Free-agent safety Kurt Coleman plans to sign with the Vikings, according to a league source.
Coleman, who played his first four NFL seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, visited the Vikings on Thursday. The team offered him a contract, and he agreed to terms on a one-year deal today.
Coleman will be the seventh safety on the roster, and the Vikings return a pair of starting safeties in Harrison Smith and Jamarca Sanford. But with a new head coach in Mike Zimmer, players will start with a clean slate and will have to prove themselves this spring and summer. Plus, the 5-foot-10, 200-pound safety is the kind of reclamation project that Zimmer enjoyed taking on as a coordinator.
Coleman, 25, was drafted by the Eagles in the seventh round of the 2010 NFL draft. He started two games as a rookie and 27 games over his new two seasons. He picked off four passes in 2011 and made a career-high 93 tackles in 2012, which ranked second on the Eagles.
Last year, the Eagles hired a new head coach in Chip Kelly and they signed Patrick Chung, who replaced Coleman as a starter. Coleman played just 73 defensive snaps in 2013, the lowest total of his career, but he was a core contributor on special teams, making eight tackles in that phase.
Coleman made 170 tackles with the Eagles with seven interceptions and a pair of forced fumbles.
Coleman is an Ohio native who played college football at Ohio State. As a senior, he earned first-team All-Big Ten honors and was named a first-team All-American by the Sporting News.
During spring practices in his freshman year at Ohio State, Coleman paralyzed teammate Tyson Gentry with a tackle after the wide receiver caught a pass on a curl route in front of him. Coleman considered quitting football after that, but Gentry reportedly convinced him to keep playing.
