Danielle Hunter Takes Page Out of Diggs’ Social Media Playbook After Spielman Plays Coy

Remember a year ago, when Stefon Diggs was sending cryptic tweets on the daily and deleting specific Instagram photos that pictured anything Minnesota Vikings? He caught a lot of heat for stirring last year’s offseason rumor mill and raising questions about his future.

It was an interesting time.

Surely, something like that would never happen with another star player the very next season, right? Not to a well-respected and historic NFL franchise like the Vikings.

Rick Spielman said he was never told that Danielle Hunter wants to be the highest-paid defensive player or be traded away from the Vikings.

Hunter liked some interesting tweets and no longer has Vikings related posts up on his IG.

(1/2) pic.twitter.com/gNh4sseBbm

— tanishka ☼ (@skoltanishka) March 6, 2021

Learn from the past

We would be foolish to dismiss a deliberate social media action like this in 2021, especially when this isn’t the first time Danielle Hunter has publicly expressed frustration. Don’t be a boomer, this is the passive aggressive way younger generation athletes get someone’s attention.

Some tried to deny the meaning of Stefon Diggs’ tweets last offseason and now he’s in Buffalo. Hunter deserves a better contract, one with some guaranteed cash. As it sits now, his current deal has $0 guaranteed dollars remaining.

It’s possible that Hunter’s likes on Twitter are just fun and his change on Instagram is just a refresh… but the way and order in which everything played out will make you raise an eyebrow, at the least.

Timing

The timing here, could be key. As said in the tweet above, Rick Spielman denied earlier this week ever being told by Hunter’s camp that Danielle wanted to be the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL. That’s when Hunter started making his changes on Instagram and liking his own trade speculation on Twitter.

Even if he was lying, Spielman was probably just trying to prevent more drama from surrounding his star defensive end. Instead, he may have triggered the opposite reaction. Tell the truth, kids. No matter the situation.

Now, Hunter has seemingly ditched the standard Adam Schefter or Ian Rapoport avenue of getting what he wants, now opting to rip a page out of Stefon Diggs’ book.

Vikings elephants in the room

There are two elephants sitting in the middle of TCO Performance Center. One, Kirk Cousins’ huge contract, is massive in both figurative and literal terms. The other, Danielle Hunter’s underwhelming and non-guaranteed contract situation, needs to gain some weight on the literal side.

Given that the Vikings currently sit $6-ish million over the cap with less than two weeks to find $0, both the Hunter and Cousins elephants could be addressed soon, to avoid even more unnecessary drama. Eric actually deep-dove Danielle’s contract and how an extension/restructure could benefit both him and the Vikings cap situation.

But let’s get real. In a year where money is limited for all teams, the offseason drama is only getting started.

Cooper Carlson | Minnesota Vikings