Jonathan Greenard's new contract with the Vikings could have been extended for two more years at $50 million, but the team opted not to increase his pay from $38 million. This decision raises questions about the Vikings' strategy in managing their pass rusher's contract.
Key points
Jonathan Greenard's contract could have been extended for two more years.
The Vikings chose not to increase his pay from $38 million to $50 million.
Greenard's playing style is explosive and effective against the run.
His addition is seen as a key move for the Eagles' defense.
Minnesota VikingsPhiladelphia Eagles
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. - DECEMBER 2025: Vikings' linebacker Jonathan Greenard (58) celebrates the scoreboard in the fourth quarter as the Minnesota Vikings take on the Washington Commanders at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sunday, December 7, 2025. (Photo by Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images) | Star Tribune via Getty Images
MINNEAPOLIS, MN. - DECEMBER 2025: Vikings' linebacker Jonathan Greenard (58) celebrates the scoreboard in the fourth quarter as the Minnesota Vikings take on the Washington Commanders at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sunday, December 7, 2025. (Photo by Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images) | Star Tribune via Getty Images
***Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles news and links …***
Inside the new Jonathan Greenard contract – PFT
This means, as a practical matter, that the Vikings likely could have kept Greenard under contract for the next two years by increasing his pay from $38 million to $50 million, and by guaranteeing all of it in full at signing. The extra two years, at $48 million, could have been added at no immediate cost to the Vikings, allowing them to move on after 2027, if they decided to do so. That fact will prompt some to wonder why the Vikings didn’t just increase his pay to $50 million over the next two years, from $38 million. Given that the market for pass rushers has increased to $50 million per year, it’s not an unreasonable question to ask.
Eagles Notebook – Iggles Blitz
Someone asked me to break down the differences in Jonathan Greenard and . We think Greenard will be a key addition. Huff was a huge disappointment. Scheme fit is the real key here. Huff was terrific with the . He lined up wide and just flew off the edge. He didn’t have to worry about playing the run. He was always in attack mode. That was perfect in Robert Saleh’s system. Vic Fangio runs a very different system. He likes to play a light box. That means the edge rushers must be good run defenders. Think about blowing up pulling blockers or setting the edge to keep runs contained. Huff wanted no part of that. My guess is that Howie thought the pass rush skills were so valuable that they would offset run deficiencies. Huff never bought into Fangio’s system and Fangio never bought into Huff. Greenard is very different. He is explosive off the edge, but will play the run. He also has the ability to drop into coverage, which is important to Fangio when he’s trying to confuse QBs. Greenard can win with speed and power. He’s good with moves. He’ll shoot inside and mix in a spin move. He is tough to block. And he will get down and dirty against the run.
A lot of what follows in this piece draws on Brandon Thorn’s film room session with Markel Bell on his Trench Warfare Substack, which I recently watched. If you are not subscribed, it is excellent! Thorn walked through Bell’s tape in detail, with Bell himself present to explain his thinking on specific reps, and it is one of the better prospect film sessions I have seen ahead of this draft. I will reference it throughout, as it was really cool to back up my own film with information from the player. There is a quote Bell gave in the first 10 minutes of that video (twice!) that has stuck with me and that I think frames this pick better than any analytical breakdown can. Asked about his style as an offensive tackle, Bell said: “It ain’t gonna be pretty all the time, but I got the job done.” That is Markel Bell in a sentence. He’s not polished, not refined, but physically equipped to do the work and self-aware enough to know that the technique has to catch up to the tools.
