Vikings agree to terms with DL Jonathan Bullard on one-year deal

The Vikings have agreed to terms on a one-year deal with defensive tackle Jonathan Bullard, according to multiple reports.

The 30-year-old Bullard is back for a third season in Minnesota, where he's been a part of the defensive line rotation since being signed in 2022. Last year, he started 14 games for the Vikings and played a career-high 643 defensive snaps. With Dean Lowry recently being released by the Vikings, it made sense for them to bring back Bullard for depth reasons in 2024. He's an experienced player who provides a decent floor at the position.

However, Bullard is basically just a replacement-level veteran who is adequate as a run defender and offers next to nothing as a pass rusher. The Vikings would presumably like to have him playing a smaller role in 2024 behind a starter who can generate some interior pressure.

From our UFA profile:

In his eighth NFL season and his second with the Vikings, Jonathan Bullard saw the biggest role of his career in 2023. With Dalvin Tomlinson leaving in free agency and Dean Lowry getting hurt, Bullard finished second among Minnesota's defensive tackles with 643 snaps across 17 games. That blew past his previous career-high in defensive snaps (437 with the Bears in 2017).

Bullard was playing out of necessity, as the Vikings' other non-Harrison Phillips options were Lowry, Sheldon Day, Khyiris Tonga, and Jaquelin Roy. He clearly earned Brian Flores' trust as a solid run defender up front, but it's not like Flores had many other options. PFF credited Bullard with nine pressures and two sacks on 325 pass-rushing snaps (a 2.8 percent pressure rate). As a whole, the Vikings got almost zero pass rush from their DT group. Flores recognized that and focused on getting pressure via his edge rushers and blitzing at a league-high rate.

For what it's worth, PFF gave Bullard a 46.4 grade on the season, which ranked 61st out of the 67 DTs who played at least 500 snaps in 2023. Those grades are imperfect, but they demonstrate that the Vikings would be well-served to upgrade from Bullard in 2024. The bar isn't particularly high to do so, especially in the pass rush department.

Bullard was originally a third-round pick out of Florida by the Bears back in 2016. He had stints with Chicago, Arizona, Seattle, and Atlanta before landing in Minnesota.

The Vikings currently have Harrison Phillips, Bullard, Jaquelin Roy, and T.J. Smith as their defensive tackles under contract this year. That's still a major position of need for them in free agency and/or the draft this offseason.