Minnesota Vikings Roster

 The week's tweaking of the Minnesota Vikings' roster focused on the defensive line. The biggest move was the poaching of defensive end Jordan Brailford off of Washington's practice squad. The 2019 seventh-round pick out of Oklahoma State will be an interesting project for defensive line coach Andre Patterson. He's 6'2" 252 with quickness/speed. With Yannick Ngakoue, Ifeadi Odenigbo, and emerging rookie D.J. Wonnum as the only real edge pass rushing threats, there's no downside to taking a look at Brailford's potential. Defensive tackle Hercules Mata'afa was released to make room for Brailford. The Vikings signed Mata'afa and recently released Eric Yarbrough to the practice squad.

Hercules Mata'afa is an interesting football player. He's been on my radar since the night I watched him shoot past Cal offensive linemen so consistently that he played damn near the entire game in the Golden Bear backfield. In college, he wrecked offensive gameplans. He also looked like he'd walked off a junior high school field and into the Washington State huddle. He looked out of place on a Pac-12 defensive line because he was about 6'2 and 250 lbs. Despite being a speck of an interior defensive lineman Mata'afa could do some special things. His college football deeds were first round worthy. His size caused him to go undrafted. I was thrilled when the Vikings signed him after the 2018 NFL Draft. I was also curious as to whether a player with his unique size could do in the NFL what he did in college. From John Randle to Geno Atkins to Aaron Donald there have been some incredible interior defensive lineman that have defied their size to dominate in the NFL. Coming out of college, Mata'afa was much smaller than those players were when they made their mark in the league. It took a bit but Randle went from a 250-pounder with a dim chance in the league to a 290-lb Hall of Famer. Can Hercules Mata'afa follow a similar career path? A torn ACL during his first OTAs felt like an odd blessing as it gave him a year to rehab, gain strength and size, and be around the pro game. He came back bigger in 2019. He came back even bigger this year. According to his own social media, Mata'afa was tipping the scales at near 290 lbs in the spring. Can he pull a Randle? Who knows? As long as he's in the league his dreams are alive. I'm glad that he's on the practice squad. Whenever I think of Hercules Mata'afa I think of the night that he took apart the Cal offense. I also think of the possibility of him doing that for my team and not against it. 

Offense (26 Players)

Quarterbacks (2)
 8 Kirk Cousins
 4 Sean Mannion

Running Backs (4)
33 Dalvin Cook
25 Alexander Mattison

31 Ameer Abdullah
23 Mike Boone

Fullbacks (1)
30 C.J. Ham

Receivers (7)
19 Adam Thielen
18 Justin Jefferson
81 Olabisi Johnson
12 Chad Beebe
11 Tajaé Sharpe
17 K.J. Osborn
85 Dan Chisena

Tight Ends (3)
82 Kyle Rudolph
84 Irv Smith Jr.
83 Tyler Conklin

Offensive Tackles (4)
71 Riley Reiff
75 Brian O'Neill
69 Rashod Hill
74 Oli Udoh

Guards (3)
78 Dakota Dozier

73 Dru Samia
72 Ezra Cleveland

Centers (2)
56 Garrett Bradbury
61 Brett Jones

Defense (24 Players)

Defensive Ends (5)
91 Yannick Ngakoue
95 Ifeadi Odenigbo
57 D.J. Wonnum

90 Jalyn Holmes

67 Jordan Brailford

Defensive Tackles (4)
93 Shamar Stephen
96 Armon Watts
94 Jaleel Johnson
66 James Lynch

Linebackers (5)
54 Eric Kendricks
50 Eric Wilson

40 Todd Davis
57 Ryan Connelly

47 Hardy Nickerson Jr.

Cornerbacks (6)
21 Mike Hughes
20 Jeff Gladney
24 Holton Hill
27 Cameron Dantzler
29 Kris Boyd
38 Harrison Hand

Safeties (4)
22 Harrison Smith
41 Anthony Harris

43 George Iloka

44 Josh Metellus

Special Teams (3 Players)

Kicker
 5 Dan Bailey

Punter
 2 Britton Colquitt

Long Snapper
58 Austin Cutting

Practice Squad

  3 Jake Browning, QB
  7 Nate Stanley, QB
15 Alexander Hollins, WR
86 Brandon Dillon, TE
40 Jake Bargas, FB
76 Aviante Collins, G/T
68 Kyle Hinton, G
64 Blake Brandel, T

52 Eric Yarbrough, DE

51 Hercules Mata'afa, DT

66 Abdullah Anderson, DT

48 Blake Lynch, LB

49 Cale Garrett, LB

32 Mark Fields II, CB

35 Luther Kirk, DB

  7 Chase McLaughlin, K

Here are the players that have been placed on the various reserve lists:

Reserve Lists

Reserve/Physically Unable To Perform
42 Ben Gedeon, LB

Reserve/Injured

99 Danielle Hunter, DE

55 Anthony Barr, LB

65 Pat Elflein, G

45 Troy Dye

79 Kenny Willekes, DE

46 Myles Dorn, S

Reserve/COVID-19
None!

Reserve/Non-Football Illness
59 Cameron Smith, LB

Reserve/Opt-Out
98 Michael Pierce, DT