According to The Athletic, NFL scouts clocked Lemon’s 40-yard dash between 4.48 and 4.53 seconds, a solid number for a wide receiver, but not to Lemon’s satisfaction. He always strives for more. “If he’s missing split times, it pisses him off,” Gates said. “He’s not happy about it, but not in a way that’s going to affect what we do the next day or the next rep or anything like that. The way that he’s wired, you can tell he doesn’t like it. So when something doesn’t go right, you could tell that it pisses him off and he gets after it even harder. Which, in my opinion, is a good quality to have.” During a practice last season, Lemon asked USC inside wide receivers coach Chad Savage to work with him on route-running releases off to the side while the team conducted a field-goal drill at practice. Lemon knew the drill only lasted two minutes, but Savage said his star wide receiver never wanted to waste a moment and “always got better at something.”
went through blocking drills at practice under the watchful eye of tight ends coach Ryan Mahaffey. There was a particular focus on positioning and technique. This will be a major development to track for Stowers, who was the Mackey Award winner at Vanderbilt as the nation’s top tight end because of his prolific receiving ability, but he’s underdeveloped as a blocker. Stowers, a converted quarterback, only played tight end for three years. He explained that it’s not a matter of inability — it’s just a skill he still must develop because he was never asked to block until he made the conversion. “You just have to learn the technique,” said Stowers, the Eagles’ second-round pick. “I think that was not necessarily a hurdle, but the thing you have to learn the most. You have to get the technique down. A lot of it is reps and so you get the muscle memory down. And the other side of it is just the will to want to block. And I have that, and I want to be the best blocker I can be from that point.” There had been reports that teams viewed Stowers as a big slot rather than a tight end. He’s a tight end for the Eagles — he’s listed as such, he practices with the tight ends. Even if he’s not a traditional in-line tight end, he still must improve his blocking, just as some blocking tight ends must improve their pass-catching.
Stowers, 23, will likely see the field in the Eagles’ 12 personnel package. While the Eagles were 12th in the NFL in 12 personnel (two tight ends) usage last season at 26.14%, the were fifth at 33.76%. That’s notable because Eagles new OC Sean Mannion is coming from . Over the last five drafts, 11 tight ends have been selected in the second round. The most productive among them in their rookie seasons, by far, was , who had 889 yards and 10 touchdowns as a rookie in 2023. Even with that outlier season, those 11 second-round tight ends averaged 29 catches, 292.2 yards and 2.7 touchdowns in their rookie seasons. So it’s probably wise to temper expectations for Stowers.
Nearly 6,000 miles away from his native Abuja, Nigeria, Uar Bernard found a taste of home. While Bernard was training in Fort Myers, Fla., ahead of the International Player Pathway program pro day in late March, he wasn’t fond of some of the American foods that were part of his meal plan. So his defensive line trainer, Javon Gopie, decided to bring him a West African dish. A friend of Gopie and her family made a pan of jollof rice, one of Bernard’s favorite dishes, with lamb at the trainer’s request. Bernard expressed his appreciation for the meal to Gopie. But Gopie said Bernard made it clear that his craving for traditional cuisine wasn’t a longing for home. “‘I love it,’” Gopie recalled Bernard saying. “‘But I want you to know I’m never going back, and I’m going to bust my ass to make sure that I don’t.’” Bernard is on his way to keeping that promise. The Eagles selected the 6-foot-4, 306-pound defensive tackle in the seventh round, making him the first African IPP player to be drafted into the NFL.
Under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie, the Eagles have enjoyed an era of unprecedented on-field success, winning 12 division titles, four NFC Championships, and capturing the first two Lombardi Trophies in franchise history since Lurie’s first full year as owner in 1995. Lurie’s investment in people has allowed the franchise to excel both on and off the field. The Eagles, guided by President Don Smolenski on the business side and Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman in football operations, were recently named one of the Top Workplaces in the country by USA Today. The organization has been previously recognized by USA Today for innovation, leadership, and professional development among businesses.
The closed the Micah Parsons chapter of their history after last month’s draft. After acquiring two first-rounders and from Green Bay in last August’s trade of the pass rusher, the Cowboys used the haul to make more trades and stockpile a woebegone defense. Ultimately, from the Parsons swap, they wound up with Clark, defensive lineman , outside linebacker Malachi Lawrence (23rd selection in 2026), cornerback Devin Moore (114th overall) and defensive lineman (137th overall). The Cowboys are also giving the higher of their 2027 first-rounders to the New York Jets as part of the Williams deal. Executive vice president Stephen Jones told Adam Schein on Mad Dog Sports Radio on Tuesday that he’s thrilled with how the trade worked out for Dallas.
