On Tuesday, the Minnesota Vikings shuffled their practice squad around a little bit, placing one player on injured reserve and adding two more players.
The man that went to injured reserve was defensive tackle Dylan Bradley. Bradley went undrafted out of Southern Mississippi this past season, and the Vikings made him a high priority free agent in the post-draft signing frenzy. He has spent all season on the practice squad, and should have a chance to make an impact in 2018. The injury that has necessitated placing him on IR has not been disclosed, as far as I can tell.
That meant that the Vikings had two practice squad spots open, as they never filled the spot that came open when Cornelius Edison was promoted to the active roster prior to the season finale. They filled both spots with linemen, one on each side of the ball.
One of the players they signed was offensive tackle Dieugot Joseph. He was also undrafted this past season, having played his college ball at Florida International. He was originally signed by the Chicago Bears, but was waived and re-signed to their practice squad. The Baltimore Ravens then signed him and had him on their active roster for three games, all of which saw him on the inactive list. The Ravens then released him and put him on their practice squad.
The other new Viking is defensive tackle Caushaud Lyons. Lyons is slightly more traveled than Joseph, as he’s already had stops on the practice squad or active roster of six NFL teams. He was undrafted in 2015 out of Tusculum College (which is located in Greenville, Tennessee). He was originally signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and has also spent time with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tennessee Titans, Los Angeles Rams, Detroit Lions, and Chicago Bears.
The Vikings’ practice squad now looks like this:
- WR Rodney Adams
- WR Cayleb Jones
- OT Dieugot Joseph
- OT Cedrick Lang
- DT Caushaud Lyons
- OT Storm Norton
- DE Ifeadi Odenigbo
- CB Horace Richardson
- S Jack Tocho
- LB Antwione Williams
Well, if the Vikings are looking for a potential offensive tackle to develop for depth in 2018, they’ve got three potential options on their practice squad. Obviously it remains to be seen whether or not that will happen.