Vikings Insider Believes Minnesota Will Go Hard After Trey Smith
Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Now that the 2024 NFL season has come to a close for the Minnesota Vikings, it’s time to look ahead to figure out how to keep the momentum going. One of the many needs the Vikings should focus on is the state of their interior offensive line. Between Dalton Risner hitting the market, the Vikings’ healthy cap situation, and the J.J. McCarthy Era fast approaching, they should be major players in free agency
Speaking of big players, the Vikings might well be gearing up to sign the top guard on the free agent market, Trey Smith. Smith is an obvious target for Minnesota (among other teams), but according to Vikings insider Ben Goessling — speaking to Paul Allen on KFAN — landing him is a realistic possibility.
“I think they’ll be pretty aggressive for players like that,” Goessling said. “I think they are going to be aggressive at guard. He’s probably at the top of the guard market, which will be expensive. But I think they are going to make a big priority of going after a guard. And I think they would have a lot of interest in getting a guy like [Smith] in here. So I would expect they’d be involved if he makes it to the market, which he might, because the Chiefs have other guys to sign.”
On the surface, it makes sense for the Vikings, as they have around $55 million in cap space. And they sure could use Smith. When taking recency bias into account, Sam Darnold took an “I’m seeing ghosts” number of sacks in their Wild Card loss to the LA Rams, and the Vikings have every reason to ensure anything even remotely close to that doesn’t happen again. While Dalton Risner had a strong second half to his season, he is approaching his age-30 season, all while the Vikings have an opportunity to spend big to surround McCarthy with talent while he’s on his rookie deal.
Smith, on the other hand, was one of the best guards in football last season. In 708 pass-blocking snaps, he did not allow a single sack and only five QB hits. By comparison. Ed Ingram allowed five sacks in less than half the snaps. Smith is expected to receive a contract in the neighborhood of four years and $80 million, and in a league where teams engage in all-out bidding wars to overpay for the top free agents, the Vikings have the luxury of spending north of that total to acquire his services.
Ensuring that McCarthy is protected while simultaneously laying the groundwork for a resurgent running game is essential for his transition to the NFL. All too often, rookie quarterbacks are left without offensive lines when they enter the league, and their confidence is permanently shattered as a result (see Carr, David). That contract would give McCarthy an elite right guard for the duration of his rookie deal, and it will give him enough time in the pocket to make throws to his rich wide receiver corps.
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