The Vikings’ next star at safety?
The Minnesota Vikings are going to have to fill the hole in their defense created by Camryn Bynum signing with the Indianapolis Colts, but they might already have a very good option waiting in the wings, according to one source.
Pro Football Focus has put together their “All-Breakout Team” for the 2025 season, and one of their nods at the safety position went to Theo Jackson, who signed a modest extension with the Vikings this offseason.
Jackson was signed off of the Tennessee Titans’ practice squad by the Vikings in 2022. He has appeared in 43 games for the Vikings over the past three seasons. He’s played mainly on special teams, but has seen enough snaps on defense to snag a pair of interceptions, including one to ice the Vikings’ come-from-behind victory in Seattle this past season.
Jackson signed a two-year extension with the Vikings back in March, which means he’s under contract through the 2027 season.
Here’s what PFF has to say about Jackson:
The Vikings concentrated the majority of their 2025 capital in their offensive and defensive lines, but safety is a position worth keeping an eye on this season. Jackson is poised to help ease those concerns.
On only 79 defensive snaps last season, Jackson shined with a 79.2 overall PFF grade and a stringent 77.1 PFF coverage grade. In his three years with the Vikings, the former sixth-round pick has only played 222 total defensive snaps but has finished above a 69.0 PFF coverage grade in every season.
With Camryn Bynum no longer in Minnesota, the Vikings didn’t sign or draft someone to directly replace him. That leaves Jackson the next man up alongside Harrison Smith and Josh Metellus to play an important role in Brian Flores’ unique defense. After all, three Vikings safeties exceeded 1,000 snaps last season, which means Jackson very well may become a significant contributor for Flores.
This is the second consecutive year the Vikings have had a defensive back added to the PFF All-Breakout Team, and hopefully things will go a lot better this time around. Last season, cornerback Mekhi Blackmon was a part of the squad, and he tore an ACL in the first practice of training camp to bring his season to a premature end.
The Vikings have gotten solid safety play over the past few seasons with the ageless Harrison Smith leading the defense and Bynum developing the way that he did under Brian Flores. Hopefully that trend will continue with Theo Jackson looking to take a much larger role in the defense than he’s had in his NFL career thus far.