Report: Vikings worked out Terence Newman this week

Yesterday, we reported that the Minnesota Vikings had placed cornerback Mackensie Alexander on injured reserve and promoted Nate Meadors from the practice squad to take his place. Before they did that, however, they apparently had a workout with a familiar face.

According to ESPN, the Vikings actually worked out Terence Newman earlier this week.

Yes, that Terence Newman. As in 41-year old former Vikings cornerback and then former Vikings coach Terence Newman.

Newman played his final three NFL seasons for the Vikings, manning one of the cornerback spots for the purple from 2015 to 2017. Just after the end of Training Camp in 2018, he announced his retirement from the NFL and joined the Vikings’ coaching staff. He spent one season on the Vikings’ sideline as a coach.

I suppose that with the injuries that the Vikings’ secondary has experienced over the past couple of weeks with both Mackensie Alexander and Mike Hughes going on injured reserve, the Vikings were searching high and low for players that were familiar with the Vikings’ defense, so I suppose you can’t really blame them for working out Newman. I’m guessing that this means that, should the Vikings advance in the playoffs, the option to bring Newman back would remain on the table if the secondary suffered any more issues.

Still, it’s a bit of a surprise to see this news coming out of Minnesota.