Sunday, September 2, 2012

Vikings welcome new players

The blog I wrote Friday was titled 53 man roster set for now, with now being the key word. This has been a weekend of change slowly but surely.

On Friday after the 53 man roster was released and sure enough shortly after a change occurred on the roster. The team made a trade with the Arizona Cardinals and obtained cornerback A.J. Jefferson who was coming into his 3rd season with the Cardinals. The Vikings then released Zach Bowman to make room for Jefferson. Bowman had played his first 4 years with the Chicago Bears before coming to Minnesota to start his 5th year in the NFL before his release. The change form Bowman to Jefferson continues the youth movement going from 5 years to 3 years in this transaction.

The same day another transaction occurred with the Vikings signing Mark Asper who is an offensive lineman. Asper was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the 6th round in this year’s draft. The Vikings then released Pat Brown who was in his 3rd year with Minnesota. The transaction has a third year player released to make room for the rookie. Asper is 6”7” and weighs in at 328.

As of Sunday 5 players had been added to the practice squad. Tyler Holmes, undrafted rookie free agent out of Tulsa plays guard. Chase Baker, undrafted rookie free agent out of Oregon. Baker plays defensive tackle. Bobbly Felder, also undrafted rookie free agent out of Nicholls State plays cornerback. Jordan Todman, 2nd year after being drafted in 2011 by the San Diego Chargers plays running back. Todman cleared waivers and the Vikings were able to sign him to the practice squad. This was my hope we could get him back. The 4 players mentioned above all were in 2012 Training Camp with the Vikings.

Tori Gurley may be the most interesting signing. Gurley was on the Green Bay Packers practice squad in 2011. The Vikings tried to sign him for the last 3 weeks in 2011. He turned down the Vikings to stay with the Packers. He is now a Viking in 2012. What a turn of events. He is a big receiver standing at 6’4” and weighs 232.

The team still has work to do to get the rest of the practice squad spots filled. It seems as the year goes the practice squad members change quite often. It is a start for these guys and if an injury does occur to one of the 53 players who knows, maybe they get their shot.

The roster is shook up and full of youngsters with 40 of the 53 players being 27 years old or younger.

One week from today, Sunday September 9th there will be football every Sunday until the beginning of February. I cannot wait, how about you?

Thanks for reading
Purplestick

No comments:

Post a Comment