Minnesota Vikings roster update

Well, it’s approaching one of the biggest days in the NFL offseason. Cutdown day. The day a huge number of players are told to see “The Turk.”

But, like most teams, the Vikings got a bit of their cutdown work done yesterday, so here’s the full list of players that will be looking for work with the rest of today’s cuts:

With fourteen players gone, that leaves 23 cuts to come. Here’s the updated look at the MN roster:

QB: Cousins, Siemian, Sloter

RB: Cook, Murray, Boone, Ham, Brown, Thomas

WR: Diggs, Thielen, Treadwell, Wright, Coley, Zylstra, Badet, Beebe

TE: Rudolph, Morgan, Bell, Conklin, Hoppes

OL: Reiff, Collins, Compton, Andrews, Jones, Edison, Elflein, Remmers, Isidora, Gossett, Hill, O’Neill, Norton

DL: Hunter, Robison, Wynn, Joseph, Johnson, Parry, Cothran, Richardson, Odenigbo, Holmes, Griffen, Weatherly, Bower

LB: Barr, Dooley, Kendricks, Brothers, Downs, Gedeon, Wilson, Cliett

CB: Waynes, Newman, Hughes, Richardson, Rhodes, Alexander, Sherels, Hill, James

S: Smith, Sendejo, Iloka, Harris, Kearse, Tocho, Matthews

ST: Quigley, Carlson, McDermott

Here are what I’m considering to be my “easy cuts” tomorrow:

Mack Brown, Roc Thomas (possible IR), Stacy Coley (possible IR), Jeff Badet, Chad Beebe, Blake Bell, Tyler Hoppes, Colby Gossett, Storm Norton, Jonathan Wynn, David Parry, Curtis Cothran, Garret Dooley, Devante Downs, Horace Richardson, Craig James, Jack Tocho, Tray Matthews

With those eighteen cuts, that leaves five tough choices to make:

• Four or five linebackers: If the Vikings keep just four linebackers, add Cliett to the cut list. If Cliett is kept on to play special teams, I’d imagine it’d be close to the end for Jayron Kearse (especially if those cryptic tweets from his Twitter feed are anything to go by).
• Five or six wide receivers: I truly believe there’s a good chance the Vikings only keep five wide receivers this season. If they do, I’d imagine, especially from what has come out from training camp and preseason, that the five wide receivers would be Diggs, Thielen, Treadwell, Wright, and Zylstra. If that number jumps to six, add Chad Beebe’s name into the mix because he’s the only other wide receiver still on the roster that managed to impress in any way, shape or form. The WR count could also come down to what happens with Stacy Coley and whether he’s slid onto IR as a way to stash him for the year.
• Nine, ten or eleven offensive linemen: I truly have no idea how many offensive linemen the Vikings will keep. Of the 13 I have listed, I only put Colby Gossett and Storm Norton into the “fairly certain they’ll be cut” pile (though I think Gossett will land on the practice squad). That would leave eleven offensive linemen, and that’s a near-guarantee to be cut. I would imagine Josh Andrews is the next cut from the remaining eleven, leaving ten. That being said, Pat Elflein could start the season on the PUP list. A lot of what the Vikings decide to do will depend on who they have starting at center to begin the season (probably not Elf even if he doesn’t stay on the PUP list) and who is starting at guard. Keep an eye on these cuts and who might be added to the group if/when the Vikings make a trade.
• Eight, nine or ten defensive linemen: This will be the real position to watch tomorrow. Whoever ends up cut from this group, more than any other position on our team, could very well find themselves on a different team’s 53-man roster within the next few days. The top four starters are locked in, and because he’s here for one last ride, I think B-Rob hangs around. If we’re talking eight DL, that leaves three sports, which absolutely would be filled by Jaleel Johnson, Jalyn Holmes, and Tashawn Bower. The most likely number of players the Vikings will keep (in my mind) on the defensive line is nine, which means the final roster spot could very well come down to Stephen Weatherly and Ifeadi Odenigbo. Odenigbo has the versatility that Weatherly doesn’t, but Weatherly forced this to become a tough competition when he balled out in the preseason. While I do like Odenigbo, I think he could be the odd man out, though I’m sure the Vikings would love to add him to their practice squad if at all possible.

So there’s your roster update everyone! As I said, there are 23 more cuts to come tomorrow, so keep a close eye on the front page of the Daily Norseman, because the cuts will be flying left and right!