Vikings sign TE Shane Zylstra

On Friday, the Minnesota Vikings showed that they weren’t quite done signing Undrafted Free Agents yet, adding a player with a familiar name from a familiar school.

The team announced earlier today that they were signing tight end Shane Zylstra, who went undrafted after playing his college ball at Minnesota State in Mankato.

Shane Zylstra, as you’ve probably guessed, is the younger brother of Brandon Zylstra, who spent the 2018 season with the Vikings and is still in the National Football League, having played last season with the Carolina Panthers. The younger Zylstra, who is listed at 6’4” and 225 pounds, broke pretty much all of the receiving records that Adam Thielen set during his days at Mankato State.

Zylstra left the Mavericks as the school’s all-time leader in receptions (227), receiving yardage (4,297) and touchdown catches (54). This past season alone, he hauled in 81 catches for 1,676 yards and 18 scores. Whatever level of football you’re at, those are pretty impressive numbers.

The Vikings are going to have some openings at the tight end position behind Irv Smith Jr. and Tyler Conklin. Zylstra is going to have his work cut out for him, but he might be the kind of player that the Vikings would try to stash on the practice squad for a while. We’ll have to see what happens.