Vikings Rumors: Perfection at Kicker, Dust Settling at $19 Million, and Veteran Demotion (2024)

Since we’re officially into the portion of the year when Vikings rumors are ramping up, we’ll be highlighting some of the purple rumblings.

The “Vikings Rumor Wrangle” is a series that keeps readers informed on what’s being whispered about in Vikings Land. In this iteration, we discuss a perfect kicker taking over the top spot, the Vikings’ cap space settling in around $19 million, and a Vikings veteran potentially being demoted.

Vikings Rumors: 07.31.2024

Rumor #1 — The Vikings Picked Up Perfection at Kicker

Indeed they did, at least for a day.

The word comes courtesy of the Vikings’ Craig Peters: “Reichard went first with Wright serving as the holder. He was good on all five kicks he attempted, aiming true from the 33-yard distance of an extra point before also splitting the uprights from 40, 43, 45 and 48 yards.”

Keep in mind that not too long after Peters wrote those words, Minnesota moved on from John Parker Romo, who was competing to be the K1 in Minnesota (cutting Romo made room for a safety add).

Using the No. 203 pick on Will Reichard made him the instant favorite to become the starting kicker in Minnesota. The only thing that’s surprising is how quickly the ascent has taken place. But, to be sure, the word has been almost exclusively positive for the talented youngster. His task will now involve putting together such a solid preseason that management doesn’t feel a need to add anyone else to compete.

Rumor #2 — The Dust Has Settled at Roughly $19 Million

That’s the word from Over the Cap, a leading authority on the NFL salary cap.

For a little while, Minnesota’s budget was hovering around $26 million. The major caveat was simply that J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner — a pair of opening-round selections — had yet to sign their deals. Well, those two have officially put pen to paper, transactions that trimmed things down to roughly $21 million.

The other major bit of business was to extend Christian Darrisaw, the stud left tackle who is entering his fourth season in the NFL. By agreeing to a new deal, Darrisaw sees his 2024 cap charge grow to a bit less than $6.5 million.

Crunch the numbers and that means Minnesota has roughly $19 million left over. Not a huge amount but also far from scraping the bottom of the barrel. Minnesota has breathing room, the coveted flexibility that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has been so hard at work trying to obtain.

Oh, and one more thing: the 2025 budget currently sits at roughly $53.6 million since the extension for Darrisaw lowered the LT’s cap charge in that season. The end result could be a 2025 offseason where Adofo-Mensah puts a dent into free agency.

Rumor #3 — A Vikings Veteran on Offense Could be Losing His Grip on a Starting Spot

For a little while, Brandon Powell looked like the top option for the WR3 assignment.

Quick and shifty, Powell put together a reasonably strong 2023 as Minnesota’s WR4. Consider what O’Connell had to say about his effort last season: “As many good things as Brandon Powell did for us last year, maybe without a lot of the time on task repetition in training camp, BP is able to take the experience that he had in LA in a similar offense and come in and apply not only the scheme, but the physicality and the want-to in the run game to try to play his role when we’re in 11-personnel.”

Powell, in short, has a fan in Coach O’Connell. The journeyman had 29 catches go for 324 yards and a touchdown.

However, Jalen Nailor has been putting in some strong work lately, making the competition a bit more interesting.

O’Connell’s thoughts: “We’re all kind of very optimistic about Jalen because he’s proven what he is as a football player. It’s not a question of that. It’s just a matter of, can he be out there? Can he start to handle the versatility that comes with playing in a huddle with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison? And that goes for [Brandon Powell] and Trent [Sherfield] and all the rest of our guys, as well.”

As a rookie, Nailor averaged 19.9 yards per catch. If he can come anywhere close to that number across a full season of work, then Nailor will be a strong contributor as the WR3.

Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.

K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.