With the 2025-26 NFL season officially in the books, it’s time to start looking forward to the real meat and potatoes of the offseason. As hard as it might be to believe, we are just a month away from the start of the “legal tampering” period of free agency, which still may be the silliest name for anything in all of pro sports. (If it’s tampering, it isn’t legal, and if it’s legal it isn’t tampering, after all.) The Minnesota Vikings don’t have a lot of pending free agents, but they do have a couple of interesting names that they could, potentially, be looking at extending.
Let’s take a look at all of the Vikings who are set to hit free agency in a month, broken down by their status (and what that status means), as well as who the Vikings may be looking at bringing back. The list of free agents and their statuses is provided by the folks from Over the Cap.
Vikings pending free agents 2026
Unrestricted Free Agents
- RB Ty Chandler
- LS Andrew DePaola
- FB C.J. Ham* (Ham has already announced his retirement from the NFL)
- WR Rondale Moore
- CB Fabian Moreau
- WR Jalen Nailor
- OT Matt Nelson
- CB Jeff Okudah
- QB Brett Rypien
- OT Justin Skule
- S Harrison Smith*
- S Tavierre Thomas
- QB Carson Wentz
- LB Eric Wilson
- QB John Wolford
- P Ryan Wright
Unrestricted free agency is what everyone immediately thinks of when they think of free agency. A player’s contract has officially expired and, barring an extension, they are free to sign with any other team as soon as free agency hits. There are a couple of names on the list for the Vikings that bear watching. I included C.J. Ham and Harrison Smith on this list, even though Ham has already made his retirement official and, based on what we saw in the regular season finale, it certainly seems like Smith is at least leaning in that direction, though he hasn’t made any official announcement yet.
The most interesting name on the list might be Jalen Nailor. The Vikings have a decision to make on Jordan Addison’s fifth-year option, which isn’t going to be cheap, and given Addison’s propensity for putting himself in less than ideal situations off the field, the Vikings might want to at least explore the possibility of bringing Nailor back. Of course, Nailor isn’t going to be cheap, either, and he might want to find himself an expanded role somewhere else. He’s earned that opportunity after a solid 2025 season, all things considered.
Eric Wilson is another interesting case. He had an outstanding year in Brian Flores’ defense after being a bit of an afterthought signing in free agency last season, particularly as a blitzer. He’s starting to get up in age a bit, and it will be interesting to see what kind of deal he could command in free agency this time around.
The Vikings have a couple of special teamers on the list as well in Ryan Wright and Andrew DePaola. DePaola has been either a first or second-team All-Pro in all four of his seasons in Minnesota, but he’s also 39 years old. He might be at the point where he wants to hang it up, but if he wants to come back the Vikings should obviously make every effort to re-sign him. Wright had a very solid season in 2025 as well and had no real issues as the holder for Will Reichard’s outstanding season, so bringing him back could be something the Vikings prioritize as well.
Restricted Free Agents
- LB Ivan Pace Jr.
- TE Ben Sims
A restricted free agent is a player with three accrued NFL seasons and an expired contract, which allows their team to extend them a qualifying offer if they wish. That offer can either be at the first-round level, the second-round level, or the “original round” level. If another team wishes to sign a player that has been tendered a qualifying offer, they can sign them to an offer sheet that the original team has seven days to match. If the original team doesn’t match, they receive the draft choice corresponding to the tender level as compensation.
Both Pace and Sims were undrafted free agents, so any qualifying offer would simply give the Vikings the right of first refusal. If the Vikings were to tender either player and they signed an offer sheet with another team, the Vikings would get no compensation if they chose not to match. I’m not sure if they’re going to see enough in either Pace or Sims to tender either of them. Pace was very good in his rookie season but seems to have fallen off significantly since then, and I don’t think he’d be worth signing at anything higher than the qualifying level offer, to be honest.
Exclusive Rights Free Agents
- DL Jalen Redmond
- Edge Bo Richter
- RB Zavier Scott
Exclusive Rights Free Agents are players with two or fewer accrued NFL seasons and an expiring contract, and to be honest they’re not really free agents at all. As long as their current team tenders them a one-year deal at the league minimum salary, they can’t negotiate with other teams and either have to sign the tender offer or sit out the season. If their team, for whatever reason, doesn’t extend them that one-year offer, then they become unrestricted free agents, but I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that the Vikings wouldn’t tender all three of their ERFAs, particularly Redmond, who had an outstanding year for the Vikings up front. They might even do a longer deal with Redmond, but he’ll certainly get the tender offer, at the very least. Richter is a core special teamer and Scott showed some promise as a #3 running back and will likely stay in that role in 2026.
That is a full accounting of the Minnesota Vikings’ pending free agents as we sit a month from the start of NFL free agency. Is there anyone that we didn’t touch on here that you think the Vikings should definitely be looking into bringing back?
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