One of the Vikings’ defensive leaders, interior lineman Harrison Phillips, was rewarded with a two-year contract extension on Tuesday.
Vikings give Harrison Phillips a two-year contract extension
The 28-year-old defensive tackle had two seasons, worth up to $19 million, tacked on to his existing three-year contract.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
September 10, 2024 at 5:50PM
The extension will pay the 28-year-old defensive team captain up to $19 million over the 2025 and 2026 seasons, with $13 million guaranteed, an NFL source confirmed. Phillips, the former Buffalo Bills starter, signed a three-year free-agent contract with the Vikings in 2022; that deal was worth $19.5 million over three years.
“It’s definitely earned and deserved,” Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores said.
The 6-3, 305-pound Phillips was a third-round pick out of Stanford by Buffalo in 2018. He played four seasons for the Bills before heading to Minnesota.
Phillips had five tackles, including a sack, in Sunday’s 28-6 victory over the New York Giants at the Meadowlands. He was the team’s nominee for the Walter Payton Award last season, and also was twice a nominee with the Bills. That award honors a player’s commitment to philanthropy and community impact, as well as his excellence on the field.
This is his first season as a team captain.
Phillips has a reputation at TCO Performance Center for being eager to volunteer his free time in the community. While other players are often recruited to show up at fundraising events, Phillips says he brings event ideas Vikings community relations director Logan Johnson.
Phillips is also a little eager on the field, Flores said, involving himself in matters unnecessarily.
“I always talk about the hub of [on-field] communication,” Flores said. “That normally includes the safeties, the linebackers, the nickel [defensive backs], and Harrison Phillips — he involves himself in those situations.”
Flores said Phillips will be trying to get everyone lined up correctly, even if it’s an order barked from safety Harrison Smith to an outside cornerback far away from Phillips’ interior spot.
“I got a D-lineman looking at [offensive] formations out on the perimeter,” Flores said. “And I got to slow him down a little bit. … He wants to be involved, it’s important to him. His leadership, his ability to kind of create relationships throughout the locker room. That’s partly why he was named captain.”
Last season, Phillips had career highs with 92 tackles and three sacks. He had the second-most tackles among NFL defensive lineman, trailing the 103 of the Panthers’ Derrick Brown.
The Vikings play host to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold is completing more passes more often for more touchdowns than he ever has. “What we’re trying to get from Sam is to play the best football of his career,” coach Kevin O'Connell said.
