All NFL teams begin their training camps with up to 90 players, but begin the regular season with only 53 players on the roster (and up to 10 players on their practice squads). Yesterday, the Vikings announced 14 of the required 15 cuts, including a couple of surprising moves. Inline update: today, the team announced they’d released tight end Mike Higgins, leaving 75 players on the roster. The final cut-down is due by Saturday afternoon.
Safety Mistral Raymond and cornerback Derek Cox had both been starters in earlier seasons, but Raymond had struggled to stay healthy, while Cox was unable to regain his earlier high standard of play. Raymond was waived with an injury settlement, but Cox was just released. Here is the current roster (pending one final move), with rough first, second, and third team designations (this isn’t official, but it’s based on the unofficial roster from the team).
Colour coding: Free agent signing, Drafted in 2014, Undrafted free agent in 2014, Waived, cut, or left team.
| Position | Starter(s) | Backup(s) | Third/Fourth string: On the bubble | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OL | LT-Matt Kalil 75 LG-Charlie Johnson 74 C-John Sullivan 65 RG-Brandon Fusco 63 RT-Phil Loadholt 71 |
LT-Antonio Richardson 78 (UDFA) LG-David Yankey 66 (R) C-Joe Berger 61 RG-Vladimir Ducasse 62 (FA) RT-Mike Remmers 67 (FA) |
RT-Austin Wentworth 79 (UDFA) RG-Jeff Baca 60 C-Zac Kerin 59 (UDFA) |
C-Josh Samuda (FA) was waived due to injury in an organized team activity and then placed on injured reserve. |
| QB | Matt Cassel 16 | Teddy Bridgewater 5 (R) | Christian Ponder 7 | |
| TE | Kyle Rudolph 82 | Rhett Ellison 85, Alan Reisner 87 (FA), Chase Ford 86 | Chase Ford activated off PUP, 25 August. |
|
| RB | Adrian Peterson 28 | Matt Asiata 44 Jerick McKinnon 31 (R) |
Joe Banyard 23, Dominique Williams 43 (UDFA) | |
| FB | Jerome Felton 42 | Zach Line 48 | Line and even Felton may be on the bubble, as Norv Turner’s offence usually doesn’t have much role for traditional fullbacks. | |
| WR | Greg Jennings 15 Cordarrelle Patterson 84 |
Jerome Simpson 81 Jarius Wright 17 Adam Thielen 19 Rodney Smith 83 |
Kain Colter 13 (UDFA), Donte Foster 2 (UDFA), | Jerome Simpson may be facing a multi-game suspension from the league. |
| DL | DE-Everson Griffen 97 NT-Linval Joseph 98 (FA) UT-Sharif Floyd 73 DE-Brian Robison 96 |
DE-Scott Chrichton 95 (R) NT-Fred Evans 90 UT-Isame Faciane 76 (UDFA) DE-Corey Wooton 99 (FA)UT-Shamar Stephen 93 (R) |
UT-Tom Johnson 92 (FA), DE-Justin Trattou 94, NT-Chase Baker 91 |
Linval Joseph slightly injured in shooting after 1st preseason game, expected back by early September. |
| LB | WLB-Chad Greenway 52 MLB-Jasper Brinkley 54 (FA) SLB-Anthony Barr 55 (R) |
WLB-Brandon Watts 58 (R) MLB-Audie Cole 57 SLB-Gerald Hodges 50 |
WLB-Michael Mauti 56, WLB-Larry Dean 51, MLB-Mike Zimmer 59 (UDFA) |
|
| CB | Xavier Rhodes 29 Captain Munnerlyn 24 (FA) |
Marcus Sherels 35 Jabari Price 39 (R) Shaun Prater 27 |
Josh Robinson 21, Kendall James 40 (R), Julian Posey 38 (FA) | |
| S | FS-Harrison Smith 22 SS-Robert Blanton 36 |
SS-Kurt Coleman 20 (FA) SS-Jamarca Sanford 33 |
FS-Andrew Sendejo, Chris Crocker 25 (FA), SS-Anton Exum 32 (R) | Chris Crocker signed 4 August. |
| P | Jeff Locke 18 | N/A | ||
| K | Blair Walsh 3 | N/A | ||
| PR | Marcus Sherels 35* | Adam Thielen 19*, Jarius Wright 17*, Kain Colter 13* (UDFA) | ||
| KR | Cordarrelle Patterson 84* | Marcus Sherels 35*, Adam Thielen 19*, Captain Munnerlyn 24* (FA) | ||
| LS | Cullen Loeffler 46 | Audie Cole 57*, Michael Mauti 56* | ||
| Practice Squad |
Cut-down dates are 26 August (to 75) and 30 August (to 53). Practice squads can be assembled 24 hours after the final cuts are made (to allow waiver wire pickups and roster adjustments). Practice squad increases from 8 to 10 this year.
* Already listed on the roster at main position.
Coach Mike Zimmer also confirmed that Matt Cassel had won the quarterback competition and would be the starter in the regular season. This was pretty clearly the way the coaching staff expected it to be, as Cassel had taken almost all the first-team snaps through training camp and had started each of the first three preseason games. Teddy Bridgewater did well, but not well enough to unseat the veteran.
The Bridgewater Underground reacts to the setback:
It was a fitful sleep, the kind where you fall asleep and then awaken; 20 minutes here, 45 minutes there. There was a feeling of uneasiness across the land, and plans were in motion should the Thing We Feared Most come to pass. At times like this, when a man is alone with his thoughts, it’s tough to not play events in your mind again, over and over. Am I doing the right thing? How will history remember us? Can I make it until morning before I have to get out of bed to pee?
Just as I was falling back to sleep, the phone rang. A phone call this late at night/early in the morning was rarely good news, and as the phone reached five…six…now seven rings, I knew that there was nothing left to do but answer it.
“Please, let this not be what I think”, I thought to myself as the word hello passed my lips.
For a moment, just enough time to make me think that this was a wrong number, or even a butt dial, there was silence on the other end. But then, just as hope began to rise in me, it was dashed. Dashed like a Brett Favre pass over the middle in the NFC Championship game.
“The long sobs of Spergeon Wynn wound my heart with a monotonous languor.”
Click. I didn’t even get a chance to acknowledge.
No. It’s happened. They did it, didn’t they?
I waited for a second to let the phrase that would key the revolution sink in.
The long sobs of Spergeon Wynn wound my heart with a monotonous languor.
No. Please, no.
It happened. Matt Cassel is the starter, and Teddy Bridgewater will ride the pine. The great thing about the Teddy Bridgewater Underground is that no underground cell can be traced back to another. My phone, as were all of the phones in The Underground, was encrypted to the point that even the NSA would have problems locating and tracing it. As long as calls were kept under a minute, and code words were used, messages could be passed freely, almost defiantly, to the rest of The Underground.
