Vikings Worked Out 2 Players on Wednesday
The Minnesota Vikings have been fairly busy during training camp to mix things up at the bottom of their roster. Jordan Ta’amu, the XFL star quarterback, was the latest addition, and Curtis Weaver was waived for him. The team also signed four different offensive tackles, two of whom have already been released. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has made all kinds of moves in the last four weeks.
Vikings Worked Out 2 Players on Wednesday
And there might be more on the horizon. During their joint practices, the Vikings worked out a duo of free agents: Ben DeLuca and Jake Gervase, according to Aaron Wilson from KPRC2 on X.
Both should be considered special teams players more than players who should be expected to be contributors from scrimmage.
DeLuca is a 25-year-old safety and played college football at Charlotte. He went undrafted in 2021, joined the Los Angeles Chargers, and spent his rookie season on the practice squad. In 2022, he failed to make the roster and has been a free agent since. DeLuca played three games for the Chargers in his rookie season, logging 23 special team snaps and one on offense.
But he didn’t sit at home on his couch and continued pursuing his dream of becoming an NFL player by playing in the XFL. DeLuca appeared in five games with the St. Louis Battlehawks and recorded 25 tackles. In college, the safety set all kinds of school records, including making 313 tackles and forcing 9 fumbles.
The safety room is crowded with Harrison Smith and Camryn Bynum expected to start in Brian Flores’ defense, and Josh Metellus has earned a significant rotational role. Then there is sophomore Lewis Cine, who is still acclimating to the defense after returning from his gruesome injury. Rookie Jay Ward and second-year player Theo Jackson compete for a possible fifth roster spot.
A potential reason for the workout is that Cine didn’t practice on Wednesday, and the Vikings might look for depth for the final preseason game.
Gervase is an NFL veteran with 19 games under his belt with 8 tackles as a special teams guy for the Los Angeles Rams. He played 375 snaps on the special teams group, 13 on defense, and strangely, one on offense, where he made a reception for 12 yards.
Just like DeLuca, Gervase went undrafted in 2019, joining the Rams right after. He is from Davenport, Iowa, and spent his college career at Iowa. The linebacker is really light for his position at 6’1″ and 210 lbs, making him exclusively useful on special teams.
An interesting aspect is that he played under Vikings special teams coach Matt Daniels in 2019, who was a Rams special teams assistant in that season. His time also overlapped with Kevin O’Connell’s tenure in Los Angeles. Staying at one franchise for four seasons solely as a contributor on punts and kicks is impressive.
Some roster spots are reserved for special teams, and those two would likely fall into that category. If the Vikings end up signing them, they might be practice squad candidates to make a couple of appearances when the special teams unit needs another body, and we would perhaps see them in the third preseason game.
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.