Vikings to release Jonathan Allen -- who's next up?

Reports of the Vikings taking apart some of the older, expensive parts of the roster continue. Can they fill those spots with younger players or cheaper free agents?

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

On Wednesday, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that the Vikings are set to release defensive tackle Jonathan Allen.

Not that it’s a huge surprise that they are looking to dump salary considering that Adam Schefter reported earlier in the week that the team is looking for a potential trade involving Jonathan Greenard but it is still striking that the offseason movement hasn’t really begun yet and the Vikings are already expected to chop a big chunk of last year's veterans.

It was previously reported that DT Javon Hargrave and RB Aaron Jones are also on their way out. It shouldn’t be long before we hear of Ryan Kelly’s release or retirement as well.

Is this another competitive rebuild?

Well, not exactly. The competitive rebuild from 2022 to 2023 was much more of a mass exodus. That offseason saw the Vikings nearly gut the roster with Adam Thielen, Dalvin Cook, Eric Kendricks, Dalvin Tomlinson Za’Darius Smith and Patrick Peterson all make their way out. Many of those players were still capable of being very good in the NFL.

This offseason doesn’t appear at the moment to be that extreme.

I’m going to call it a “The Get Right Offseason.”

Rather than keep big cap hits from aging players to scratch out every single last drop of play out of guys like Allen, they are taking their medicine now and opening the door for other players to get more opportunity. Getting right means getting under the cap without having to restructure everything that moves.

Getting right also means developing the younger players they have on the 53.

Behind Allen and Hargrave are rising star Jalen Redmond, arguably the best player on the entire defense last year, Levi Drake Rodriguez, Elijah Williams and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins. They need to maximize these players figure out what they have in them moving forward. All have played enough to have some sense that they can be on an NFL field, it’s just not yet clear what type of total impact and it’s valuable to find that out.

Last year LDR played 461 snaps, Ingram-Dawkins was on the field for 250 and Williams got a sniff with 42 plays. LDR and Ingram-Dawkins’ grades by PFF were unspectacular but they all had impressive moments with LDR picking up 11 QB pressures and 16 run stops and Ingram-Dawkins had six pressures on 72 pass rushes and seven run stops.

There is also an opportunity to spend smarter money on the interior of the defensive line this offseason or draft a player high. Veteran Shelby Harris, for example, graded higher by PFF than Allen and played 510 snaps for the Cleveland Browns on a one-year, $3.5 million deal in 2025. Houston’s Sheldon Rankins played on a one-year contract for $5.25 million.

Finding veteran rotational players to spruce up the D-line is very possible. Finding stars? Well, that’s much tougher.

This year’s draft is very interesting at the defensive tackle position. There isn’t a top-notch defensive tackle prospect that blew everyone away at the NFL Combine and has freakish production like Ndamukong Suh or Jadeveon Clowney once upon a time. This group requires more projection but may have upside.

On Daniel Jeremiah’s board, Texas Tech’s Lee Hunter ranks 27th, Ohio State run stuffer Kayden McDonald is 35th, freakishly-sized Florida DT Caleb Banks is 36th, Clemson’s Peter Woods is 38th and Cristen Miller from Georgia is 41st.

That looks like a lot of players with the potential to be there in the second round if the Vikings want to go in that direction (though Banks and Woods have been regularly mocked in the first round).

This is the type of approach that the Vikings are likely to have to take at a lot of positions. They can either find short-term solutions at a bargain or spend draft capital on positions of need.

For example, if they elected to trade Jonathan Greenard, they could look to the cheaper side of the rotational rusher market. Philadelphia free agent Joshua Uche only rushed the passer 142 times last season but had the 9th best pass-rush win rate per PFF. Houston’s Derek Barnett was 36th out of 121. Cleveland’s Cameron Thomas was 43rd.

There are guys out there who can provide something similar to what Jihad Ward did for the Vikings in 2024.

The draft is built for finding edge rushing talent for the future. Nine of Jeremiah’s top 50 players are rushers. One potential fit might be Oklahoma’s R Mason Thomas, who is undersized but had a 20.3% pass-rush win rate, which is elite in college football. He’s Jeremiah’s 39th ranked player but could be available for the Vikings in the second round.

If you are starting to get the feeling like it might not be a bad thing to move expensive players aside and aim to fill their spots with cheaper role players and/or draft picks, you might be right.

The concept is reminiscent of the scene in Moneyball where Billy Beane talks about filling the absence of Jason Giambi in “the aggregate” with several players rather than trying to find the next guy who can recreate his role.

It wouldn’t be easy to fill Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave’s 65 QB pressures and 1,436 snaps with two other free agents but the combination of developing players, a proven rotational veteran and a draft pick could add up to something similar. Even if it doesn’t create the same amount of pressure, using run stuffers to create gaps like they did with Jonathan Bullard and Harrison Phillips worked to get pressures for linebackers, safeties and looping edge rushers.

It would be very tough to recreate Jonathan Greenard’s production but it isn’t impossible with Dallas Turner, a quality rotational player and a fairly highly drafted prospect.

We can do this for every position of need. It isn’t easy to replace Aaron Jones’ all-around skills with one person but if the Vikings can use Jordan Mason, a free agent pass protector and a draft pick in the backfield, they can cover up that hole.

Admittedly, this is a difficult challenge because it requires a lot of the low-budget type signings to provide some type of value. In 2021, for example, that didn’t really happen with the space-filler type contracts handed out to CB Bashaud Breeland or Sheldon Richardson. And we have seen before the problems with hoping/praying that a young player comes from college and contributes right away.

But they really have no other choice if they are going to keep the future of the franchise in mind while they navigate this offseason.

It’s a sensible offseason in response to last year that saw them spend on many of the top free agents and ultimately pay for it this year.

What are the ripple effects of the Vikings taking this approach? Well, it does put more onus on the quarterback position and coaching. While Hargrave, Allen and possibly Greenard will be gone, the offense looks like it is remaining largely in tact. It’s possible that the Vikings could move on from TJ Hockenson but even in that case they still have enough talent along the offensive line and in Justin Jefferson/Jordan Addison/Jordan Mason to put together a top-15 offense with the right caliber of quarterback play.

That is going to require them to lock in a veteran quarterback or see massive gains from JJ McCarthy and an improvement in the run game.

On the defensive side, Flores will need to squeeze everything he can out of the talent on the field and use younger players more than he has preferred to do in recent seasons.

You might argue that it isn’t the worst thing for the franchise to see what O’Connell can do under these circumstances and how Flores can manage younger talent.

The unfortunate part is that none of this screams Super Bowl. Sometimes in the NFL, teams are forced to live in reality and make the best plays they can with the hand that they have been dealt. That’s where the Vikings stand.

However, we are a really long way from being able to project what this team is actually going to look like. When we look at the rest of the division, the Packers and Lions have massive overhauls on their offensive lines that are needed and Chicago needs to pour its assets into their defense. Nobody is flawless.

There are teams that look quite a bit stronger than the Vikings now. The Rams just acquired star CB Trent McDuffie and the Seahawks are running a large percentage of their roster back next season. Elsewhere in the NFC though, there is a lot of teams under construction.

Yes, the Vikings hoping to thread the needle of finding a veteran QB and savvy signings and draft picks to all click at once in order to make a real swing at this thing is an all too familiar offseason song. But it does ultimately point the needle in the right direction and has the potential to turn out more interesting than we would have expected at the start.

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