The Minnesota Vikings added to their wide receiver room on Tuesday, signing veteran Albert Wilson away from the Miami Dolphins.
While the Wilson signing doesn’t move the needle too much, it does add a bit of depth behind starters Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen.
An undrafted free agent of the Chiefs back in 2014, Wilson has more than proven himself as a capable NFL pass-catcher. He’s averaging 34 receptions for 377 yards while catching 69% of his targets over the past four seasons.
New Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has been pretty active in attempting to retool a roster that won just eight games a season ago. We can expect this to continue in the summer months. Below, we look at three moves the Minnesota Vikings should still make ahead of training camp.
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Minnesota Vikings sign center JC Tretter
Minnesota’s new brass made it clear that former first-round pick Garrett Bradbury is on thin ice. It declined his option for the 2023 season and simply might not view him as the center of the future.
In today’s NFL, the center position is valuable. That’s why adding an upgrade is so important. According to Pro Football Focus, Bradbury yielded 26 pressures in 546 pass-block snaps last season. He ranked 32nd among starting centers as a pass protector last season.
A full-time starter in Cleveland over the past five seasons, Tretter would be a marked upgrade. He started 16 games in each of those five seasons before being released this past spring. At the very least, he’s a nice stopgap option in front of Kirk Cousins.
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Minnesota Vikings sign Joe Haden
Minnesota’s cornerback situation is a time bomb ready to go off. The team re-signed veteran Patrick Peterson during the offseason. It also nabbed Andrew Booth from Clemson in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
While Peterson was darn good in his first season with the Vikings (78.7 QB rating allowed), the rest of this unit left a lot to be desired. It led to the Vikings yielding 29 passing touchdowns while ranking in the bottom 10 in points allowed.
Is Haden over the hill? Sure. Is there a chance he just can’t get it done anymore? Sure. Even then, we’re talking about a three-time Pro Bowl performer who is one season removed from giving up a mere 75.9 passer rating when targeted. Why not take a chance that he can return to form next to Peterson?
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Minnesota Vikings sign Colin Kaepernick
We can hear the grunts of disapproval all the way from Sneaky Pete’s. But let’s explain this away a bit. Sean Mannion is currently Minnesota’s top backup to Kirk Cousins. If the Vikes are forced to rely on him for multiple games, this team’s hopes of returning to the playoffs will go down in flames. At the very least, we can agree that Colin Kaepernick is an on-field upgrade over Mannion.
With Kaepernick drawing a ton of interest around the NFL, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Vikings were one of the teams considering signing him. Adofo-Mensah was a member of the 49ers’ organization when Kaepernick was on the team. As for the politics of it (more grunting), the Minneapolis area would be more accepting to Kaepernick than other NFL host cities. Just some food for thought. If not Kaepernick, Cam Newton could make sense here. Either way, an upgrade at QB2 needs to be in the cards.