The Top Free Agent WRs Still Sitting There for Vikings

Jalen Nailor left the Minnesota Vikings eight days ago, and the only man on the current roster in line for a replacement is second-year wideout Tai Felton, who barely played in 2025. The team might need WR3 assistance in 2026. Thankfully, there are options, and we have ranked them.

Minnesota still has a few plausible WR options on the board.

Ranked in order of likelihood — No. 1 on the list is most likely to sign in Minnesota — these are the top five WR3 options for the Vikings as of March 17th.

Veteran WR Help Hasn’t Fully Dried Up

The Vikings could also draft a WR, but these are the free agency alternatives. With Kyler Murray in the saddle as QB1, there’s every reason to dream big about the WR3. Murray brings a skill set that ensures the offense can be potent — and not rinky-dink like last year.

5. Stefon Diggs

Will the Vikings sign their one-time Miracle Man? Probably not. Diggs is bogged down in a bizarre strangulation scandal, with his former chef leveling serious allegations. But if one pretends for a moment that those charges vanish — that happens, believe it or not — Diggs on the Vikings’ roster as a WR3 makes sense.

He compiled over 1,000 yards last season with Drake Maye flinging the rock; it’s a little weird that New England doesn’t want him back. Diggs was productive last season, far exceeding 2025 offseason expectations.

Diggs would have a chance to wind down in his NFL career where it started. The Patriots are already eating over $9 million in dead cap for cutting him, so it’s not like Diggs would utterly break the bank.

For the purposes of this analysis, remember that Murray signing with the Vikings changed everything. Minnesota is now an attractive market for big-name playmakers to sign.

4. Keenan Allen

Is Keenan Allen young? No — he’ll turn 34 next month. Is Keenan Allen fast? Absolutely not — and he never really was in the first place. Is Keenan Allen a long-term solution at WR3? Don’t even think about it.

Allen is not a glowing fix for the long haul at WR3, but the fact remains he posted 777 receiving yards last year, which is about 300 more than Nailor ever tabulated. The guy who entered the NFL in the same year as former Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes can still get open, and he can still catch the ball.

As a short-term 2026 fix, perhaps while Felton learns the ropes, Allen could rather easily obtain 600-700 yards in Minnesota’s pass-happy offense.

3. Deebo Samuel

Kyler Murray, through seven seasons and especially as of late, is not known for an extremely vertical offense. If the Vikings cater an offense to their new quarterback’s obvious strengths — they should — signing Samuel makes sense.

Samuel excels with the ball in his hands, often near the line of scrimmage or just ahead of it. The San Francisco 49ers even featured him as a quasi-running back during his heyday. Samuel isn’t young, either, meaning he might look around the landscape of the NFL and find Super Bowl contenders as his next employer. With Murray in the house, the Vikings aren’t terribly far away.

The 30-year-old totaled 727 receiving yards in Washington last year with subpar quarterback performance. Get him to Minnesota.

2. Tyreek Hill

There are three items in favor of Hill becoming a Viking.

1. Hill’s offensive coordinator for the last four years is a man named Frank Smith. After Mike McDaniel lost his job in Miami, the coaching staff dispersed, and Smith landed in Minnesota as an assistant head coach. He knows Hill personally; the communication pipeline in free agency is open.
2. Recovering from a brutal injury in 2025, nobody knows when Hill will be ready. Assuming he returns before too long, he will sign somewhere for cheap, as general managers don’t know what they’re getting in post-injury Hill. Minnesota doesn’t have oodles of cap space, but it can afford Hill.
3. Like Murray, Hill grew up a Vikings fan, and he’s reiterated that fact a few times in the last decade. Murray proved that childhood fandom can influence a player’s decision-making.

The fan base could quickly warm up to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and Tyreek Hill on Sundays. How could they not?

1. Hollywood Brown

Oddly, a handful of Murray’s former WR teammates entered free agency last week, including Christian Kirk, Greg Dortch, and DeAndre Hopkins. Well, Kirk signed with the 49ers on Monday, Dortch has never produced at a WR3 level — he’s closer to a WR4 — and Hopkins is over the hill.

That leaves Hollywood Brown, who logged 587 receiving yards in Kansas City last season and served as Murray’s WR3 in Arizona during the 2022 and 2023 campaigns. Like Murray and Kirk, Murray and Brown are pals.

Once upon a time, Brown ran a 4.27 forty, and while that speed has diminished over the years — Brown will turn 29 in June — he’s still faster than Jefferson and Addison. Because of Brown’s small price tag and familiarity with Murray, he’s the wisest WR3 option remaining on the open market.

He was also a teammate of Murray’s at Oklahoma.