Pro Football Focus liked the Minnesota linebacker room but did not like the Vikings defensive line whatsoever. Now onto the secondary rankings, once again, PFF is not high on this group for Minnesota either.
Despite having three good safeties in Harrison Smith, Cam Bynum, and Josh Metellus, PFF has ranked the Minnesota secondary at No. 27 in the NFL.
Defensive coordinator Brian Flores introduced an exotic defense in 2023, and it came with mixed results. Safety Camryn Bynum was the top-graded player in the secondary (73.2), while Harrison Smith’s 68.9 grade was the fourth-best on the team. Here, you get solid but not great players in the secondary, but no superstar players are taking this unit to higher levels.
Going away from the grades, Bynum led all corners and safeties last year with 104 tackles, and Metellus was 10th in the NFL with 86 tackles. While that’s just two players within a whole secondary unit, it feels like Minnesota has a top-10 safety room with some work-in-progress at corner. Byron Murphy is a legit corner for the Vikings, but when you get past him, there are some major concerns.
Minnesota signed Shaq Griffin, who had a few good seasons in Seattle. After Griffin, you get Andrew Booth Jr., Akayleb Evans, and Makhi Blackmon, who have potential but are very unproven.
