Oct 14, 2021; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers helmets during pregame warmups against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
The Arizona Cardinals released former Minnesota Vikings cornerback Kris Boyd about two weeks ago, and it may not take long for the defender to latch on elsewhere.
That elsewhere could be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson straightforwardly tweeted Tuesday, “Buccaneers worked out Kris Boyd.”
Boyd played in four Cardinals games this season, although all snaps occurred on special teams, Boyd’s niche. He didn’t see the field on defense in Arizona and will now hope a deal comes together in Tampa Bay.
For the Vikings in 2022, Boyd played just 37 defensive snaps, head coach Kevin O’Connell’s first year on the job, but was a keynote special teams performer. He was on the field 82% of the time for special teams.
The Vikings discovered Boyd in the 7th Round of the 2019 NFL Draft, and he’s played 58 games since. Boyd was utilized frequently in 2020 on defense — 343 defensive snaps — but aside from that campaign is mostly a special teams asset and a damn good one, at that. He survived the Vikings regime change from Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer to Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kevin O’Connell 19 months ago — for a while, anyway.
After Mike Zimmer and his coaching staff left in January of 2022, Boyd was an outspoken critic. Speaking to former Vikings CB Patrick Peterson on the All Things Covered podcast in June of 2022, Boyd sarcastically declared about Zimmer and his coaching staff, “They would walk around with their a–holes, like, tight.”
“[They] would always be strict about everything. Like any time you messed up, it’s like the world ended,” Boyd revealed.
If the Buccaneers offer Boyd a contract, he’d join this CB room:
Tampa Bay has one other corner on its practice squad, Keenan Isaac.
The Buccaneers own a surprising 3-2 record through six weeks and lead the NFC South by a half-game over the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints. Todd Bowles’ team also knocked off the Vikings in Week 1 despite their status as a 5.5-point underdog.
Defensively, Tampa Bay ranks 10th leaguewide per DVOA as of October 18th — probably why it has the winning record.
Boyd turned 27 last month.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.