Vikings Bringing Back Veteran Defensive End Everson Griffen
The Vikings are signing veteran defensive end Everson Griffen, a longtime stalwart of their pass rush and emotional leader in the locker room, per multiple reports. Griffen spent the first ten years of his career in Minnesota, blossoming into a star edge rusher under Mike Zimmer and Andre Patterson, before spending last season with the Cowboys and Lions.
Griffen, 33, worked out for the Vikings last week.
Update: it's official.
This move adds some juice and experience to the pass rush, although it's unclear what Griffen's role will be in 2021. Is he being signed with the expectation that he'll take back his old starting job opposite Danielle Hunter? Stephen Weatherly and D.J. Wonnum have been competing for that role throughout the offseason, with Weatherly seeming to take the lead after a strong game against the Colts this weekend. Or will Griffen, similar to Sheldon Richardson, be mainly used as a pass rushing specialist on third downs?
Either way, the Vikings' defense is getting better. That's the bottom line. Griffen is past his prime, but he still put up 33 pressures and six sacks last year despite bouncing around two different defenses. He's not far removed from his fourth Pro Bowl appearance in 2019, earning that honor with a 66-pressure, 8-sack season.
Overall, Griffen's 80.5 career sacks rank 15th among active players. He is seventh in Vikings history with 74.5 sacks in a purple and gold uniform.
Griffen joins Weatherly, Richardson, and Mackensie Alexander as former and current members of the Vikings' defense who played elsewhere and then returned to play for Zimmer again. That says a lot about the kind of culture this team has established, particularly on defense.
One interesting subplot of this move is how it might be received by quarterback Kirk Cousins, considering Griffen bizarrely insulted Cousins on social media back in January before deleting the tweets and apologizing. That could be a little awkward, although it shouldn't be hard for the two to put it behind them in the pursuit of winning a Super Bowl. For the most part, Griffen is beloved by teammates for his relentless energy on and off the field.
The Vikings drafted Griffen out of USC in the fourth round back in 2010.
If he's even close to the player he was from 2014 to 2019, the Vikings just addressed one of the only remaining question marks on their defense in a big way.
Contract terms have not been announced yet, but it's almost certainly a fairly inexpensive one-year deal.
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