Having struck gold with one (relatively) “local kid does good” story with wide receiver Adam Thielen, it appears that the Minnesota Vikings might be looking to give it another go.
According to Andrew Krammer of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Vikings are expected to sign wide receiver Brandon Zylstra to a futures contract sometime today. Signing him to a futures contract means that he would be added to the 90-man roster at the conclusion of the Vikings’ season.
Zylstra was born in Spicer, Minnesota, and played his high school football at New London-Spicer High School. From there went on to play college football at Concordia-Moorhead. (Not to be confused with Concordia-St. Paul.) When his college career came to an end, Zylstra gained the interest of some CFL teams, and was signed by the Edmonton Eskimos to a two-year deal in 2016.
While his 2016 season wasn’t much to write home about, Zylstra absolutely exploded onto the scene this past season. He led the CFL in receiving yardage with 1,687 yards, which was over 200 yards more than the second-highest total. He got those yards on exactly 100 receptions.
The 6’3”, 220-pound Zylstra is a potentially intriguing signing, and the Vikings might be looking to catch lightning in a bottle again with his addition. We, obviously, won’t really know anything about him until Training Camp in Eagan, but there’s no harm in the Vikings giving him an opportunity.