Christian Parker has gotten a lot for his defense, but he may be on the verge of getting more. It was reported on Tuesday by Jordan Schlutz that the Cowboys are hosting free agent cornerback Adoree’ Jackson for a visit. Jackson has had a number of stops in the NFL, but he most recently played for the Philadelphia Eagles so he played in Parker’s secondary there.
A collection of articles, podcasts & tweets from around the web to keep you in touch with the Commanders, the NFC East, the NFL and sports in general, and a sprinkling of other stuff.
The Commanders probably would have loved to have taken an edge rusher or interior defensive lineman worthy of the seventh overall pick, or perhaps had Carnell Tate fall to them. But that’s just not what this draft was. The best players at the top of the draft largely did not play priority positions, and so, many of the teams picking high selected players at non-premier spots. The Commanders were one of them, selecting an off-ball linebacker in Styles at seventh overall. Aside from maybe selecting instead, it’s hard to hate that pick. I imagine the Commanders thought they would be picking lower in this draft when they traded their second-round pick as part of the deal to acquire Laremy Tunsil. That would have been the 38th pick, where the Commanders would have had a number of appealing options on the board at positions of need, notably Denzel Boston, , and Cashius Howell. (To be clear, Tunsil is a good player, and probably worth what the Commanders gave up for him. I just don’t think the Commanders would have included that second-round pick if they thought it would land in the top 40.) But ultimately with what the Commanders left themselves to work with, I thought they found decent value with their selections of Williams, Josephs, and Allen.
Once was moved, signing Reader became a higher priority. A 10-year veteran, Reader was a fifth-round pick by the in the 2016 NFL Draft. He has played for the Texans, and spent the last two seasons with the . Reader has played in 137 NFL regular season games, with 128 starts. He did not miss a game for the Lions last season, starting all 17 and playing 583 defensive snaps. The 6-foot-3, 330-pound Reader will be the primary nose tackle in a revamped interior defensive line. In addition to trading Lawrence, the Giants lost and in free agency.
When the New York Giants swung a stunning pre-draft trade with the Cincinnati Bengals, they acquired the No. 10 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, giving the team two picks inside the top ten. The team also created a hole along the interior of its defensive line, in the form of now-departed defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence. While New York put those two picks to good use, drafting Ohio State’s Arvell Reese at No. 10 and offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa at No. 10, they have spent some of the time since the 2026 NFL Draft shoring up that defensive line in the wake of Lawrence’s departure. And New York made yet another addition to that group on Tuesday, and it was a big one at that.
“We want to be fast and physical.” Yeah, every defense does. “We want to take the ball away.” I’ve yet to see an NFL defense that didn’t. “We’re going to have a multiple front.” That’s life in the NFL in 2026; everyone plays that way. This is not to take anything away from Gannon, and if you were excited to hear him speak, more power to you. Shoot, I was interested! I enjoyed listening to his thoughts, if only because this is the guy that’s going to be shaping what we hope is going to be a Super Bowl-caliber defense for the next few years, and hopefully longer. It pays to get to know that guy a bit.
Negotiations between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association on a new collective bargaining agreement have progressed far enough that the union has scheduled a ratification vote for Thursday night, sources told ESPN on Tuesday. When formally approved by both sides, the agreement would avoid the need for replacement officials this season. The existing CBA is set to expire May 31. [BLG Note: Good news since no one wants to see replacement refs.]
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Q&A
What are the details of Jonathan Greenard's contract with the Vikings?
Jonathan Greenard's contract could have been extended for two years at $50 million, but the Vikings chose to keep it at $38 million.
Why didn't the Vikings increase Jonathan Greenard's salary to $50 million?
The Vikings likely opted not to increase his salary due to their overall strategy and the current market conditions for pass rushers.
How does Jonathan Greenard's playing style fit into the Vikings' system?
Greenard is known for being explosive off the edge and capable of playing the run, which aligns well with the Vikings' defensive strategies.
What impact could Jonathan Greenard have on the Eagles' defense?
Greenard's ability to rush the passer and defend against the run could significantly enhance the Eagles' defensive capabilities.
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