Josh Metellus

Minnesota Vikings

Pos S

Updated October 8, 2026

Compare Josh Metellus S rankings →

Model Score

79.0 MODEL

2022

75.1

2023

84.0

2024

80.5

2025

76.6

2026

79.0

How good he is at what he is supposed to be doing, out of 100. Not a projection of what he will do next, and not a read on his contract. Median is about 70, and a 95 is rare. How it is built →

STM Take

Tier 6 (#42) in 2024 to tier 2 (#13) breakout in 2025 is a 29-spot one-year jump for a 205th overall 6th-round pick. The Michigan Big Ten 6th-round origin plus the Brian Flores defensive scheme appears to be the catalyst. The 2026 question is whether Metellus holds tier 3 or better across a full second year of elite production or whether the 2025 finish was a one-year context spike.

Metellus came out of Michigan as the Minnesota Vikings' 6th-round pick (205th overall) in 2020. He has anchored the Vikings' safety rotation across six seasons under defensive coordinator Brian Flores. His STTM career runs tier 6 (#43) in 2022, tier 8 (#63) in 2023, tier 6 (#42) in 2024, and tier 2 (#13) breakout in 2025.

Strengths

Tier 2 (#13) breakout in year six as a 205th overall 6th-round pick puts him in the rare outlier-positive class at the S position.
Michigan Big Ten 6th-round origin plus the Brian Flores defensive scheme creates the structural environment for late-bloomer development.

Concerns

Single tier 2 finish in an otherwise tier 6-8 STTM history puts the 2025 production on a small sample with significant downside risk.
Minnesota's broader defensive identity around Brian Flores's exotic scheme puts continued Metellus ceiling partly scheme-dependent.

What to watch: Whether Metellus holds tier 3 or better across the full 2026 Vikings season, the threshold for confirming the 2025 breakout was structural.