As the Minnesota Vikings end a losing season, these five players may be playing their last game in purple on Sunday.
It was nice while it lasted. The Minnesota Vikings rallied from a 1-5 start this season to have a 6-6 mark heading into the stretch run. With a 52-33 Christmas Day loss to the New Orleans Saints, their third setback in a row, they were officially eliminated from the playoffs.
A win over the Detroit Lions in Week 17 would give the Vikings a 7-9 record. A loss would mean a better first-round pick, however slightly, but that is just not the Vikings’ way.
Minnesota’s defense was the team’s Achilles’ heel in 2020, with the issues that a set of young corners, injuries to key players and opt-outs brought coming to a head with Alvin Kamara’s six rushing touchdowns and 583 yards of offense allowed to the Saints on Christmas Day.
The Vikings aren’t likely to make any major splashes this offseason, unless it’s to fire head coach Mike Zimmer. But these five players aren’t likely to be back in 2021.
5 Vikings who won’t be back in 2021
5.
Dan Bailey
PK. Vikings
Bailey made all of his kicks in Week 15, then followed with a missed extra point that ultimately didn’t matter in Week 16. But for a two-game stretch before that, most notably Week 14 against Tampa Bay with 10 points worth of missed kicks in a 12-point loss, one of the most accurate kickers in league history earlier in his career was a disaster.
The Vikings signed Bailey to a three-year deal back in March. So cutting him would carry some dead money ($2.1 million before June 1, 2021), with the numbers flipping a little in terms of dead money/cap savings post June-1.
That said, some competition should be brought in for Bailey. Assuming a legit competition, with no regard to the financial consequences, Bailey would not be guaranteed to make it to Week 1 next season as the Vikings’ kicker.