Vikings roster analysis: Top five position battles ahead of training camp

After a spending spree in March, the Vikings roster has been fortified around young quarterback J.J. McCarthy.

Money was thrown at the weakest parts of last year’s 14-3 team with new starters projected on the offensive and defensive lines.

Proven veterans are at nearly every position. But there are still a handful of roles and roster spots that need the competition of training camp and the preseason to sort out before the Vikings’ season-opening game on Sept. 8 in Chicago.

One pressing question is how the Vikings secondary will look with three starters from last season — safety Camryn Bynum and cornerbacks Stephon Gilmore and Shaq Griffin — no longer on the team.

Coach Kevin O’Connell shed light on the Vikings’ vision this month. It includes newly paid cornerback Byron Murphy Jr., who signed a three-year deal with a base value of $54 million in March, playing more slot cornerback — or inside formations, where all types of receivers are schemed into open spaces via presnap motions and postsnap route patterns.

During the 2025 season, the Vikings face seven of the top 10 receivers in slot yardage from last season, including the Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the Chargers’ Ladd McConkey and the Lions’ Amon-Ra St. Brown.

“We’re trying to do some things with some of the additions that allow [Murphy] to be in his sweet spot inside,” O’Connell said. “We got some really good slot receivers in our division, on our schedule that we’re going to want to have Murph be at his best to be able to cover those guys.”

Who’s going to play the third cornerback role? Or occupy the fourth, fifth and sixth spots at the position on the 53-man active roster? That’s among the top position battles that the Vikings will carry into training camp in late July.

Four cornerbacks played prominent roles last season, and only Murphy remains among them. General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah spent similar guaranteed cash on replacements for Gilmore and Griffin by signing former Eagles corner Isaiah Rodgers ($8 million guaranteed) and ex-Lions top pick Jeff Okudah ($2.3 million guaranteed) in free agency. Both players were prominent fixtures in the first-team defense this spring; Rodgers started opposite Murphy, and Okudah played the No. 3 role when Murphy slid inside on passing downs. O’Connell said both Rodgers and Okudah had “really good springs.”

“We don’t have full-speed team [drills], but we do a lot in the passing game,” O’Connell said. “And both those guys demonstrated a lot of things that we were hoping to see. ... I think those guys are both in position to have great training camps. And then after those three guys, I think we’ve got four, five, six guys potentially that all could push to make our team. What is their role? I think it’s going to be up for grabs.”

Mekhi Blackmon has been “getting himself back into form,” coordinator Brian Flores said this month, after last year’s ACL tear. He’s competing for playing time. Dwight McGlothern, Zemaiah Vaughn, Ambry Thomas and the rest are competing for reserve roles.

Defensive tackle Harrison Phillips said the Vikings have “waves” of defensive linemen to throw at offenses after the team signed former Pro Bowl players Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave to a group that ranked fourth in the NFL with 49 sacks last season.

The interior D-line may force some tough decisions on the front office. The Vikings are expecting enough growth from their bench, which now includes Jalen Redmond, Levi Drake Rodriguez, Taki Taimani and fifth-round rookie Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, to earn playing time and take miles off their older starters. Will they keep all seven on the active roster (after keeping six defensive linemen last year)?

“[Redmond] just got better and better,” Flores said this month. “Levi, who’d I’d say grown significantly from Year 1 to Year 2, bigger, stronger, faster, more confident. ... There’s a good amount of depth in that room.”

The Vikings’ top trio is likely set between Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and Jalen Nailor, but the team let the contracts expire for Trent Sherfield Sr. and Brandon Powell this offseason, opting to sign veteran Rondale Moore and draft receiver Tai Felton in the third round. But Moore continued to rehab a knee injury this spring while Felton had some drops in the few organized team activities (OTAs) open to media. Moore should compete for offensive snaps when he’s healthy, while Felton will compete with Jeshaun Jones, Lucky Jackson, Thayer Thomas and Silas Bolden, among others, for special teams roles that could determine 53-man roster spots.

Some of those receivers, including Nailor, Felton and Bolden, were among the crew consistently returning punts in OTAs. Someone needs to replace Powell, who struggled last season with a 7.1-yard average that ranked among the league’s lowest. The Vikings guaranteed $205,000 to sign Bolden in undrafted free agency. Bolden had 30 punt returns (second in Division I) for 315 return yards (third) at Texas last season. Felton has minimal college experience, but Vikings evaluators liked what they saw from him during the predraft process. Nailor had one forgettable attempt at Lambeau Field last season, when he fumbled upon losing the ball in the sun. Rodgers, the cornerback, took kickoff returns in practices this spring and has some experience as a punt returner, too.

The Vikings traded for Sam Howell from the Seahawks during the draft in April. His 18 NFL starts represent the most experience by a Vikings quarterback currently in uniform. Howell took most of the second-team reps seen by reporters this spring, and he had plenty of learning moments just like the young McCarthy where his passes were tipped or intercepted. O’Connell said Howell was “responsible for everything” in his past experience playing for Washington and that he’s adapting to the structure of the Vikings offense.

“I told Sam Darnold a year ago, ‘Your experience matters. We just got to figure out how to apply it in a pretty positive way in this offense. And then, watch the growth happen,’” O’Connell said. “And I told Sam Howell the same thing, and he’s kind of like J.J. where he’s made some throws where you’re like, ‘Man, probably shouldn’t have made that throw,’ but I now know on this play, I got to be careful of this.”

Howell will compete for the No. 2 job with last year’s No. 3 passer, Brett Rypien, who took some second-team reps in OTAs. They’ll also be trying to prevent the front office from looking elsewhere for another arm before Week 1. O’Connell lauded undrafted rookie Max Brosmer’s intelligence, although the former Gophers QB has not had many reps in practice yet.

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