Minnesota Vikings Waive DE Stephen Weatherly

We have what appears to be another casualty in the battle to make the Minnesota Vikings’ squad along the defensive line, and this one is one of the players the team used a draft choice on back in April.

Per numerous sources, the Vikings will be waiving defensive end Stephen Weatherly. Weatherly was the first of the team’s two seventh-round picks in the 2016 NFL Draft out of Vanderbilt University.

Weatherly played outside linebacker during his college days with the Commodores, but was told that he would be a down defensive end with Minnesota. The Vikings have a lot of depth at defensive end, so it’s not entirely surprising that Weatherly didn’t make the club. He seems like the sort of player that the Vikings would like to bring back to the practice squad and develop as a pass rusher, though. We will have to wait until Sunday to see if that happens or not.