Little-Known Viking Playing His Way onto 2025 Roster
Various practices have gone right for the Minnesota Vikings to achieve a 10-2 record through 13 weeks in 2024 — in a season when they were only supposed to win six or seven games.
Little-Known Viking Playing His Way onto 2025 Roster
And one standout player isn’t getting quite enough love — defensive tackle Jalen Redmond.
The Vikings downed the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday 23-22, and along the way, Redmond thrived, tallying two tackles for loss. He now has 9 tackles in 9 games, with a sack and 4 tackles for loss. Redmond has seen the field on just 95 plays, but when defensive coordinator Brian Flores calls his name, he provides a spark. Like clockwork.
Pro Football Focus has also commended Redmond’s performance, assigning the lineman a 78.4 grade through 13 weeks. In fact, if Redmond qualified for PFF’s snap count requirement, he would rank as the NFL’s 11th-best interior defender, if that can be believed.
Moreover, Redmond’s miniature emergence is vital because Minnesota’s for-now outlook in 2025 at defensive tackle is grim. Three interior defensive linemen are scheduled to be under contract when the offseason arrives: Harrison Phillips, Taki Taimani, and Levi Drake Rodriguez. That’s it.
Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah may swing for the fences in acquiring an impact defensive tackle from free agency or the draft — he probably will — but Redmond could be vital for depth on a team that doesn’t have much at DT.
Adofo-Mensah signed Redmond in June, an intriguing transaction because the defender thrived in the UFL. He played 4 games in 2024 with the UFL’s Arlington Renegades, tabulating 4.5 sacks, 5 tackles for loss, and 18 total tackles. That statline was evidently enough to turn heads in the Vikings’ front office, and Redmond parlayed the trial into a roster spot.
Redmond joined the Carolina Panthers’ roster as an undrafted free agent 19 months ago — right around the time Ivan Pace Jr. signed with the Vikings — where he stayed for four months. Carolina said goodbye in August 2023, and Redmond eventually tried the UFL on for size. The experiment worked.
Pro Football Network’s Tony Pauline scouted Redmond during the lead-up to the 2023 NFL Draft: “Athletic defensive tackle who goes very hard. Explosive, fires off the snap with a terrific first step, and possesses a closing burst of speed. Attracts a lot of attention in the middle of the line, effectively bends his knees, and works his hands throughout the action. Keeps his feet moving, holds his ground against double-team blocks, and plays through the whistle. Strong for his size.”
There’s a decent chance that Redmond stays in Minnesota because a) the Vikings gave him his first legitimate crack at the NFL b) the franchise will need depth in 2025 c) he’s played well this season.
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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