List of former Vikings remaining as free agents

There are plenty of former Vikings remaining on the free agent market.

After being active in the free-agent market, the Minnesota Vikings have made a lot of moves to keep players on the roster. They entered the offseason with 25 free agents and have brought back 10 of them.

Now that we are in the month of June, that number has decreased significantly. Teams have filled their 90-man rosters with draft picks and undrafted free agents. The signing of players has decreased significantly.

Here are the remaining Vikings free agents still available to sign on the open market.

List of Vikings free agents who remain unsigned

After the first few weeks of free agency, the Minnesota Vikings still have multiple free agents on the market.

The Minnesota Vikings have had a pretty active free agency thus far. They spent a lot of resources on Josh Oliver, Marcus Davenport and Byron Murphy Jr. and have also done a great job in re-signing their talent

Free agency isn’t over yet and the Vikings still have multiple roster spots open and there are still players on last year’s roster. Here are the remaining Vikings free agents.

Former Vikings WR Olabisi Johnson set to visit Patriots on Thursday

Johnson missed his last two seasons with the #Vikings due to injuries and is set to visit with the #Patriots in search of a fresh start

The Minnesota Vikings have suffered some major attrition in their receiving corps over the course of the offseason, losing beloved veteran Adam Thielen due to salary cap constraints earlier this week. Now they face the potential loss of receiver Olabisi Johnson, an up-and-coming wideout, to the Patriots in free agency.

Johnson originally signed with Minnesota as a seventh-round pick after the 2019 draft, and was reasonably productive as a rookie, hauling in 31 receptions for nearly 300 yards and three touchdowns. He took a step back in 2020, starting in just three games, and missed both of the last two seasons due to knee injuries.

A native of Lakewood Colorado, Johnson played his college ball at Colorado State, setting a single-game receiving record for the Rams with 265 yards in a game against the University of Idaho in the 2016 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

Though his college accolades are impressive, the fact that he missed the last two seasons due to injury makes him a boom-or-bust prospect for any team interested in securing his talents for the 2023 season. His impressive rookie campaign will likely warrant his inclusion on a roster next season, but Johnson may need some time to reacclimate himself to the field after missing such a significant amount of time.

Minnesota Vikings make five roster moves

The Vikings still have 22 roster moves left

On Monday afternoon, the Minnesota Vikings announced five roster moves, including placing two players on injured reserve.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that T.Y. McGill was going to be released by the team. With his ankle injury having initially been viewed as short-term, McGill might receive an injury settlement instead of staying on injured reserve. It could also o

Myron Mitchell and Tye Smith were reported earlier in the day and Timon Parris was expected after a really rough outing

After five roster moves today, the Vikings still have 22 more roster moves left. You can keep track of all of them with our final roster tracker here.

WR Olabisi Johnson is out for the season with a knee injury

Absolutely brutal luck for the fourth-year wide receiver

For a second-straight season, Vikings wide receiver Olabisi Johnson is out for the year with a torn ACL.

This is a rough break for the fourth-year receiver whom the Vikings drafted in the seventh round in 2019 out of Colorado State. After two quality seasons, Johnson was poised to have a breakout season in a similar way to how K.J. Osborn did in 2021.

Johnson tore his ACL for the first time in the second week of training camp, ending his season. This is a really tough break for Johnson, as he had earned a roster spot.

Where do the Vikings go from here? After the injury last night, I added Trishton Jackson to the final 53-man roster projection and Johnson will be placed on season-ending injured reserve.

We wish Johnson a speedy recovery and that he comes back better than ever.

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Examining the No. 3 WR role in Kevin Stefanski’s offense

Examining the No. 3 WR role in Kevin Stefanski’s offense he brings from Minnesota

The Cleveland Browns are in great shape with the top WR duo of Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr., two Pro Bowl standouts. While they’re coming off recent surgeries, the duo has the potential to be the best 1-2 punch in the NFL.

After that, the depth chart drops off dramatically at wide receiver. Rashard Higgins thrived in the role in 2018 but fell out of favor in 2019. Young Damion Ratley and rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones could also fill the role. But in the grand scheme of the Browns new offense under head coach Kevin Stefanski, it’s not a big role.

Simply put, expect the No. 3 wide receiver role in Cleveland in 2020 to be no higher than 6th in passing targets for the Browns, based on coach Stefanski’s history.

The 2017 season was the first year where Minnesota ran the offense Stefanski is expected to implement in Cleveland. Pat Shurmur took over full-time as the team’s offensive coordinator after succeeding Norv Turner halfway through the 2016 season, and the switch away from the importance of depth at wide receiver was instantaneous.

In 2017, Laquon Treadwell was the Vikings’ No. 3 wideout. He got exactly 35 targets while playing all 16 games, catching 20 for 200 yards. Jarius Wright caught 18 of his 25 targets as the No. 4 wideout.

The next season saw more targets for Treadwell as the No. 3. Adam Theilen got 153, Stefon Diggs saw 149, TE Kyle Rudolph got 82 and then came Treadwell at 53. RB Dalvin Cook was on pace to get many more than Treadwell with 49 targets in just 11 games, too.

Stefanski had just one season as Minnesota’s offensive coordinator. His impact on the targets for the No. 3 WR was stark. After Diggs and Theilen, the next WR on the Vikings target list was 7th-round rookie Olabisi Johnson. He had 31 receptions on 45 targets with a low 9.5 yards per reception.

Bisi Johnson’s receiving chart from Pro Football Focus is pretty typical for how a No. 3 receiver gets used in what we expect of a Stefanski offense:

Johnson ranked sixth on the Vikings in targets, behind Diggs, RB Dalvin Cook, Theilen and TE Irv Smith. It gets a bit of an asterisk as well with Theilen missing six full games and parts of two others with injuries that afforded Johnson more looks. Almost a third of Johnson’s targets came in his first two games (Weeks 10 and 11) filling in for the injured Theilen as the No. 2 wideout. In games where he was the third receiver, he topped four targets just once, the Week 7 win over the Lions where Theilen left in the first quarter with an injury.

The Browns have two very good receiving tight ends in Austin Hooper and David Njoku, both of whom have enough versatility to play as a de facto 3rd wideout in the formation. Kareem Hunt proved a fantastic receiving weapon out of the backfield in 2019, and he’s recently been sitting in on the WR positional Zoom meetings. Nick Chubb isn’t known for his hands, but he’s hauled in 56 passes in two seasons, too.

While it’s overkill to say that the No. 3 wideout isn’t important for the Browns, it’s certainly not a meaty role. If Landry and Beckham stay healthy, don’t expect more than about 40 targets or 200 yards from Higgins or whoever wins the spot.