According to John Holler of Viking Update, the Vikings have two roster exemptions that allowed them to only cut 13 players today, which gets them down to their 75 player limit by tomorrow’s deadline. Holler says the exemptions came as a result of Jerome Felton’s suspension and Christian Ballard being placed on the “left team” list. I’m confused as to why the Vikings don’t have an exemption for DeMarcus Love’s suspension, but that stuff will clear itself up soon.
So, the Vikings made 13 cuts today, and I have to admit I was surprised by a few of them. Here is a look at the cuts along with some quick analysis.
QB James Vandenberg: The undrafted rookie was clearly a step or five behind McLeod Bethel-Thompson and so there was little reason to have the undrafted Vandenberg take any snaps in the preseason finale.
RB Bradley Randle and RB Jerodis Williams: This one stings. I was really hoping the Vikings would finally have a firecracker scat back at their disposal, and was impressed with Randle’s special teams abilities. I hope they can sneak him through to the practice squad. Williams failed to really show up or climb the depth chart in any way.
WR Lamark Brown and WR Erik Highsmith and WR Chris Summers: I have to think the Vikings are planning on keeping six wide outs this year. Just a hunch. Based on these two cuts I think the competition is truly between Joe Webb, Stephen Burton, and Rodney Smith. Adam Thielen has survived the first round of cuts, however, and could be a dark horse to keep an eye on after an impressive training camp.
G Tyler Holmes and C Camden Wentz: I’m not 100% sure that any of our offensive line deserves to make this team after three weeks of preseason, and these two were no exceptions. Failed to shine in a sea of mediocrity (at best), so nothing is surprising here.
DE Lawrence Jackson and DE Marquis Jackson: Lawrence Jackson is the surprise here, at least to me, as I thought he was a quality low-risk signing this offseason. To see him cut in the first round is pretty shocking actually, but is again a vote of confidence in D’Aundre Reed who seems to be a coaches favorite that never dresses on game day.
LB Stanford Keglar: I thought he was already cut a few weeks back. Shows what I know… and why he’s being cut.
DB Roderick Williams and DB Greg McCoy: Williams had a little bit of support from some of the fanbase, but there was no way he was making this roster, even if the first five corners on the depth chart got injured. He and McCoy could both be interesting practice squad possibilities, though.
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Adam,
You are right that Keglar was released a few weeks ago. He was then signed again after the Vikes released somebody else. It is hard to keep up when the team is playing musical chairs with players.
I'm surprised about Randle's release. They generally don't bring guys back that go in the first round of cuts. If they go with Banyard over Asiata there's a chance, Asiata doesn't have any P-squad eligibility left and they seem to like to carry an additional back.
Dan
Banyard played pretty decent lately, Do you think he makes the cut?
At the moment I'm going to say no. I think they will see more value in keeping Asiata who does a little bit of everything on special teams and can fill in at FB while Felton is suspended. Spielman mentioned that last night during the game, and while much of what he said on the air should be taken with a grain of salt, I have a feeling that after two years of keeping guys with potential we are going to see a bit of a shift and the likes of Asiata, Sherels, and probably Burton will make the final 53 at the expense of Banyard, Felder, and Smith. Sherels wins his spot both by his solid play last night and default (that looked like a potentially nasty sprain for Felder). I don't think they will have any trouble getting Banyard and Felder through waivers and onto the p-squad and Smith will likely make it through as well. Felder could actually end up on IR depending on the injury.