Midweek Minnesota Vikings Moves

Due to the struggles of incumbent Blair Walsh the Minnesota Vikings held kicker auditions yesterday. The hopefuls included Kai Forbath, Randy Bullock, Travis Coons, Zach Hocker, Marshall Koehn, and Aldrick Rosas. The auditions might have been held simply to scare Walsh's kicks straight. While there's not likely to be any news on the kicker front the Vikings did make a couple of roster moves yesterday.

Quarterback Taylor Heinicke was moved from the non-football injury list to he active roster. To make room for Heinicke the Vikings released tight end MyCole Pruitt. 

Heinicke suffered an off-the-field injury to his foot just before the start of training camp. It was very unfortunate for Heinicke and for the Vikings. It went from unfortunate to tragic several weeks later when starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was lost for the season to a severe knee injury. Despite no playing time last year as a rookie I think that the Vikings decision-makers had/have high hopes for Heinicke. High enough hopes that they might not have felt the need to send a first round pick and a conditional fourth to the Philadelphia Eagles for Sam Bradford if the youngster wasn't in a walking boot. Maybe those decision-makers might have felt that veteran Shaun Hill and young, talented Taylor Heinicke might have been enough to carry a skilled Vikings team to the playoffs. Maybe not. But, I really do think that the Vikings are quite intrigued by Heinicke. I know that the fans are. 

The release of MyCole Pruitt is disappointing. In his second year out of Southern Illinois, Pruitt has unique size and speed. He looked like a player that could create a nice little niche for himself in the Vikings offense. The only problem was that he was often injured. That apparently made him expendable when a decision had to be made on Heinicke. Perhaps Pruitt can find a spot on the Vikings practice squad.

And there's the Vikings midweek roster moves.