What Theo Jackson’s new deal means for the Minnesota Vikings

AtoZ Sports

Tyler Forness discusses Theo Jackson's contract extension and details what that likely means for the Minnesota Vikings going forward.

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00:00The Minnesota Vikings got started early in free agency by extending one of their own

00:04and it could cause a huge ripple effect for free agency.

00:10We knew that the Minnesota Vikings might be targeting some of their own guys when it came

00:14to extensions, and they finally got one done on Thursday morning, signing safety Theo Jackson

00:19to a two-year extension worth over $12.6 million. Now, if you include that with the $3.2 million he

00:25was projected to get on his restricted free agent deal, it's essentially worth $15.9 million.

00:32Not too shabby for a guy who's barely played for the Minnesota Vikings, played less than a

00:36hundred snaps last year, but did have the game ending interception against the Seattle Seahawks

00:41in week 16. And you could tell during training camp that he looked like a fourth starter,

00:46but with how Brian Flores does not like to rotate that much in the secondary,

00:50Jackson did not get much playing time, but it wasn't due to any fault of zone.

00:54Now, what the signing does is signal a couple of things when it comes to how the Minnesota

00:58Vikings are going to project forward. They're signing him to a very similar deal that they

01:02signed Josh Metellus to. It was a two-year $8 million extension with up to $13 million

01:09if he hit all these bonus benchmarks. And guess what? Metellus has been stellar for the Vikings,

01:14but when they signed him to that deal, it was like, Hmm, this is interesting because he's never

01:18really shown that he's a starting caliber player. And then all of a sudden he just was even garnered

01:23a lot of pro bowl attention. And they're, they didn't really have anywhere to put him in next

01:28gen stats because he was a true unicorn playing all over the place. It was a very interesting

01:34decision, but the theory with quaste open Mensa, they bought low and they got surplus value later.

01:40And that's what they're trying to do here with Theo Jackson. They are buying low on a player.

01:44They believe who's starting caliber and they're hoping to get surplus value at the end of the

01:48deal when he's probably worth closer to $10 million. And they're only paying him just over

01:53five on an average annual value basis. It's a really smart move, especially because cam

01:58Bynum is probably out the door. There've been talks that the Vikings and him have been trying

02:02to agree to an extension for months, and they have not been able to come to a deal.

02:06What's interesting though, six safeties are making over than $15 million per season,

02:13but all of those are really, really good athletes and are true difference makers.

02:17The Vikings probably don't believe Bynum is in that same echelon while Bynum probably thinks

02:21he does. And he's got a case to build around that, but he doesn't have this next level

02:27athleticism that you want from a safety like Bynum. And the Vikings just decided that, Hey,

02:33we're going to move on, even though he's a locker room favorite and he's a fan favorite because of

02:37all the dances that they've done after interceptions. Look, it is what it is, but

02:44you have Theo Jackson, Josh Metellus, and this is your safety. You're moving forward. And you

02:48still may have Harrison Smith come back who they need to decide by the day three of the league year

02:53because a $26 million base salary is fully guaranteed. If he's on the roster at 3 p.m.

03:00on that day, which is March 15th. Oh buddy, that is a lot of money and they are not going to give

03:07him that. They are not going to do it and they're going to have to figure something out. But last

03:14two years, the Vikings have figured something out with Harrison Smith right up at the deadline.

03:18And I expect that to be the same. And if they want to keep doing three safety sets, well, guess what?

03:23They've got their three safeties. If they want to just go to two, they've got that as well.

03:26And they can rotate guys in and out and keep them fresher. It's going to be really interesting to

03:30see how this ends up manifesting, but safety might be off the board. We don't know. Maybe

03:35Javon Holland is no longer an option for the Minnesota Vikings, but it does signal that they

03:40do believe safety is a priority, even if it's at a low dollar because they got their guy secured

03:46before free agency started. Strap in everybody. It's going to be a fun ride.

03:50I'm Tyler Fornas with ADZ Sports. Let's go Vikings.

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