Newly extended TE Josh Oliver is a subtly valuable asset

The Vikings extended their TE2, who has become a low key very important role player

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

EAGAN — Unless you are in a 32-team league, you have never drafted Josh Oliver in your fantasy league. Unless you are so obsessed with making trades on Madden that you moved TJ Hockenson for draft picks, you have probably never thrown a video game pass to Josh Oliver. Yet, in real, football Oliver is a highly valued player that provides the Minnesota Vikings with a dynamic element that most teams do not have in their arsenal.

That’s why on Tuesday the Vikings announced that they signed Oliver to a three-year extension, which ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported is worth $23.3 million with $11.9 in new guarantees.

Two years ago when the Vikings added Oliver to the roster, there was a bit of sticker shock for a TE2. His three-year, $21 million contract put him within shouting distance of veteran tight ends with fairly significant deals like Dawson Knox ($9.3 million per year), Hunter Henry ($9 million/year) and Tyler Higbee ($8.5 million/year). There was a legitimate question of whether the former Baltimore Raven would see the field enough to justify such a contract after the Vikings had already acquired the Pro Bowler Hockenson.

But in the first two seasons of his career in purple, the 6-foot-5, 260-pound tight end has subtly proven his worth and earned more years with the franchise that have the potential to be even more valuable than his first two.

Oliver’s value begins with his blocking. In 2024 he ranked by Pro Football Focus as the No. 1 run blocking tight end in the NFL and sixth best in 2023. He was on the field for 307 run blocking snaps, one behind 49ers superstar tight end George Kittle.

“No disrespect to anyone else, but I think Josh Oliver is the best blocking Y [tight end] with pass game value in the NFL,” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said. “I've liked a lot of them over the years, but what he brings to us from a physicality standpoint in the run game from being able to block defensive ends — some really good players as a single blocker, a lot of times those guys say you should never let a tight end block you…Josh is kind of a different human when it comes to that and we try to get him to walk off the bus first anytime we're traveling.”

The Vikings overall run game has not ranked highly in the league since Kevin O’Connell arrived in 2022 but in the early parts of last season it flashed just how dangerous it could be when Oliver could be paired with superstar left tackle Christian Darrisaw and a healthy/spry running back. Before Darrisaw went down, Jones averaged 5.2 yards per carry. He posted games of more than 90 yards four times in the first seven weeks but only accomplished that once the rest of the way.

To dive a little deeper, per PFF Jones had 79 rushes that went outside of the tackles for 414 yards, good for 5.2 yards per carry. When he ran anywhere else he averaged 4.0 YPC.

With the return of Darrisaw and the offensive line rebuilt to be much more stout in the run game via the additions of Donovan Jackson, Ryan Kelly and Will Fries, the impact of Oliver can be felt more by the opposing defense.

That’s only part of the equation. Oliver’s nastiness in the run game forces teams to make a decision: Do they put in a linebacker to battle against him in the ground game or do they leave their lighter personnel out there and risk getting steamrolled? Few teams these days employ multiple run-stopping linebackers as the league has gotten lighter at that position.

“With the run game you can always get a matchup somewhere where the nickel has got to be he's a linebacker now he's got to be a part of that run fit in one way or the other and you can try to scheme up where you want him to be but it just gives you some advantages — against base defense maybe we want to throw the football but we still have the opportunity to run,” Phillips said. “It just kind of opens up everything for you when you have two guys like that who both have that skill set.”

Teams like the 49ers and Ravens have deployed heavy personnel for years and defenses have struggled to deal with their power game. Oliver gives the Vikings that club in the bag. Per SumerSports, last year the Vikings were 12th in their usage of personnel groupings with one RB and two tight ends but we can expect more now that TJ Hockenson is back for the full season.

We can see the impact of that in the splits between under-center snaps and shotgun. When Jones was rushing under center, he gained 4.6 yards per carry but out of the shotgun he averaged just 3.7 YPC.

Quarterback Sam Darnold also felt the difference that having Oliver on the field made. When Darnold was under center, where he would typically use play-action much more often, he posted a 127.9 QB rating. Out of the shotgun he had just 92.5 rating.

Certainly those numbers are skewed by early-down passing opportunities but no matter the situation a 127.9 rating is incredible efficiency. The type of efficiency that they would love to carry over to the JJ McCarthy era, particularly because he was a wildly successful play-action quarterback in college at Michigan while playing under center.

We have gone this far without even mentioning that Oliver has become a legitimate pass-catching threat for the Vikings. Since arriving in Minnesota, he has been targeted 56 times and made 44 catches for 471 yards and five touchdowns. By the metric Success Rate, Oliver ranked No. 1 on the team (67.9%) and was seventh best among tight ends in the NFL. When targeting him, Darnold had a 146.5 QB rating.

Oliver has dropped one ball since signing in 2023. He also was used 52 times as a pass blocker and allowed one QB pressure last year.

Here’s a breakdown of some of Oliver’s best plays from 2024: