Last year, the Vikings wrote big checks in an effort to parlay a 14-3 season from 2024 into a Super Bowl appearance. This year, the team seems to be tightening the belt.
While part of the purple people purge was sparked by the cap consequences of last year’s spending spree, the most recent move — the decision to trade defensive end Jonathan Greenard in lieu of giving him a contract with a new-money average of $25 million — seemed strange. With the top of the new-money market now at $50 million annually, the Vikings couldn’t find a way to give Greenard half of that?
The situation is prompting speculation that a sale of the team could be coming. And it elevated from scattered chatter to a column from Charley Walters in the St. Paul Pioneer Press with a fairly blunt headline: “Are the Wilfs getting ready to sell the Vikings?”
The most obvious evidence to support that conclusion comes from the $124 million drop in cash spending from one year to the next, with a league-high $350 million in 2025 becoming $226 million in 2027, second lowest in the NFL.
The new Walters column picks through a variety of decisions the Vikings have made this offseason, but it includes no reporting to suggest that Zygi and Mark Wilf, who bought the team in 2005, are thinking about cashing out.
While the ever-inflating values of NFL franchises could tempt more than a few current owners to take $10 billion or more and run, there’s not enough there to justify a conclusion that this is anything other than a cap correction after the Vikings overplayed their hand in 2025, due primarily to the very bad decision(s) made about the most important position on the team.
Minnesota’s 2025 miscues cost G.M. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah his job. Waiting to search for his replacement until May surely wasn’t about saving four months of General Manager salary. It made sense to stay the course through free agency and the draft, especially if coach Kevin O’Connell emerged from 2025 with more juice in the organization.
If, as we believe, O’Connell was sounding the alarm about not having a veteran quarterback who could step in and play if J.J. McCarthy didn’t instantly fulfill his potential, KOC was proven right. Throw in the fact that he managed to get the team to turn the page immediately on a 26-0 embarrassment in Seattle with a 31-0 win over Washington and four more in a row after that to end the season (including a Christmas Day carving of the Lions’ playoff chances), O’Connell may have more sway than ever.
While no one will objectively conclude that the Minnesota roster screams out “Super Bowl contender” for 2026, the spending decisions don’t immediately point to a potential sale of the team. Still, perception is reality. With the hypothesis morphing into the beginnings of a theory, it could be time for the Wilfs to make the case publicly that they aren’t getting ready to pound a “For Sale” sign in the front yard.
Vikings Clips
Next year’s draft will happen in D.C. The location of the draft after that has yet to be determined.
Signs are pointing to the Twin Cities.
Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal reports that Minnesota is the “clear favorite” to host the 2028 draft.
Minnesota submitted a bid in March. The three-day process would center on U.S. Bank Stadium. Other events would happen in St. Paul, at the Mall of America, and in the Viking Lakes development around the team’s headquarters in Eagan.
The league’s events committee is due to meet next week regarding the 2028 draft. An ownership vote is expected at the next ownership meeting, on May 19 and 20 in Orlando.
The draft became a road show in 2015. As it continues to draw more and more people (regardless of any embellishment of the official numbers), it will become more and more attractive to numerous cities.
Since the draft left New York City, it has been hosted by Chicago (twice), Philadelphia, Dallas, Nashville, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Detroit, Green Bay, and Pittsburgh.
The Vikings signed defensive lineman Eric Johnson on Wednesday, the team announced.
Johnson, 27, spent last season with the Colts. He played 12 games, seeing action on 131 defensive snaps and 16 on special teams, and totaled six tackles.
He entered the league as a fifth-round pick of the Colts in 2022.
Johnson spent his first two seasons in Indianapolis before the Patriots claimed him off waivers out of the preseason in 2024. He played 11 games for New England.
Johnson rejoined the Colts in May 2025 when they claimed him off waivers from the Patriots.
He has appeared in 51 games, recording 41 tackles, including two for loss, with one sack, three quarterback hits and one fumble recovery.
After the Vikings made the belated decision to fire G.M. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah beyond the normal post-season pink-slip window, the Vikings did not embark on a search to hire a new General Manager.
They are now.
Owners Mark and Zygi Wilf have announced that the process has begun.
“With the conclusion of the 2026 NFL Draft, our search for the next general manager of the Minnesota Vikings is underway,” the Wilfs said in a statement. “This will be a thorough and deliberate process led by ownership, with support from a small internal advisory committee of senior leaders. We have also engaged respected firm TurnkeyZRG to assist in conducting a wide-ranging search that includes experienced football executives, emerging candidates, and individuals with diverse professional backgrounds.
“Our focus is to identify a decisive leader with a clear vision for team building, strong communication skills, and the ability to build alignment across an organization. Out of respect for all involved, we do not intend to publicly announce candidates and will provide further comment when the search is complete.”
Even if they won’t be publicly announcing candidates, any requests made for permission to speak to employees currently working for other teams inevitably will be leaked to the media.
Without a G.M., Vikings executive V.P. of football operations Rob Brzezinski led the draft and free agency process. He could potentially be a candidate to assume the G.M. role.
The overriding question is whether coach Kevin O’Connell will emerge from the process with greater influence over the roster. That will make the specific terms of the G.M. job critical — and it will potentially impact Minnesota’s ability to interview and hire candidates under contract with other teams.
