Key Vikings defender 'holding in' as he awaits contract extension?

Vikings do-it-all safety Josh Metellus, one of the key pieces in Brian Flores' defense over the past two seasons, has been a limited participant in recent OTA practices despite there being no indications he's dealing with any sort of injury.

The logical assumption is that his lack of involvement has something to do with his current contract situation. Metellus is heading into the final year of the deal he signed prior to the 2023 season, which turned out to be an extremely team-friendly contract when he emerged as a borderline star in a full-time defensive role under Flores. There have been extension talks between the two sides this offseason, but no deal has yet been reached. So while it's not a certainty, it sure appears as if Metellus is "holding in" to some degree by limiting his reps.

Players famously used to "hold out" and not show up to practices when they were dissatisfied with their contract. The current CBA has mostly eliminated that, at least during training camp, due to the hefty fines that teams can levy on players who don't report. This phase of the offseason is technically voluntary, so Metellus doesn't have to show up, but the hold-in is a way to still earn workout bonuses and be around your teammates while diminishing injury risk.

"I think there's interest from both sides in continuing that relationship and that he continues to be an important piece of the defense in Minnesota, but as of now, that contract is not done and I don't think there's really much in terms of guaranteed money for him at this point," the Star Tribune's Ben Goessling said on the Access Vikings podcast. "You do see guys, whether we've seen it with Danielle Hunter or T.J. Hockenson, when they're talking through those contract things, it's maybe not that they're holding out, but the hold-in has kind of become the modern approach to this."

"He may be saying, I'm gonna be here so I can get my workout bonus, but I'm gonna mitigate some of what I do so that I'm not putting myself at more risk when I don't have a guaranteed contract going forward beyond this year and I want to see something get done. It's one of those things to keep an eye on. I don't know for sure that that's the only reason for it. It's possible, I suppose, that he's coming back from something (injury-wise). But the Occam's razor there would suggest that the contract is at least a factor in some of the way that he's going about it in practices that we've seen, at least to this point."

The two-year, $8 million extension Metellus signed two years ago came when he had mostly been a core special teams player in his first three seasons. Once he emerged with an incredible 2023 campaign where he stuffed the stat sheet and showed off remarkable versatility, that deal became a huge bargain for Minnesota. Metellus didn't rack up stats in quite the same way last year, but he had another strong season as an every-down player who lines up all over the field for Flores.

There's little reason to suspect that something won't get worked out between the Vikings and the 27-year-old Metellus, who was a sixth-round pick out of Michigan back in 2020. They have a history of taking care of their key players and rewarding them with extensions — most recently Andrew Van Ginkel earlier this offseason. It's probably just a matter of time until the two sides find common ground on a new deal. Metellus was already one of the Vikings' most important defenders, and his long-term value is boosted further by Camryn Bynum's departure and the possibility of Harrison Smith retiring after this year.