The Vikings have landed in a salary-cap crunch. They’ll be slashing contracts in order to get in compliance.
After going all in last year (on every position but quarterback), the Vikings are currently slated to be $43 million over the brand-new $301.2 million salary cap. All teams need to be under the limit by 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 11.
To help get there, the Vikings will be releasing (or possibly trading) running back Aaron Jones and defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, reports Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. Both players are represented by agent Drew Rosenhaus.
The moves will create $18.65 million in cap space, per Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com.
Per Seifert, other players who could be released include defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and center Ryan Kelly. Cap space also can be created by restructuring the contracts of receiver Justin Jefferson, tight end T.J. Hockenson, and tackle Brian O’Neill.
The cap purge will put a premium on spending wisely in 2026 — and on getting more out of their draft picks.
Hovering over the entire organization is the quarterback question. Who will they add to a depth chart currently led by third-year first-rounder J.J. McCarthy?
They need to have someone who’ll push him. To supplant him, if he doesn’t develop sufficiently. To replace him, if/when he’s injured again.
