Inside The Vikings

Will Dalton Risner Start Right Away For Vikings? Assessing His Likely Role

Risner is joining the Vikings on what amounts to borderline backup/starter money.

Will Ragatz

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Much to the delight of fans who have been starved for above-average interior offensive line play over much of the last decade, the Vikings officially signed free agent guard Dalton Risner on Tuesday. 

As evidence on how excited this move has made Minnesota's fan base, just look at how many likes Risner's post on X/Twitter has received since the news initially broke on Monday afternoon:

Risner is a proven option who started 62 games at left guard over the last four years for the Broncos. He's not an elite guard. He's never made a Pro Bowl. But he does have a track record of durability and solid production in pass protection, having earned a PFF pass-blocking grade above 69 in all four of his seasons in Denver. That alone would seemingly make Risner an immediate upgrade for the Vikings.

If you asked virtually any Vikings fan to make the decision, the 28-year-old veteran would replace Ed Ingram and start at one of the guard spots in a must-win game this Sunday against the Chargers. But for the Vikings' actual decision-makers, it's probably not that simple.

Risner is reportedly signing a one-year, $4 million deal with $2.25 million guaranteed. That may mean the latter number functions as the actual contract value and the former number can only be reached through playing time incentives. While both figures are obviously more than the veteran minimum, they're also not nearly what Risner was hoping to land on his second contract this offseason.

Hitting free agency for the first time this year, Risner was projected by some sites to make up to $8-9 million per year on a new long-term deal. However, he didn't sign in the first wave of free agency — or even the second or third waves. Risner visited the Vikings on August 1st, but left without signing a contract. As of right now, it's hard to know exactly what happened with his situation. Was he recovering from an injury? Were he and his camp setting a bar in contract demands that teams wouldn't meet? Either way, we're now two weeks into the regular season, and Risner clearly decided the time was right to end his lengthy free agency.

The Vikings adding Risner raises a number of questions. Will he start right away — or soon? What position will he play? Why didn't the team just sign him seven weeks ago when they initially brought him in for a visit?

Going back to the contract details, $2.25 million is basically expensive backup money. $4 million, which is the maximum value of the deal, is more like low-end starter money. That would seem to indicate that Risner is being brought in to provide depth and perhaps enter the starting lineup in the near future.

Although it wouldn't be shocking to see Risner start this week against the Chargers, that doesn't feel overly likely right now. It's worth noting that the Vikings just lost Oli Udoh — one of their top backup offensive linemen — for the season with a torn quad. Udoh plays tackle, but the Vikings clearly needed more depth up front. Maybe they're planning to move guard Blake Brandel back into the swing tackle role and have Risner be the new No. 1 backup on the interior.

If Risner does become a starting guard for the Vikings in the near future, would it be Ingram that he replaces? Benching Ingram, a 2022 second-round pick, early in his second season would essentially mean giving up on him as a long-term piece. That's justifiable given how he played as a rookie and in his two-game start to this season, but it's not a decision that figures to be easy for GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. Ezra Cleveland plays Risner's primary left guard position and is in a contract year, but he has proven to have a higher floor and ceiling of performance than Ingram.

Even though he's only played LG in the NFL, Risner likely comes with some positional flexibility. During his standout college career at Kansas State, he played center as a freshman before moving to right tackle for three seasons. If the Vikings want him to play right guard, that shouldn't be an issue. Cleveland could also move back to RG, where he played as a rookie, to accommodate Risner.

As of right now, Risner's immediate and long-term roles with the Vikings are unknown. But when considering the whole picture — Risner's track record, a contract worth up to $4 million, Ingram's first 20 games, and an 0-2 start to the season — ones imagines the Vikings aren't bringing him to Minnesota to be true backup. Even if it doesn't happen right away, it feels like the safe bet is that Risner winds up starting at guard for the Vikings before too long.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

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