Either way, the search has begun for a new General Manager in Minnesota. At a minimum, they’ll need someone who will work well with O’Connell and the coaching staff.
Alignment is the key. With it, a team has a chance. Without it, a team has no shot.
Receiver Jauan Jennings may be getting closer to finding a new team.
Jennings is visiting with the Vikings on Tuesday night and Wednesday, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Jennings, 28, had spent his entire career with the 49ers, with the club having selected him in the seventh round of the 2020 draft. Jennings played 75 games with 32 starts for San Francisco, including 55 receptions for 643 yards with nine touchdowns in 2025.
The Vikings did not select a receiver in this year’s draft over the weekend, which puts them in the market for more depth at the position.
Free agent running back Sincere McCormick has agreed to terms with the 49ers, his representation announced on social media.
The 49ers will have to make a roster move to open a spot for McCormick.
McCormick, 25, joins Jordan James, Kaelon Black and Isaac Guerendo on the depth chart behind Christian McCaffrey.
McCormick joined the 49ers’ practice squad after the Raiders waived him out of the preseason. The team cut him Nov. 18, and he was on the practice squads of the Cardinals, Broncos and Vikings to end the season.
He did not play a down in 2025.
McCormick’s only playing time came with the Raiders in 2024 when he played five games with two starts. He has totaled 45 touches for 212 yards.
The Vikings have officially locked up Jordan Addison for the 2027 season.
Minnesota announced on Monday that the club has exercised Addison’s fifth-year option, putting him under contract for another year.
Addison is now set to make $18 million guaranteed in the final year of his rookie deal.
The No. 23 overall pick of the 2023 draft, Addison has been productive in each of his three seasons, playing alongside one of the league’s top receivers in Justin Jefferson. In 2025, Addison caught 42 passes for 610 yards with three touchdowns in 14 games.
In all, Addison has tallied 175 receptions for 2,396 yards with 22 touchdowns. He’s also rushed for 103 yards with two TDs.
Addison is extension eligible, having completed his third season. The fifth-year option could be a starting point for negotiations on a long-term deal.
The Vikings did not draft any wide receivers this year, but they added four of them to their roster after the draft ended on Saturday.
The team announced the signing of 19 undrafted free agents to go with their nine draft picks and the group includes wideouts Dillon Bell, Shaleak Knotts, Marcus Sanders Jr., and Luke Wysong.
Bell had 119 catches over four seasons at Georgia while Knotts led Maryland with 717 receiving yards last season. Sanders had 50 catches for 797 yards at Georgia Southern in 2025 and Wysong wrapped up his college time at Arizona after playing four years at New Mexico.
The Vikings also signed North Carolina cornerback Marcus Allen, North Texas cornerback Da’Veawn Armstead, Notre Dame linebacker Jordan Botelho, Texas A&M cornerback Tyreek Chappell, South Carolina defensive lineman Monkell Goodwine, UCF linebacker Keli Lawson, Clemson offensive lineman Tristan Leigh, Dartmouth offensive lineman Delby Lemieux, FIU running back Kejon Owens, Virginia Tech offensive lineman Tomas Rimac, Temple linebacker Cam’Ron Stewart, James Madison safety Jacob Thomas, Georgia punter Brett Thorson, Colorado linebacker Arden Walker, and Texas A&M linebacker Scooby Williams.
The Vikings added four players on the second night of the draft. That’s still not the headline.
Minnesota traded defensive end Jonathan Greenard to the Eagles, in a move that entailed both teams proceeding quietly and discreetly while Greenard went to Philadelphia to take a physical.
After the Vikings made their Day 2 picks, executive V.P. of football operations Rob Brzezinski addressed the decision to trade Greenard.
“This is not something we’re jumping around excitedly about, but we do feel like we [did] the best thing for the organization moving forward,” Brzezinski said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN — who described the mood as “somber.”
So why not just give Greenard the four-year, $100 million deal he received from the Eagles? With Will Anderson recently moving the market at the position to $50 million per year, paying Greenard half that amount doesn’t seem to be a ridiculous amount.
“We have just spent so much money the last several years that it’s not sustainable for us to move forward,” Brzezinski said. “Our salary cap situation has been very, very challenging.”
That’s the price for going all-in a year ago, despite not having a viable plan at quarterback. They surely didn’t sign Greenard in 2024 with the goal of keeping him for two years. And so they opted to seize on the opportunity to roll the dice on a pair of younger, cheaper players in the form of a third-round pick in 2026 and a third-round pick in 2027.
The onus now falls on the front office (which currently doesn’t have a G.M.) to get the right players, and on the coaching staff to develop them into contributors. And then to manage the cap in a way that allows them to reward and retain their best players.
When will new Eagles defensive end Jonathan Greenard make his first appearance in Philadelphia? He already has.
Greenard was spotted at the Celtics-76ers NBA playoff game with Eagles’ jack-of-all-trades Big Dom a/k/a Dom DiSandro.
Here’s video of Greenard at the game. Big Dom can be seen behind him.
Per the Eagles, Greenard arrived in Philly earlier in the day for a physical. After it was complete and the deal was agreed to and announced, Greenard went to the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Greenard fills the void that was created when Jaelan Phillips signed a four-year, $120 million deal with the Panthers. The Eagles had given up a third-round pick to the Dolphins in order to secure Phillips for the 2025 stretch run.
