Turns out some folks outside of Minnesota recognize the abilities of Vikings defender Josh Metellus. Admittedly, he had a reasonably poor 2025, but much of that was due to injury. Seeing him bounce back should be the expectation.

On The Athletic, Ted Nguyen assembled a list of the most versatile players in the NFL. Scroll down a bit — journeying past names such as Kyle Hamilton, Puka Nacua, and Christian McCaffrey — means arriving at Mr. Metellus. Per Nguyen, Metellus is a “glue guy” who lets the defense as a whole to thrive.

Vikings Defender Earns Praise for Versatility

Start off with some general observations about how the Minnesota Vikings like to play defense.

“For Brian Flores’ wacky scheme to work,” Nguyen begins, “versatility is key. Offenses can’t get the usual tells based on where defenders line up. Josh Metellus isn’t a household name but he lines up everywhere on the Vikings’ defense.”

On a down-to-down basis, Josh Metellus is capable of embodying the Flores ethos.

From the same piece: “On one play, he’ll line up as the deep safety. On the next, he could play press coverage on a tight end. On third down, he could be blitzing on the line of scrimmage. He’ll even rotate into the box and play linebacker. It’s hard to play all the positions he does in a regular defense, but in Flores’ defense, he has to learn how to do multiple things within each spot.”

And finally: “His ability to make open-field tackles is essential for a defense that blitzes as much as the Vikings. If you miss open-field tackles on blitzes when the quarterback finds a hot route, it’s a recipe for disaster. Though he doesn’t make a ton of splash plays, Metellus is a glue guy for the Vikings.”

Both before and after the snap, Coach Flores is looking to create chaos and confusion. He can achieve that broad goal by deploying a pile of players capable of doing various things well.

Nguyen is bringing up a good point that having sturdy tacklers — while always important — is especially necessary due to the overall aggression. Sending so many players toward the quarterback means having less available for a tackle when the ball does get out. Whoever remains needs to be capable of erasing the ball carrier with minimal help, if any at all.

Per PFF, Metellus missed 8 tackles last year, a brutal number. He’ll be looking to rectify the issue.

More positive is that he got shuffled around quite a lot.

Most prominently, Metellus had beefy workloads at free safety (350 snaps) and in the box (315 snaps). He was a slot corner for 124 snaps, a wide corner for 35 snaps, and along the d-line for 43 snaps. Metellus isn’t the athlete Harrison Smith was, but he has done a nice job of stepping into that Smith role.

Considered as a whole, the Vikings’ defense boasts a ton of versatile players. Other than Josh Metellus, Andrew Van Ginkel and Byron Murphy come to mind. Last year, Eric Wilson had a career year, largely due to playing well as an off-ball linebacker and as an edge rusher. Rookie Jake Golday is viewed as a “Swiss Army Knife” by some. Other players could surely be included, as well.

Look for Minnesota’s defense to continue being the strength of the team in 2026.