The Saints have agreed to terms with veteran defensive end Jonathan Bullard, Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports.
Bullard visited with the Saints last month, and his signing will reunite him with Brandon Staley, an assistant with the Bears when Bullard played in Chicago in 2017-18.
Bullard, 31, spent the past three seasons with the Vikings. In 2024, he started all 17 games, recording 41 total tackles with seven for loss, three quarterback hits and one sack. He was on the field for 51 percent of the club’s defensive snaps.
In 116 career games, with 53 starts, Bullard has recorded 221 total tackles with 6.5 sacks.
The Vikings finished the regular season tied for the second-best record in the NFC last year, but because they didn’t win their division, they were the No. 5 seed. That meant they opened the playoffs on the road. And Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson has a problem with that.
Jefferson was asked in an interview with Yahoo Sports whether wild card teams with better records should have home-field advantage in the playoffs, and he answered, “Yes.”
“With the season that we had last year, to go and play away, it definitely was a little different,” Jefferson said. “It definitely needs to go into consideration and something that we need to figure out because having 14 wins . . . normally doesn’t go to play away in the playoffs.”
Jefferson acknowledged that his team had the chance to take care of business when the Vikings faced the Lions with the No. 1 seed on the line in the final game of the regular season.
“We definitely had the opportunity to play home field with the last game in Detroit, but even losing that we still felt like we should’ve had home-field advantage,” Jefferson said. “But even not having home-field advantage is never an excuse. It’s something we had to deal with and we wish we would’ve had home field but it is what it is.”
The Lions offered a proposal this offseason that would have changed playoff seeding, but it didn’t have enough support to pass. Which means a division winner with a losing record can still host a playoff game, and a wild card team with the second-best record in the conference can still have to play on the road.
Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison was set to go to trial on a DUI charge this week, but the case has been resolved through a plea arrangement.
Addison’s agent Tim Younger announced that his client has agreed to a plea on a lesser charge in order to settle the case. The lesser charge, known as a wet reckless, carries a sentence that includes a fine and mandates that Addison complete two online courses in order to end a probation period after six months.
Younger added that Addison has attended courses and events held by Mothers Against Drunk Driving and that he has kept the Vikings apprised of all developments throughout the case.
With the legal process completed, the next issue for Addison will be NFL discipline. A three-game suspension without pay is generally the league’s penalty in cases involving driving under the influence and the wet reckless plea acknowledges that Addison was under the influence at the time of his arrest.
One of the keys to the 2025 Vikings season is the development of quarterback J.J. McCarthy and his top target is taking a hands on role in making sure that the 2024 first-round pick is ready to go.
Wide receiver Justin Jefferson didn’t get much time to work with McCarthy before the quarterback’s season-ending knee injury in the preseason last year and he’s working to strengthen their connection this offseason. Jefferson told Jason Fitz of Yahoo Sports that he is “trying to make him dialed in every chance that I can” in hopes of building up the quarterback’s confidence ahead of his first regular season action.
“Our lockers are right next to each other, so every chance that I get to talk to him about football, about anything that goes on outside of football. Just try to get to know him as much as I can because when the season comes and whenever we’re locked in, I want him to be just as confident as I am of him to make the plays out there.”
The Vikings won 14 games last season and any hope of repeating that kind of success will rely on McCarthy feeling at home in the lineup as soon as possible. A strong bond with Jefferson will be a big part of that process and the next few weeks should see the duo drilling down on making sure that it is in place.
No player has ever recorded 2,000 receiving yards in a single NFL season, but one of the league’s top wideouts thinks that will change in the near future.
Bengals wideout Ja’Marr Chase led the league with 1,708 receiving yards during the 2024 season and he said this week that he thinks we are “closer than people expect” to the moment when a player crosses the 2,000-yard plateau. Chase said he has designs on being the player to do it, but thinks that someone will get there soon.
“The next three years, somebody has to do it, if it’s not me,” Chase said, via Cody Benjamin of CBSSports.com.
Chase tabbed Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson as the other player most likely to set the record and the two LSU products will have a chance to show off on the same field when the Bengals travel to Minnesota in Week 3 this September.
