Vikings Taking Their Time to Make Roster Cuts
Josh Frey
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Wednesday marked the start of the Vikings’ process towards their 53-man roster. First, Minnesota got bad news regarding seventh round draft pick Kenny Willekes. The defensive end was placed on injured reserve after suffering a leg injury last week in practice.
Minnesota has until Saturday to cut their active roster from 80 to 53, but they have chosen to cut just five players so far: running back Tony Brooks-James, linebacker Jordan Fehr, a pair of defensive ends in Stacy Keely and Anthony Zettel, and linebacker Quentin Poling was also waived off injured reserve.
Brooks-James is familiar with being cut by Minnesota as he was cut on August 8th before being re-signed on the 15th. Fehr was the last undrafted rookie added to the training camp roster and was a longshot to make the team. Keely and Zettel were initially intended to add depth to the team, but they were no longer needed after the acquisition of Ngakoue. This is a big blow for Zettel’s career after being a key part of the Detroit Lions defense in 2017, tallying 6.5 sacks and starting all 16 games.
Minnesota will enter Friday with 76 players on the active roster with more moves inevitably to come.