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.