Inside The Vikings

Vikings Sign Former Giants DT Dalvin Tomlinson to Two-Year Deal

The Vikings land a run-stuffing defensive tackle with upside as a pass rusher to pair with Michael Pierce.

Will Ragatz

The Vikings have signed former Giants defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson to a two-year, $22 million contract, as first announced by his agency. For the second straight year, their first big move in free agency is to sign a defensive tackle. 

Last year, it was ex-Ravens nose tackle Michael Pierce, who didn't end up playing in 2020 due to a COVID opt-out. This year, it's Tomlinson, one of the top interior defensive linemen on the market. The 27-year-old hasn't missed a single game in four seasons with the Giants. It's just a two-year deal, which allows Tomlinson to hit free agency again at age 29, after the salary cap bounces back.

$15 million of the $22 million contract comes in signing bonus, as Tomlinson will likely have a low 2021 base salary for cap purposes. $16 million is fully guaranteed. Here are the full contract details.

This is an interesting splash to make late in the evening of the first day of the NFL's legal tampering period. Tomlinson (6'3", 317) has just eight sacks in those 64 games while primarily serving as a nose tackle. But perhaps the Vikings believe in his upside as a pass rusher and think he'll fit well as a three-tech next to Pierce. It's a pairing they clearly believe in.

Tomlinson was a second-round pick out of Alabama back in 2017, 14 slots after the only other Dalvin to ever play in the NFL. He had an 81.0 PFF grade as a rookie on nearly 600 snaps, shining as a run defender and adding one sack. Tomlinson has been a consistently valuable and impressive player since then. In all four seasons with the Giants, he played between 588 and 658 snaps, recorded either 26 or 27 run stops, and finished with a PFF grade between 75.1 and 81. He's had 3.5 sacks in each of the past two seasons.

Mike Zimmer has proven that he likes having two run-stuffing defensive tackles. That's why Shamar Stephen has stuck around as the team's three-technique for the past couple seasons. Tomlinson is an upgraded version of Stephen, who was already considered a possible cap casualty and would now seem to almost certainly be on his way out.

Having the two run-stuffers in the middle will be good for linebackers Eric Kendricks and Anthony Barr, and will allow the Vikings to focus more on coverage to some degree because they know Pierce and Tomlinson will be difficult to run up the middle on. The hope is that Pierce and Tomlinson will both offer just enough juice to create some interior penetration. Defensive ends like Stephen Weatherly and D.J. Wonnum —or RFA Ifeadi Odenigbo, or a rookie — can rotate into the middle on clear passing downs. The Vikings also have recent Day 3 picks Armon Watts and James Lynch in their DT room.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

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