Vikings GM Put on Notice If $65 Million Star Bolts for New Team
For the first time in his career, Minnesota Vikings edge rusher Danielle Hunter is poised to reach free agency after a career-high 16.5-sack season in 2023.
The Vikings will likely work to extend Hunter before he reaches free agency in March. But if they cannot agree on an extension, the Vikings face losing Hunter for nothing when they could have traded him in November.
The November 1 trade deadline came just days after Kirk Cousins went down with a season-ending Achilles injury that realistically plummeted the Vikings’ chances at a Super Bowl. Hunter generated plenty of interest at the trade deadline, and the Vikings fielded calls for a trade in the offseason.
SKOR North’s Judd Zulgad disagreed with senior supervisor Kwesi Adofo-Mensah not taking action to get draft capital in an exchange including Tracker in the event that he really does to be sure leave Minnesota in Spring.
“In a season where you started on a negative note, bounced back, and afterward Kirk got injured… you might have exchanged [Hunter] just on schedule,” Zulgad said in a February 2 post on X (previously Twitter). ” Better believe it, I believe it’s a major issue in the event that Danielle Tracker strolls for no good reason.”
When the most youthful player to arrive at 50 vocation sacks at the young age of 25, Tracker saw his profession hit a spiral when he experienced a herniated circle in his neck that constrained him to miss the sum of the 2020 season.
His 2021 mission finished unexpectedly when he supported a torn pectoral muscle the next year. The Vikings didn’t make a long-term investment in the Pro Bowl edge rusher because they were concerned about Hunter’s health.
However, in order to dispel any doubts regarding his future health, Hunter has participated in each and every game over the past two seasons. Hunter had a great season, finishing fifth in sacks (16.5) and first in tackles for loss (23).
Moving toward his 30th birthday celebration in 2024, Tracker desires to take advantage of another worthwhile, long haul augmentation. Hunter was expected to sign a three-year, $65 million contract with a $40 million guarantee, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF). The $21.67 million normal yearly worth of that agreement would rank tenth among edge rushers in front of 2024 free organization.
“Tracker was a disclosure in new Vikings guarded organizer Brian Flores’ rush weighty plan, however he was comparably useful in 2022,” PFF’s free-specialist report peruses.
“Injury concerns of a few years ago seem to be a distant memory, and teams that run a 3-4 or 4-3 could probably find a way to effectively deploy Hunter. He completed one more season with 900 or more snaps, 70 or more quarterback tensions and twofold digit sacks.”
If they break up with Hunter, the Vikings have few choices.
What is most noteworthy about Tracker’s 2023 season was the reality he figured out how to set up vocation numbers without a Star Bowl pass rusher close by him.
Tracker has profited from playing inverse Everson Griffen and Za’Darius Smith in his profession, yet this season’s running mate, Marcus Davenport, was harmed for the greater part of the time.
Tracker likewise demonstrated he’s a willing run safeguard too in a framework that conspired strain from each conceivable point.
In the event that the Vikings choose to continue on from Tracker, they’ll have to consider their choices with only one of their best four edge rushers, Pat Jones II, under agreement for next season genuinely.
Tracker genuinely wants to remain in Minnesota, in any case, he said at the Expert Bowl that he is searching for the best circumstance for himself.
“Simply allowing all that to play its course. I went about my business. Everything’s in my representative’s hands and my group — and whomever it is that is out there,” Tracker told NFL.com on February 2. ” As I stated, my job is to perform my duties. And I’ll take whatever is best for me because I’ll make sure I stay in shape.
