Vikings Sign Brad Sorensen, Waive Kevin Monangai

On Saturday, the Minnesota Vikings made a roster move that doesn’t look like much on the surface, but could have a little more intrigue as far as the team’s quarterback depth chart is concerned.

The Vikings have signed quarterback Brad Sorensen to a contract, the terms of which have not been disclosed. In order to make room for him on the roster, the team waived running back Kevin Monangai.

The 6’5”, 230-pound Sorensen was a seventh-round draft choice (#221 overall) of the San Diego Chargers in the 2013 NFL Draft, having played his college football at Southern Utah. He was the first player from Southern Utah to be drafted into the NFL, and holds pretty much all of the Thunderbirds’ passing records for a career. Prior to Southern Utah, he spent a year at BYU. He was already 25 by the time he was drafted by the Chargers, as he served a Latter-Day Saints mission to Spain prior to starting his college football career.

The Chargers released Sorensen in August of 2014, after which he had a stint with the Tennessee Titans. After he was released, he re-joined the Chargers as a member of the practice squad. He has been released and re-signed several times by the Chargers, and did get a brief promotion to the active roster, but has never appeared in an NFL game.

Monangai was signed by the Vikings back on 5 August. In the Vikings’ two preseason games, he logged one carry for two yards.

The signing of Sorensen might signal that the Vikings aren’t entirely impressed with the performance of current third-string quarterback Joel Stave, who had a pretty decent first preseason game but was less impressive last Thursday against the Seattle Seahawks. The team needs a third-string guy to hold the clipboard behind Teddy Bridgewater and Shaun Hill until presumptive #3 quarterback Taylor Heinicke fully recovers from doing his best Bruce Lee impression on his friend’s apartment door, and Sorensen looks like he’s going to be battling Stave for that distinction.

Like I said, it’s not an earth-shattering move or anything, but it might have some repercussions on what the Vikings’ roster looks like in a couple of weeks when final cuts take place.