With Dalvin Cook, Alexander Mattison, and Mike Boone, the Vikings have boasted an enviable RB depth chart over the past several seasons. In order to keep that trio together, however, Minnesota will need to make a decision on Boone, a restricted free agent.
As Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports, the club wants to retain Boone (Twitter link). The question, though, is if the Vikings want to hand him an RFA tender or if they want to non-tender him and hope they can re-sign him to a less expensive contract.
An RFA tender at the original-round level — the only realistic tender for Boone — would cost Minnesota $2.133MM, though it would give the team the right of first refusal if another club signed Boone to an offer sheet. If the Vikings declined to match the offer sheet, they would not receive any draft pick compensation.
A $2.133MM salary for a young and talented insurance policy doesn’t seem like much of a commitment, but the Vikes are still over the 2021 cap at the moment, so they need to cut costs wherever they can. GM Rick Spielman may feel that another team would not offer Boone more than $2.133MM if he were to be non-tendered, and he may be right. Although Boone has flashed during his three professional seasons, he has not had many opportunities.
The Cincinnati product has just 71 career carries to his name, and he had only 11 totes in 2020. He does boast a 5.3 YPC average over that small sample size, and there is reason to believe he would perform well in a larger role, but he probably shouldn’t bank on a significant raise over the $750K he pocketed last year.
Be nice to keep him. He does show promise. But I’d bet someone will take a flyer on him for more than they can pay him with the payroll issues they have. He deserves a shot for more playing time.
Mark my word, they’re trading Mattison.
Yeah right
Right, yeah?
No WINE-ING from Mike down on BOONE’S FARM !!
Yeah right
I can understand why they’d want to keep Boone, but he’d be too expensive at the RFA tender price for the number of snaps he gets. Better to retain Ameer Abdullah and draft Boone’s replacement on Day 3. The two of them together would be cheaper than Boone on the tender.
Boone deserves a shot at becoming part of a real three-man RB committee, anyway, not the “break glass in case of emergency” back-up he is behind Cook, Mattison and Abdullah, whose played on 206 offensive snaps the last two years to Boone’s 113 because of his status as their back-up third down pass catching and pass blocking back.