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Vikings praised for tricky contract extension ahead of 2026 season
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- Vikings praised for tricky contract extension ahead of 2026 season
Vikings praised for tricky contract extension ahead of 2026 season originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
Contract extensions are always tricky. It's easy to pay a player too much, or too little. So, when the Minnesota Vikings extended offensive tackle Brian O'Neill with a four-year, $96 million deal, it got a lot of attention.
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Was it too much? Did the Vikings need to make that deal right now? Those were some of the obvious questions.
Seth Walder of ESPN has a feature out on Friday about some of the biggest contract extensions during the NFL offseason. In the piece, he's "evaluating the decisions teams make, considering the player in question, the price and the rest of the team's roster, cap situation and time horizon to contention."
Minnesota Vikings made a good deal with contract extension
For the Vikings, Walder is a fan of their extension of O'Neill, noting that the player has "always performed very well and been consistent in pass block win rate."
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Walder ended in the 95th percentile or above for three consecutive seasons from 2022 to 2024. Last season, he dropped to the 79th percentile, which is still good .
"At age 30 with only one year left on his contract, extending O'Neill made a ton of sense," Walder says, noting that "offensive tackles can continue to play at a high level well into their 30s" and "right now contract costs for good tackles are relatively cheap."
He adds, "Losing O'Neill would really hurt the offense, replacing him would be difficult, and his extension costs only $24 million per year."
So, this was a win-win for both parties. It's a breath of fresh air amid a franchise dealing with quarterback uncertainty going into the new season.
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