Vikings make moves to trim roster to 85 players

Today is the first cutdown day of the NFL preseason, and the Minnesota Vikings have made the moves necessary to trim their roster to 85 players. Those moves needed to be made by 3:00 PM Central time today.

Here are the moves that the team has made:

Waived

• FB Jake Bargas
• OLB Andre Mintze

Waived/Injured

• WR Thomas Hennigan
• DT Tyarise Stevenson

Contract Terminated

• CB Tye Smith

Bargas has spent the past couple of seasons with the Vikings, primarily on the practice squad. He has been elevated to the active roster for one game in each of the past two seasons.

Mintze was signed by the Vikings as a free agent this offseason after starting his career with the Denver Broncos. He appeared in six games with the Broncos in 2021 after making the team as an undrafted free agent.

Hennigan was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Wake Forest in the post-draft signing race this past April. He was inactive for the Vikings’ preseason opener against the Las Vegas Raiders this past Sunday.

Stevenson was also an undrafted free agent, playing his college ball at Tulsa. He appeared to suffer some sort of injury towards the end of the preseason opener, though that has not been disclosed at the present time to the best of my knowledge.

Smith is a longer-tenured veteran who spent last season with the Vikings, appearing in five games but primarily spending time on the practice squad.

All of the players that are affected by today’s moves except Smith are subject to waivers. As Hennigan and Stevenson were waived with injury designations, if they go unclaimed they will go on the Vikings’ injured reserve list, ending their 2022 season but giving the Vikings control over them for this season unless they come to some sort of injury settlement down the line.

There don’t appear to be any big surprises in the Vikings’ first group of roster cuts. The next cutdown day is one week from today when rosters need to go from 85 to 80.