The Vikings Players Deserving More Playing Time This Season
Several Minnesota Vikings players have experienced increased playing time due to a bevy of injuries in 2025, but there’s still room for more men to see action on Sundays.
As the Minnesota Vikings’ bye week winds down, it’s reasonable to suggest that these players should receive more playing time due to their current bench roles.
The club has 12 games left on the schedule, a docket that turns brutally competitive in eight days.
So, from a bye week standpoint, these players need more snaps on their respective sides of the ball.
More Playing Time Is Required for These Vikings
A simple ask: feed them more snaps.
1. Cam Akers (RB)
Aaron Jones will be out for at least two more games, while Jordan Mason and Zavier Scott have headlined the RB performance in his stead. It’s more than okay to keep Mason in his RB1 role; he’s earned it. Scott, too, has shown glimpses of steady RB2-RB3 performance.
Still, anytime the Vikings toss Akers onto the field, he comes up big. He threw a sweet touchdown pass to TE2 Josh Oliver last weekend. In 2024, Akers caught a game-ending pass from Sam Darnold — on his shoestrings — in what turned out to be the last good moment in Minnesota’s season, a win over the Green Bay Packers.
Akers consistently delivers. Keep him involved, even when Jones returns.
Our Kyle Joudry noted this week on Akers’ evolving role with the team:
The Vikings could simply leave Akers on the practice squad. That’s fine, but there are two downsides to taking that approach. First, he could get poached from another team, stolen away by a rival that has an opening on its 53. Second, the Vikings can’t actually lean on Akers for game service since he has already been elevated a trio of times. Minnesota must give Mr. Akers a roster spot if they want him to get back into the game.
Any sense that they’ll be keen to do so given what the runner is capable of doing, especially with his abilities as an emergency quarterback? Cam Akers, 26, comes at 5’10” and 217 pounds. His 2025 season has involved 5 carries for 19 ground yards. Most impressively, Minnesota allowed Akers to lineup in Wildcat, the formation that allowed him to complete his single pass for a 32-yard score. Carving out room on the active roster appears to be the correct decision for Akers, but Minnesota may slow play things through the bye.
2. Levi Drake Rodriguez (DT)
Minnesota’s rushing defense ranks 25th per DVOA — also known as eighth-worst in the NFL — through five games, gashed by Bijan Robinson of the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2 and two weeks later by Pittsburgh Steelers RB2 Kenneth Gainwell. The latter shouldn’t happen.
And while Brian Flores doesn’t employ a true nose tackle, Drake Rodriguez’s stature isn’t too far off. For a team needing to stuff the run more efficiently, inserting more beef into the lineup makes all the sense in the world.
Too, Drake Rodriguez deserves it. He’s registered a 68.9 Pro Football Focus grade through five games. Run defense is his strength. This doesn’t have to be complicated.
3. Tai Felton (WR)
Felton has been targeted on offense once — in garbage time (the good kind) against the Cincinnati Bengals. The man is a 3rd-Round pick. He doesn’t need to be babied.
Felton has experienced 94 special teams snaps, which is noteworthy, but special-teams-only assets should not be drafted in Round 3. That’s for undrafted wide receivers or late-rounders, at best.
Minnesota claims to have a long-term plan for Felton, but it should also let him try his hand at some trial by fire as a rookie on offense. The idea isn’t that daring.
SI.com‘s Will Ragatz commended Felton for his special team performance as a rookie a couple of weeks ago: “Felton, who the Vikings selected at the end of the third round in April, recorded his first career reception in garbage time on Sunday. He remains a ways away from seeing the field on offense in a very deep Minnesota wide receiver room. His role right now is on special teams — and the former Maryland standout has embraced that role and thrived.”
“Felton and safety Tavierre Thomas are the Vikings’ two punt gunners. Felton plays in all four phases of returns and coverage on punts and kickoffs. Among the Vikings’ top 10 players in special teams snaps, his grade trails only Eric Wilson and Jay Ward. He’s made four tackles on teams, including three in Chicago and an impressive one on kickoff coverage against the Bengals.”
4. Dwight McGlothern (CB)
McGlothern has seen the field on 26 defensive snaps — or about 10%. He has not been called upon much at all, and that should change. Why? Well, the cornerback in front of him, Jeff Okudah, doesn’t play all that much either, and when he enters the game, the other team’s quarterback picks on him.
It’s rather evident that Okudah will not suddenly morph into a star with the Vikings; why not give McGlothern an audition, a player who does not have six seasons of poor or underwhelming performance under his belt like Okudah?
McGlothern’s size — 6’2″ and 190 pounds — should fit well in Flores’ defense, and it’s highly unlikely that he would play worse than Okudah.
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