No New Contract Danielle Hunter Announces To The Vikings He Is Leaving For Good.
The Minnesota Vikings are going to have a tough time extending edge-rusher Danielle Hunter, and he isn’t the only one.
Hunter presents the Vikings with problems because has been awesome in 2023, can’t be franchise-tagged next offseason and is probably going to be too expensive heading into his age-30 campaign for Minnesota to justify a new contract.
DJ Wonnum, on the other hand, should be relatively affordable in free agency by comparison, but may not be worth the money he can get elsewhere across the league.
Alec Lewis of The Athletic on Monday, December 4, authored a mailbag in which he answered a question about the Vikings’ “appetite” to bring Wonnum back on an extension.
Lewis’ answer was more or less that a deeper dive into the outside linebacker’s numbers doesn’t bode well for his return to Minneapolis.
As for an extension, the Vikings are well aware of their looming hole at edge rusher. Both Danielle Hunter and Wonnum are set to become free agents.
The Vikings appreciate Wonnum’s commitment and work ethic, but his overall production still leaves a lot to be desired.
The way this season has played out for Wonnum has driven up his value in a traditional sense, though perhaps not in the ways particularly appreciated by analytics stat-head/general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah.
Wonnum, a fourth-round draft pick of the Vikings in 2020, is playing the final season of a four-year, $4 million contract. With a salary cap number under $3 million in 2023, Wonnum represents significant value as a player who has stepped in for Marcus Davenport as the team’s second starting outside linebacker alongside Hunter