Minnesota Vikings Part Ways with a 2023 UDFA Darling
Tuesday marks roster cutdown day in the NFL calendar.
By this afternoon, all 32 NFL teams must have their rosters trimmed down from 90 players to 53, thus meaning hundreds of players will hit the free agency market within just a couple hours.
The Minnesota Vikings actually began trimming their roster on Monday with 14 cuts, and on Tuesday morning, they have continued making cuts to get closer to that magic number of 53 players. The latest of those cuts involves a 2023 UDFA darling: OLB Andre Carter II.
Minnesota Vikings Waive UDFA Darling
The news was reported by Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, who tweeted, “The #Vikings are waiving edge rusher Andre Carter II, source says. Former Army Black Knight had two sacks, one a strip sack, in the preseason finale against the #Eagles.”
Carter was an interesting prospect coming out of college initially because it wasn’t even entirely certain if he’d be able to play at the NFL level for awhile since he attended Army, a military school.
The mystique only grew after the linebacker put together 20.5 tackles for loss and 16.5 sacks during the 2021 season. Both totals ranked among the top five of all FBS players during that season.
However, Carter had a relatively disappointing campaign in 2022, recording just 41 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks during his final collegiate year.
As a result, the pass rusher went undrafted, and as has been the trend for UDFAs throughout Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s GMing career, the Vikings were the team to pounce on him when the undrafted free agent signing period opened up.
At 6’6″ and 256 pounds, Carter certainly had the length to play off the edge in the NFL, and his athletic profile suggested that he could develop into a monstrous pass rusher.
Carter did make the final 53-man roster in 2023, but he never quite found a role in the Vikings defense last season, playing just 68 snaps with the unit.
Now, Carter will hit the waivers and the 31 other NFL teams will have 48 hours to claim him onto their own 53-man rosters. If he goes unclaimed, it seems reasonable to expect Carter to land back on the Vikings practice squad.
For a full look at the Vikings’ cuts ahead of the roster cutodown deadline, click here.
Editor’s Note: Statistics for this article were found via Pro Football Reference and Sports Reference CFB.
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