Seattle Seahawks Sign Shamar Stephen

Earlier this week, the Seattle Seahawks inked former Minnesota Vikings’ defensive tackle Tom Johnson to a contract, and apparently they liked the experience so much that they decided to add another Vikings’ defensive lineman.

Per numerous reports, the Seahawks have signed defensive tackle Shamar Stephen to a one-year contract.

Stephen was the Vikings’ seventh-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, and was a pretty solid piece of the Vikings’ defensive line rotation. He wound up starting every game next to Linval Joseph in 2016, and appeared in 52 games for the Vikings over the course of those four seasons. He ceded the starting job to Tom Johnson this past season, but still appeared in 15 out of 16 games for the Vikings in 2017.

With Stephen departing, Anthony Barr is now the lone member of the Vikings’ 2014 draft class that is still on the Minnesota roster.

The Vikings now have just four of their in-house free agents that have not either re-signed with the purple, retired, or gone on to another team. They are wide receiver Michael Floyd, cornerback Terence Newman, running back Bishop Sankey, and cornerback Marcus Sherels. There has not been any word yet on whether the Vikings will be bringing any of those players back or if they’ve drawn any interest from other teams.