Minnesota Vikings Signing New Pro Bowl Center

Although free agency doesn’t officially open until Wednesday so nothing can be made official until then, but many of the league’s top available players are already off the board, unofficially. For the most part, Monday has been curiously quiet for the Vikings, who have lost a lot more key players today than they have gained.

Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has plenty of cap space to work with, and the Vikings have a whole host of roster holes to fill. But so far, Minnesota has been very careful not to throw that money around. But finally on Monday evening, the Vikings finally upgraded a major area of need — the interior offensive line.

Ryan Kelly beefs up Minnesota Vikings offensive line

The Minnesota Vikings have agreed to terms with 31-year-old 4X Pro Bowl center Ryan Kelly, who comes with nine years of NFL experience with the Indianapolis Colts, to a 2-year, $18 million contract. His 10th and 11th season, however, will be played in purple.

The Minnesota Vikings already have a strong pair of tackles to bookend their offensive line. Brian O’Neill previously received a contract extension and left tackle Christian Darrisaw signed one last season. The interior offensive line has been a persistent problem holding this offense back. Ryan Kelly should immediately help fix that.

Kelly was the 18th overall pick during the 2016 NFL Draft. He has played 121 games across 9 seasons and all of his 7,696 snaps have been taken at the center position. Kelly was named a second-team All-Pro in 2020, and made Pro Bowls in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023.

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The Alabama alum has struggled to stay healthy for full seasons during his impressive NFL career, however. Last season, Kelly suffered a knee injury that required surgery and ultimately limited him to 10 games. In 2023, a Pro Bowl season, he played 14 games. Only once (2023), since the NFL went to 18-week seasons, has Kelly played all 17 games.

Guard was a position the Minnesota Vikings were expected to upgrade. It seems unlikely that Kelly would sign a free agent contract to switch positions a decade into his NFL career. That means there could be more shuffling on the Minnesota offensive line.

Last season the Vikings started Blake Brandel and Ed Ingram at guard positions to open the season. Ultimately the latter was benched in favor of veteran Dalton Risner.

What does this mean for MN Vikings Garrett Bradbury?

It’s certainly not a great day to be Garrett Bradbury. He has almost certainly lost his starting center role, and he may be on the outs in general. Minnesota took Bradbury at 18th overall (quite the parallel) in 2019. His production has largely been hit or miss throughout his career.

A solid 2022 season earned him a new contract after the MN Vikings had decided to decline his fifth-year option. This is the final year of that deal and Bradbury carries a $6.064 million cap hit with just $2.442 million in dead cap. If he wasn’t thinking that Minnesota may cut him, they certainly could now.

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It also may signal a desire to approach Bradbury about working at guard. His push against opposing defensive tackles left the Vikings needing more last season. The running game was often stuffed, and his inability to open holes certainly didn’t help.

Like Kelly, all 88 games of Bradbury’s career have come at center. He has taken 5,576 snaps there. Learning a new position now probably isn’t ideal, but it’s likely the only way he sticks around in Minnesota.

If and when the Vikings sign a starting guard, it would lead to an even greater belief that Bradbury was simply someone they felt needed to be improved upon. No matter what, the line gets better with Kelly’s addition.