Offensive lineman Dalton Risner is headed back to Minnesota.
Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, Risner has agreed to terms on a one-year deal to re-sign with the Vikings.
Risner, 28, signed with the Vikings last September and appeared in 15 games for the team with 11 starts.
The Broncos selected Risner in the second round of the 2019 draft. He started 62 games for Denver over his first four seasons. He partially tore the UCL in his right elbow late in the 2022 season as he was heading into free agency.
Overall, Risner has appeared in 77 games with 73 starts.
If and when the Vikings get a long-term deal done with receiver Justin Jefferson, the Bengals need to be ready to move.
Receiver Ja’Marr Chase will want his own new deal after Jefferson gets his. And Chase might want to catch or beat Jefferson in new-money average.
The difference is that Chase has three NFL seasons, where Jefferson has four. That actually will make it easier for the Bengals to increase the new-money average from the total package, since Chase is due to make $31.6 million total over the next two years.
If, for example, Jefferson pushes the bar to $35 million per year in new money, the Bengals could give Chase a three-year, $105 million extension ($35 million per year). That’s a five-year, $136.6 million deal. The total value at signing would be $27.32 million.
If the magic number is $36 million per year in new money, $28.2 million per year becomes the average from signing.
The point is that, with $31.6 million left on his rookie deal, it’s easier to pump up the new-money average in Chase’s next contract. And, as we’ve seen throughout the offseason, it’s never going to get cheaper to wait. The moment Jefferson gets his contract, the Bengals shouldn’t wait more than a minute to get Chase’s deal done.
They’ve been trying to do it for a year. The Vikings have spurned all interest in a potential trade from other teams. The clock is ticking on the ideal time to get a deal done.
Will the Vikings and receiver Justin Jefferson get there?
If the Vikings are going to do it, it makes sense to do it before training camp opens. Get him in the fold and get him ready for the season, in order to get the most out of the new investment the Vikings will be making. It would be even better to do it before next week’s mandatory minicamp, both to get Jefferson on the field with rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy — and to avoid creating panic among Vikings fans who choose to view the glass as half full.
Both sides remain willing to get to the finish line. Before the 2023 season began, Jefferson was ready to go but the Vikings wouldn’t get to where they needed to be. Since then, it’s gotten more expensive — especially with the cap going up and with G.M. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah saying this at the Scouting Combine: “We’ve said it and we’ll continue to say it, we think he’s the best wide receiver in the league and should be compensated as such. We think he’s one of the best non-quarterbacks in the league, think he should be compensated as such.”
The highest-paid non-quarterback, 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa, has a new-money average of $34 million per year. The other issue has been, and presumably still is, the structure. Although the Vikings broke their quarterback-only approach to full guarantees beyond one year when signing tight end T.J. Hockenson to a new deal, we’ve consistently gotten the impression that it’s going to take three years of every penny fully guaranteed at signing. (A potential compromise would be to have the first two years fully guaranteed and to have the third year become fully guaranteed in March 2025.)
Regardless, even though it seems that the Vikings have at times dragged their feet and at times have potentially contemplated letting Jefferson finish his five-year rookie deal before playing the franchise-tag game and had potentially even tried to trade up for Jefferson’s replacement in Malik Nabers (who’s making $29 million total on a four-year deal), they want to keep Jefferson and they quite possibly will work it out, either before training camp or even before next week’s mandatory minicamp. Those are the two most obvious points to get it done in a way that both secures his long-term future in Minnesota and that maximizes his ability to contribute at a high level in 2024.
Vikings fans remain understandably optimistic, because the alternative seems impossible to comprehend. Yes, the Vikings traded Randy Moss, Percy Harvin, and Stefon Diggs over the past 19 years. But, frankly, at his best Jefferson is better than any of them — and unlike his purple predecessors he has never been a problem, in any way, shape, or form.
Superstar players are few and far between. When you have one, it’s important to figure out how to keep him. Even if doing so costs more than you’d like to pay or requires you to employ structural devices you’d rather avoid.
Are the Vikings accepting that reality? Their fans surely hope so.
The Vikings signed fourth-round defensive back Khyree Jackson on Tuesday, the team announced.
Minnesota now has five of seven selections signed, with only first-rounders J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner unsigned. The Vikings previously signed sixth-round offensive tackle Walter Rouse, sixth-round kicker Will Reichard, seventh-round offensive lineman Michael Jurgens and seventh-round defensive lineman Levi Drake Rodriguez.
Jackson will compete for significant playing time with the Vikings. They have plenty of questions about the depth chart with Byron Murphy, who they signed in free agency in 2023, free agent signee Shaquill Griffin, Akayleb Evans, Mekhi Blackmon and Andrew Booth Jr. also in the competition.
In 2023 at Oregon, Jackson started all 12 games and led the team with three interceptions. He also totaled 34 tackles, two sacks, five tackles for loss and seven pass breakups. He also played at Alabama.
I heard it on draft night. Chris Simms heard it on draft night. Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press recently put it in print.
The Vikings, as the rumor goes, were trying to trade up with the Chargers for the fifth overall pick in the draft, so that the Vikings could take LSU receiver Malik Nabers.
The Chargers, as I heard it, had divisions internally as to whether to trade down or to take Notre Dame tackle Joe Alt. Ultimately, coach Jim Harbaugh held firm and took Alt.
I didn’t hear what that would have meant for the Vikings and receiver Justin Jefferson. As reported by Walters, Jefferson would have been traded.
Obviously, this hasn’t been widely reported because it falls in the bucket of “things they don’t want us to know.” And also because, if true, it complicates the Vikings’ ongoing effort to re-sign Jefferson.
The Vikings insist they’ll get it done. It hasn’t gotten done. It won’t get any cheaper.
If other teams didn’t have reason to contact the Vikings about a possible deal, they do now. And the Vikings quite possibly are waiting for someone to blow them away with an offer they can’t refuse.
Will that happen? More specifically, will another team combine a massive contract offer to Jefferson with the kind of trade package that would prompt the Vikings to make a move?
Or will the Vikings try to kick the can until after the 2024 season and then tag Jefferson and, like the Ravens did with Lamar Jackson, wait for someone to sign (or not sign) the player to an offer sheet? If someone does and the Vikings don’t match, they get two first-round picks.
The Vikings can end the drama any time they want by signing Jefferson. Until that happens, there’s a chance it never will. One of the major factors will be whether someone else is ready to give Jefferson what he wants — and whether that team will give the Vikings what they need to part with the best receiver in football.