Minnesota Vikings Sign Two Players, No Punters

On Monday afternoon, the Minnesota Vikings announced the signing of a couple of players that were at their mini-camp this past weekend. . .and, contrary to what we had previously speculated, neither of them was a punter.

The first name is one that should be familiar to football fans in the Twin Cities area, that being former Minnesota Golden Gophers player Troy Stoudermire. Though the Vikings' website lists him as a wide receiver, he spent much of his time with the Gophers as a defensive back. His main calling card, however, was as a kick return specialist. In fact, he finished his career with the Golden Gophers as the all-time FBS leader in kick return yardage, amassing 3,615 yards on 144 returns. He spent some time with the Cincinnati Bengals after being undrafted in 2013, and has spent the past couple of years in the Canadian Football League.

The other player signed also has a bit of a puzzling designation on the Vikings' website, that being Tre Roberson. Roberson was a quarterback for the Indiana Hoosiers, and eventually transferred to Illinois State, an FCS team. Roberson led the Redbirds to the FCS Championship Game in 2014, but eventually lost to the mighty, mighty North Dakota State University Bison by a score of 29-27. He had a 23-5 record as the quarterback of the Redbirds. . .but the Vikings' website lists the 6', 205-pound Roberson as a cornerback, not a quarterback. It's a bit confusing, to say the least, but hopefully some clarification is forthcoming.

After bringing in Texas Tech punter Taylor Symmank and West Virginia punter Nick O'Toole to mini-camp this past weekend, the Vikings have apparently not signed either of them. . .not yet, anyway. But with the signings of Stoudermire and Roberson, the Vikings' roster is now up to its full complement of 90 players, so if they are going to sign a punter eventually, someone is going to have to be cut.