Andrew Booth Update Is Less than Ideal
Some Minnesota Vikings fans still have high hopes for cornerback Andrew Booth, a 2nd-Round selection from the 2022 NFL Draft.
Andrew Booth Update Is Less than Ideal
And while the purple team is still three weeks away from dropping an initial 53-man depth chart — the franchise will trim the roster from 91 players to 53 on August 27th — it may be time to envision life without Booth.
In short, Booth has intermixed with third-teamers for most of training camp, which began two weeks ago. He’ll need a mighty preseason and then some to make the September roster, even though the Vikings’ cornerback depth has undergone tragedy and injuries in the last month.
The Athletic‘s Alec Lewis wrote about Booth on Monday, just five days before Minnesota’s first preseason game: “Booth is healthy but he has rarely played. Duke Shelley, Ward and McGlothern have taken most of the snaps with the No. 2 defense. A.J. Green III and 2023 undrafted cornerback Jaylin Williams have earned as many — if not more — reps than Booth.”
If the young defender planned on making the 53-man roster, he’d likely need action with first- or second-teamers.
“Similar to [Lewis] Cine, the Vikings would be dinged about $1.7 million by cutting him, but that’s a minor tax to hang onto someone like Murphy or McGlothern who could become major contributors,” Lewis added.
Booth actually played quite well when called upon, tallying a 68.6 Pro Football Focus score last season on about 100 coverage snaps. He might have a better shot of staying attached to the roster than Cine, but that doesn’t mean both cannot find themselves on the outside looking in.
Neither Cine nor Booth has taken flight inside the Vikings’ defense since joining the NFL in 2022. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah drafted the pair as his first two picks on the job a bit over two years ago, focusing on defense while leaving Kirk Cousins in place, along with Dalvin Cook and Adam Thielen, for one season. Fast-forward to 2024, and all those veteran offensive pieces have departed.
Some saw Booth’s would-be exit on the horizon months ago. In May, Pioneer Press‘ Charley Walters wrote about Booth, “A 2nd-round pick, CB Andrew Booth, who is guaranteed $900,000 next season, seems close to being done as a Viking.”
For context, these are Vikings’ cornerbacks at the moment, a group that will dwindle to five or six names by the end of the month:
- Byron Murphy
- Shaquill Griffin
- Mekhi Blackmon (Out for 2024)
- Akayleb Evans
- Fabian Moreau
- Andrew Booth
- Duke Shelley
- NaJee Thompson
- Jaylin Williams
- A.J. Green III
- Dwight McGlothern
- Jacobi Francis
Minnesota’s first preseason game gets underway in Minneapolis on Saturday, and the event will be rather pivotal for Booth.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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