Jeremiah Sirles To Remain With Vikings

Going into this offseason, the Minnesota Vikings have a lot of questions to answer along the offensive line, but they’ve retained a player that they obviously think can have a role for them going forward.

Jeremiah Sirles, who was an Exclusive Rights Free Agent, has said that he will sign his one-year, $690,000 ERFA tender offer from the Vikings.

What, exactly, is an Exclusive Rights Free Agent? Here’s a quick and dirty explanation:

These are players whose contract have expired before they've complete three "accrued seasons." These are mostly undrafted free agents, practice squad players and young players that were picked up midseason.

ERFAs cannot negotiate with other teams. They have one option: accept the one-year tender from the team they played for that season -- if it offers one.

In this instance, the teams have all the control. ERFAs can't test the market, but they can try to talk a team into signing them long-term, but there's often little incentive to do so.

Sirles was acquired by the Vikings via a trade with the San Diego Chargers prior to the start of the 2015 season. Minnesota sent a sixth-round pick to the Chargers in exchange. Sirles didn’t see any action for the Vikings in 2015, but did get some opportunities at both left guard (against Carolina when Alex Boone was injured) and right tackle.

The Vikings apparently like Sirles’ versatility, and in what’s sure to be a wide open competition for roster spots this spring and summer, he’s going to get an opportunity to show that he belongs.