The Minnesota Vikings have one of the most stacked defenses in the entire league.
As such, it’s hard to stand out from the rest of the pack.
Defensive coordinator Brian Flores often gets plenty of credit for that unit, and while that’s more than fair, Gennaro Filice of NFL.com believes one of his strongest contributors has often gone overlooked.
With that in mind, he chose Josh Metellus as one of the most underappreciated teams in the league right now:
“With his impressive renovation of Minnesota’s defense over the past two seasons, Brian Flores has established himself as one of the most esteemed coordinators in football today. But one of his key cogs hasn’t received the national shine he deserves. The Vikings’ second-leading tackler in each of the past two seasons, [Josh] Metellus is the chess piece Flores moves all over the board,” Filice wrote.
That makes sense, especially considering how much of a bargain he’s been for this team.
He’s on a two-year contract worth a grand total of $8 million.
That’s the kind of contract one gets as a special-teams contributor, so having him turn the corner as a defensive force as well was a welcome surprise.
Not many people pay attention to a former sixth-round pick, but Metellus is in line to sign a big contract extension and finally get some headlines going his way.
He’s coming off playing all 17 games last season, logging 991 defensive snaps and 210 special-teams snaps, and recording 103 tackles, six QB hits, five passes defended, two interceptions, two tackles for loss, and one forced fumble.
More importantly, he played all over the defense.
Whether it was in the slot or in the box, he always found a way to make an impact.
The Vikings’ salary cap situation isn’t ideal, but they will have to figure out a way to get him the kind of money he deserves after that kind of production.
