Jordan Addison is 'prepared' for NFL's decision on potential suspension

All Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison can do now is wait.

Last week, Addison's DUI case in Los Angeles concluded when he accepted a plea deal that reduced his charges to a "wet reckless," which came with a small fine and 12 months of probation. That means there will be no trial, allowing Addison to put this legal situation — which stems from his July 2024 arrest — mostly behind him. He'll have a progress hearing in late October.

"Really just to get it all behind me," Addison said on Wednesday regarding the decision to take a plea deal. "Just get on with the season."

The primary remaining matter to be determined is how the NFL will choose to discipline Addison. The standard penalty for arrests involving alcohol, per the league's substance abuse policy, is a three-game suspension without pay. It's unclear if Addison's case resulting in a plea deal will have any impact on the severity of his punishment.

Addison will accept whatever the NFL decides, he said.

"Everything is out of my control right now, so whatever the league got for me, I'll be prepared, whatever decision they make," he said.

The league hasn't given the Vikings a timeline for when their decision will be announced.

"We've been in communication with them, they're obviously going through their process," GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said on Tuesday. "We'll know as soon as they know. Obviously, the matter's been adjudicated and we're just waiting to go from there."

Both Addison and the Vikings are clearly aware that a suspension of 1-3 games is a possibility, if not a likelihood. If they're without their No. 2 receiver for one or multiple games to start the season, they'll be ready to go with depth options. Jalen Nailor would step into the WR2 role, while newcomers like Rondale Moore, Tim Jones, and rookie Tai Felton would be among the candidates to see more snaps.

"Obviously when it originally happened, we knew that (suspension) was a possibility," Adofo-Mensah said. "Really, you're talking about team-building in general. You might not have players on the field for various reasons, and you always gotta be ready with depth players you're excited about taking the field and taking those opportunities. This is no different."

"We'll see how these first few weeks look, what type of personnel we're gonna have for those games when we get all the information on our group back," head coach Kevin O'Connell said Wednesday, seemingly alluding to the Addison situation. "Speedy (Nailor) could be a huge, huge contributor early and often, all season long, and that's my expectation. He's primed and ready to play a huge role in our offense."

Addison, the 23rd overall pick in the 2023 draft, is hoping to build on his first two seasons and put together a big third year in the league. Across his first 32 games, he's caught 133 passes for 1,786 yards and scored 20 total touchdowns. He recently spent time working out with J.J. McCarthy, Justin Jefferson, and other teammates at Woodbury High School to build momentum into training camp. One of the highlights of the first day of camp was a 60-yard TD bomb he caught from McCarthy.

Notably, Addison was not involved in any sort of pre-training camp legal incident this summer. He was cited for speeding and reckless driving on July 20, 2023 and was arrested on suspicion of DUI after being found asleep behind the wheel on July 12, 2024 in L.A.

"Just be smart," Addison said of what he's learned from those incidents. "Make smart decisions. That’s pretty much all."

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