Should the Vikings have just waited for Geno Atkins to be cut?
The Minnesota Vikings added a defensive tackle in the first days of free agency, but Geno Atkins would've been the cheaper route without much drop-off
Late on the first day of free agency, news came that the Minnesota Vikings had agreed to a two-year, $22 million deal with defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson. Tomlinson will join Michael Pierce, who was signed last offseason but opted out, in the middle of the Vikings’ defensive line. The league’s 27th-ranked run defense from 2020 should be better.
The Vikings don’t have a lot of money to spend, and they need a new left side of the offensive line one way or another. Tomlinson is a fine player, but there are bigger needs and the Vikings may have overspent on a past his prime cornerback in Patrick Peterson.
With a shoulder injury that cost him eight games, and a reduced role (zero starts, no more than 20 snaps in a game), one of the worst-kept secrets in the league was the Bengals eventually cutting defensive tackle Geno Atkins. The salary cap mechanics of the move depend on if he’s designated a post-June 1 cut or not. But the Bengals fortified their defensive line this week, and Atkins officially became expendable.
Atkins will turn 33 before the end of the month. His best days are behind him, but he’s still a useful player and won’t be expensive. Oh, and he’s also got ties to Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer. Zimmer was the Bengals’ defensive coordinator from 2008-2013, and from 2010 to 2013 with Atkins on the defensive line.
The Vikings consistently misallocate resources. Paying a good quarterback top-end, increasingly cap-crippling money. Failing to, or refusing to, fortify the offensive line in a meaningful way with signings and/or draft picks. Bending to a phone call from an underachieving linebacker, and matching the big contract he was offered by the Jets (only to restructure and clip two years off the deal this offseason). Now, it’s signing what amounts to a second run-stuffing defensive tackle when a player who probably isn’t that much worse was going to come available.
Whenever Atkins became available, the Vikings were easy to tab as a potential suitor. Zimmer’s impatience in needing his precious defense fortified may have bit the Vikings here, when Atkins could have been signed to pair with Pierce by the end of the week.