Michael Pierce‘s stint with the Vikings is about to come to an end. Minnesota is planning to cut the the veteran defensive tackle, reports NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (via Twitter).
According to the reporter, the Vikings tried to convince Pierce to take a “moderate pay cut,” but the player clearly refused. The team also tried working out a trade, but despite “some feelers,” a deal never materialized. While the wording of Rapoport’s tweet seems to indicate that the Vikings are holding out hope for a deal, a release still seems imminent.
Pierce signed a three-year, $27MM deal with the Vikings in 2020, but that deal was pushed to 2021 after Pierce opted out of the 2020 campaign. The 29-year-old was attached to a $10.5MM cap hit in 2022, and his release will leave behind $4MM in dead cap.
Pierce made his Vikings debut in 2021, collecting 20 tackles and three sacks in eight starts. He suffered an elbow injury that forced him to miss the middle chunk of the season. The Stanford product spent the first four seasons of his career with the Ravens, starting 30 of his 60 games.
Samford* not Stanford
Immediately the best DT on the market, right?
Come on back to Charm City, MP !!
After his time in Minny and Baltimore, He probably wants to go to a team that has a winning QB
Supposedly, he was the Vikes’ Plan A with a moderate pay cut, and Harrison Philips was their Plan B. It’s too bad he’s leaving the Vikings just when they are changing their training staff and methods. If we’d made the transition last year, he might not have been forced/allowed (unclear which) to return to the field too soon and re-injure his elbow.