Recently Waived Viking Finds New Team
Recent weeks have been fairly interesting for folks that love to learn everything about every player of the Vikings, even bottom-of-the-roster athletes. N’Keal Harry and Jacob Copeland joined the receiver room, and offensive tackles Christian DiLauro and Jarrid Williams are new depth linemen. Abram Smith, the leading rusher of the XFL, is the newest running back.
Recently Waived Viking Finds New Team
Unfortunately, the roster is limited to 91 players, so the team must release a player to make each move, besides one open spot, because James Lynch was placed on IR. With those releases, the Vikings could ruin the dream of football players. But one of the released guys just found a new home, keeping his dream alive.
Wide receiver Cephus Johnson was signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, according to Aaron Wilson. Interstingly, Tampa Bay will be Minnesota’s Week 1 opponent, but that was certainly not the reason for the signing almost a month before the game. Instead, Johnson provides depth at receiver. The Vikings also prioritized that during their recent waves of roster moves, currently employing 13 wideouts.
Johnson is a fascinating player, as he was originally a quarterback at South Alabama and after transferring to Southeastern Louisiana. He split time as a wide receiver and quarterback in two of his three seasons in Louisiana. In the final year of his college career, Johnson played exclusively as a quarterback.
Overall his college numbers are unique because he did so many things. The 23-year-old passed for 20 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, logging 2,763 passing yards on 409 attempts. He also recorded 1,255 yards on the ground on 274 carries, adding 17 scores. His receiving experience isn’t as notable, as he only caught 7 passes for 83 yards and a couple of TDs.
Entering the draft, Johnson was viewed as a massive project, but his physical attributes are intriguing. He is 6’5″ and 220 lbs with 4.57 speed. Also interesting is that he could be a player to run some gadget plays and function as an option quarterback, doing the Taysom Hill thing.
But all those theoretical things didn’t help him keep his roster spot in Minnesota. He is still a project without a real position, as he just started learning to be a WR. He requires patience, and the Vikings ran out of that. Still, he is getting another chance. Just like the Vikings, the Buccaneers have a full WR room:
- Mike Evans
- Chris Godwin
- Russell Gage
- Taye Barber
- Kaylon Geiger
- Rakim Jarrett
- Ryan Miller
- David Moore
- Trey Palmer
- Deven Thompkins
- Kade Werner
- Cephus Johnson
NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein wrote about the ex-college QB pre-draft: “Johnson offers good size and athletic potential, but there isn’t game tape to instill confidence that he will be able to contribute to an NFL squad anytime soon. Johnson will need to work on the fundamentals of the wide receiver position, but teams could be intrigued by his ability to handle gadget packages and short-yardage running opportunities thanks to his quarterback experience.”
As a waived player in August, it would be quite surprising to see Johnson making a 53-man roster anytime soon, despite his interesting physical tools and skill set, but the NFL has the practice squad exactly for players like him.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and Classic rock is his music genre of choice. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt
You must be logged in to post a comment.