It’s officially time to be concerned about flood of Vikings’ defections

The Minnesota Vikings have lost multiple key players in the first week of the offseason and it’s a cause for concern along with a good bit of confusion.

When the Minnesota Vikings signed Kirk Cousins to a fully guaranteed three-year, $84 million deal in March of 2018, they put themselves in a Super Bowl-or-bust window. That window may be closed, but a two-year contract extension for Cousins at the outset of league business last week theoretically kept the Vikings in that win-now window.

Before the new league year started, the Vikings cut cornerback Xavier Rhodes and defensive tackle Linval Joseph to clear some much-needed cap space. Cutting Rhodes was obvious, but the idea Joseph could have his contract restructured (take a pay cut) seemed to fade quickly.

Wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who’s discontent went back at least a year, has been traded to the Buffalo Bills. The Vikings got an extra first-round pick this year (No. 22) and three other draft picks in the deal and relinquished a seventh-round pick along with Diggs. In light of the fleecing, the Arizona Cardinals did to get DeAndre Hopkins from the Houston Texans, the return for Diggs was pretty good. Whether it was smart to take a top weapon away from Cousins, with no easy or particularly realistic way to replace him, is a separate conversation.

The Vikings oddly placed the franchise tag on safety Anthony Harris, followed by rumors they are willing to trade him. Cornerbacks Trae Waynes and Mackenzie Alexander both signed with the Cincinnati Bengals, though there’s no way the Vikings were going to (or should have) given Waynes the deal he was in line to get on the open market. Backup safeties Javon Kearse and Andrew Sendejo are also gone in free agency, signing with the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns.

If the season started today, Mike Hughes and Holton Hill would the Vikings’ top two cornerbacks. Don’t ask about depth, because there isn’t much. The defensive line doesn’t look a lot better at this point, with stud defensive end Danielle Hunter, newly signed defensive tackle Michael Pierce and last year’s relative breakout from defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo (seven sacks) to hang their hat on.

Defensive end Everson Griffen performed well last season, and well enough to exercise an opt-out clause in his contract. He could have returned to the Vikings at a reasonable rate but on Friday he announced on social media he would not be back. Defensive end Steven Weatherly is also gone as a free agent, to the Carolina Panthers.

Guard Josh Kline was also cut after one season with the Vikings. He may be brought back but for now, there’s a noted void to fill at right guard too.

Signing Cousins to a lucrative extension accomplished what it was supposed to–lower his cap hit for 2020. Signing Pierce to a three-year, $27 million deal might work out fine. But it shouldn’t look like the centerpiece outside move of the offseason for the Vikings, as it does right now. A move up in the first round of the draft, with No. 22 and No. 25 and some extra pick capital overall, could be on the radar. A trade for someone like Redskins’ left tackle Trent Williams is also a lingering possibility.

Keeping Cousins around two more years just doesn’t fit with what else has happened for the Vikings over the first week of the offseason. The current No. 2 wide receiver would be Bisi Johnson and the secondary has been instantly thinned with no replacements coming in as of yet.

The Vikings seem to be counting on nailing multiple draft picks to fill voids, which is not a good plan if that’s the plan. No free agent that can be signed now is likely to make a major impact, and it’s not as if a big splash could be made anyway with the cap space they have.

Among a group of lead executives who keep things close to the vest, across all sports, Vikings’ general manager Rick Spielman is one of the leaders in using a lot of words to ultimately say nothing. So he won’t be explaining anything or divulging what his plan is and it’s not even that he necessarily should.

But the mass exodus of players is not a good look for the Vikings. A couple of the departures were their direct decision while Waynes got overpaid and Griffen can and should get the max of what he’s worth elsewhere. But in the bigger picture, it’s worth wondering if there are some unseen factors in all the player defections.

With the talent that remains, supplemented by whatever signings and draft picks that are to come, the Vikings won’t be bad enough to bottom out and finish 3-13 in 2020. They also won’t be good enough to win 10, 11 or 12 games, win the NFC North and/or make a playoff run.

Until the plan for 2020 (and perhaps beyond in some respect) is fully unveiled, for better or worse, concern and confusion are the only words regarding what’s going on with the Vikings.