When talking to the media at OTAs, Vikings guard Nick Easton made it clear he’d like to stay in Minnesota longterm and would like an extension sooner rather than later. He told The St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Chris Tomasson that he’d “love to be here long-term” and answered “I hope so” when asked about the possibility of the Vikings giving him an extension soon (Twitter link).
Easton is playing under a one-year $2.9MM restricted free agent tender after he was tendered at the second-round level by the Vikings. Easton signed the tender back in April and will be a free agent after the season.
While Easton has now made his preference publicly known, he may have to wait a while. After giving Kirk Cousins a historic fully guaranteed contract, the Vikings currently don’t have a ton of cap space with which to sign their impending free agents, and will have to allocate their limited resources wisely. They have a slew of young players all set to be free agents at the end of the year. Young defensive studs Anthony Barr, Danielle Hunter, and Eric Kendricks are all heading into the final year of their contracts, as is star wide receiver Stefon Diggs.
The Vikings may decide to let Easton walk in favor of signing some of their other young guys. What they decide to do will likely depend on how they feel about the rest of their interior linemen. Easton is locked in as the starting left guard, and the other guards on the roster are underwhelming and not realistic options to replace him. If the Vikings don’t add more guard help between now and next offseason, there’s a good chance Easton will get the extension he’s looking for.
Eric Kendricks signed an extension.
Pro Football Focus graded Easton, at least through the first half of the season, very, very well in pass protection (zero sacks on the season, too) but very poorly in run blocking. Through the first three-quarters of the season, he frankly looked expendable. Then he broke his ankle, and the line seemed to fall apart without him. The back-ups were so unimpressive that the team moved starting RT Mike Remmers – who had already filled in at RG after having never played guard, as far as I can tell, since high school – to LG for the playoffs, with underwhelming results.
Easton is mobile, and excels on screen passes and other plays requiring him to move out in front of runners and receivers. Nevertheless, my guess is that the Vikings want to see if he can improve his run blocking this year, of if a couple of promising Day 3 of the Draft picks from this year and last can push to start at one or both of the Guard positions. If he can’t get his extension before the start of the season – since Mike Zimmer was hired as HC, the Vikings have started signing extensions mid-season – that’s a sign that he’ll have to wait till next year for a new deal.
Ahhh! Typo:
“since Mike Zimmer was hired as HC, the Vikings have STOPPED signing extensions mid-season”
Exactly. The Vikings look strong and fairly deep at every position on defense and all except the offensive line on offense. Case Keenum’s mobility made that offense hum in a way that it would never have under Bradford, and won’t under Cousins. Neither are “move” QBs. Mid and deep throws were not “on schedule” in the Vikings offense from October on last year.
We’ve talked about the Cousins deal here before – both of us think it was unwise. I personally would have resigned Keenum and tried to draft a high upside QB on day two last year. Then use the draft capital to grab OL help.
I have a strong feeling that Kirk is going to be running for his life on a regular basis this year, and I expect over 40 sacks on him by the end of the year.
The Vikings would be IMO wise to let some of their expensive defensive talent leave (like Barr and Waynes), grab the 3rd round compensatory picks, invest in upgraded talent at OL, and use the savings to re-sign their much cheaper talent on offense.
If Barr could be traded right now to the Steelers for David DeCastro (Barr + Compton or Isidora or Gossett + a 2019 #3 for DeCaatro + Jaylen Samuels would be my ideal deal, but the Vikes might have to sweeten the deal a bit more because DeCastro is a bit better than Barr), I’d make that deal in a second as long as I could sign Mychal Kendricks the very next second. Other than that, I’m really not interested in breaking up the Vikings defense in any significant way, which I admit is partly me just being an old-fashioned fan who likes to keep “the old band” together as long as possible. The fact that Alexander and Hughes are both still unproven also makes me very hesitant about trading Waynes or letting him walk.
I’m of two minds on the offensive line. It is reasonable to expect that four out of the five positions SHOULD be better this year. Reiff should be able to get back to the adequate level of his first four years, Easton should improve as a run blocker and remain a fine pass blocker, Elflein should improve across the board and Remmers should get just that little bit better to return to his previous highs with Carolina. All of those things are reasonable bets. And the depth at offensive tackle is actually pretty good, as O’Neill and Hill should be able to fill in for a game or two or more here and there. It’s guard that is worrisome.
I like Isidora and Gossett as developmental players, but I’m not sold on either of them starting this year for any significant period of time. Compton as a spot starter, okay, I think we could live with that. But aside from trading Barr & change for DeCastro or Brandon Scherff, and that only if the Kendricks band can be brought back together, I’m still more inclined to use future draft capital rather than current players as the basis of trading for any extra OL talent. Or the team can follow my earlier advice and sign Jahri Evans to at least compete for the RG job.