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Welcome to Week 1 of the 2024 regular season.
By this time next week, the Vikings will have played their first contest, a road game at the New York Giants.
It will be just the second time Minnesota has ever opened a season at the New York Giants and first since 1969 when former and future Vikings QB Fran Tarkenton rallied the Giants with two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter at Yankee Stadium. Although that outcome was disappointing for Minnesota, the Purple People Eaters clamped down after that. The next 13 foes totaled 109 points, and no other opponent scored more than 14 against Minnesota that season, which featured a 12-game winning streak, NFL Championship and appearance in Super Bowl IV.
Returning to the moment, this will be the third season under General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Head Coach Kevin O'Connell.
Their staffs have worked hard to build depth across the roster and had the arduous task of reducing the number from 91 (including International Player Pathway participant Sammis Reyes) to the regular-season max of 53 last week before forming a 17-player practice squad (includes Reyes).
The moves continued after Tuesday's deadline for roster reductions and Wednesday's formation of the practice squad. On Thursday, Minnesota placed Jaren Hall on waivers and signed veteran backup Brett Rypien to be the third QB on the 53-man roster. Rypien is backing up starter Sam Darnold and returning veteran Nick Mullens.
The inbox received ample messages regarding the waiving of Hall and signing of Rypien, so that's where we'll start this week by consolidating a few comments for a single response.
I guess I'll never be an NFL scout! I loved Jaren Hall and thought he was progressing nicely.
— Kurt M.
And …
I'm puzzled why the Vikings would cut Jaren Hall as well as he has played in favor of Brett Rypien. Why cut a young player who shows so much promise in favor of a guy who has been cut by multiple teams already? Just doesn't seem to make sense. I would like to hear the reasoning behind that decision.
— Irv Globstad, West Des Moines, Iowa (Vikings fan since 1961)
And …
Why would you cut QB Jaren Hall? He's a better QB than Mullens, plus he can scramble if necessary. I think this was a big mistake and you let the wrong player go. I'm guessing the Vikings are going for the first pick next year so we will go 4-13 this year! Hall is a good quarterback.
Thank you,
— Paul Nichols
The first thing to keep in mind is that Hall's time with the Vikings may not have concluded.
I admittedly am not a professional evaluator of players. I personally did not expect any changes once the Vikings placed Darnold, Mullens and Hall on the 53-man roster (based on what Hall had showed this preseason), but I'm not privy to the advanced conversations and strategies that the personnel and coaching departments discuss.
The news of placing Hall on waivers and signing Rypien broke Thursday morning, a couple of hours before Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell were scheduled to speak with Twin Cities media members.
That meant we posted the news of the roster moves a bit before they communicated their desire to bring Hall back on the practice squad. We followed up with those comments in this story, which further explains their thinking if you haven't had a chance to check it out.
Placing Hall on waivers meant another team could have claimed him, but that timing would have required another move to their 53-man rosters, which had just been set Tuesday. Rosters remain fluid throughout a season across the league, but no team made a waiver claim on Hall.
The second-year pro became a free agent, capable of re-signing to Minnesota's practice squad or exploring his options with another team. No announcements were made before the Mailbag's Sunday deadline, but we could find out more today.
I've written in multiple Mailbags about O'Connell and others speaking well of Hall and conveying their enjoyment of developing him. His play this preseason showed progress, which was good to see for Hall, a perpetually polite young man going about his business the right way. It also could be a good reinforcement for the approaches the team is taking to develop quarterbacks.
The Vikings leadership that opted to make the move weighed multiple factors, including outcomes that could result in Hall not winding up on the practice squad before deciding what Rypien can offer to the team was worth bringing him here.
Rypien has played in 10 games with four starts with the Broncos and Rams, and Los Angeles' system has plentiful overlaps with Minnesota's. He also just played well during the preseason with the Bears.
After what happened for the Vikings at the quarterback position in 2023 with starting four quarterbacks within one season for the first time in franchise history, Minnesota is trying to do all it can from a preparation standpoint.
Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth, Jr., got most of the press with their cut and trade respectively, but the release of Jaren Hall marks another draft pick that didn't play out his rookie contract with the Vikings. For the 2022 draft picks, four of 10 remain on the 53-man roster. For the 2023 picks, three of six remain on the 53-man roster or on IR. That doesn't seem like much success in the draft. However, only three of 11 players taken in the 2021 draft (former Vikings GM Rick Spielman's last draft) remain on the 53 in this, their fourth year.
What is the league average for players playing out their rookie contract with the team that drafted them?
— Dave Sinclair in Rio Rancho, New Mexico
I've generally seen average contract length as below four years but haven't seen that number updated lately.
To try to help provide some parameters for Dave's question, I went through the 2021, 2022 and 2023 NFL Drafts and marked whether players were still on their original rookie contracts (meaning they did not go through waivers and land back on the practice squad, join another team, or are trying to get back into the NFL), even though there are players like Nick Muse, a seventh-round pick in 2022 who is on the Vikings 53-man roster after undergoing a series of previous roster moves.
Dave is correct that three Vikings out of the 11 drafted in 2021 remain with the team. They are Christian Darrisaw, a rock at left tackle, Pat Jones II, who has had a strong preseason at outside linebacker, and Camryn Bynum, who has started every game the past two seasons.
The contributions by Darrisaw and Bynum already have made considerable impact for the Vikings, and Jones is poised to take another step forward with his development and versatility to kick inside on downs when a pass is likely.
NFL scouting departments were put through many unprecedented challenges while trying to scout for 2021 because of the residual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic starting the year before.
I do remember Spielman saying during the draft that he believed there was a sweet spot in the third round that year. Minnesota wound up with four picks, which were used on Kellen Mond, Chazz Surratt, Wyatt Davis and Jones. Only Jones remains from the second day of that draft. That's obviously less than ideal, but Spielman tried to have multiple bites at the apple, which makes sense when dealing with very limited salary cap space.
I tried to be fast but meticulous in the roster reviews. My numbers showed that 128 of the 259 picks from 2021 (slightly less than 50 percent) remain on their original deals. Naturally, the retention rate is higher with each of the past two years (172 of 262 players selected in 2022 and 204 of 259 in 2023) so far.
Adofo-Mensah has been chipping away to create more and more cap space since his hire in 2022. That enabled the Vikings to use free agency more this offseason, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
He also was forthcoming last week in talking about the 2022 draft, opening up about a few reasons it didn't work out as well as envisioned.
Ed Ingram, Brian Asamoah II, Akayleb Evans, Ty Chandler and Jalen Nailor are all still on their rookie deals (and Muse is still with the team), so the 2022 group's impact on the Vikings is still being written, even with the departures of Cine, Booth and Esezi Otomewo, as well as the trade last year of Vederian Lowe for a 2024 sixth-round pick.
The Vikings changed their defensive systems from 2021 to 2022 and again in 2023. While everyone wanted the draft-night optimism for Cine and Booth to work out here, Adofo-Mensah was willing to pivot instead of trying to force something that proved to be unlikely.
Jordan Addison led the class of 2023, and Mekhi Blackmon last season showed reasons for encouragement in his future. Unfortunately, Blackmon suffered a torn ACL at Minnesota's first training camp practice of 2024.
Jay Ward remains here as a likely key contributor on special teams. He also can provide versatility and depth on the back end of the defense. We've already covered Hall. That leads us to defensive lineman Jaquelin Roy and running back DeWayne McBride from the 2023 class.
The Vikings added depth on the defensive line through free agency, the draft (Levi Drake Rodriguez) and undrafted rookie Taki Taimani, who made the 53-man roster. Competition on the interior defensive line was tough. Minnesota also liked what running back Myles Gaskin did in the preseason. The Vikings only placed Aaron Jones, Sr., and Chandler on their initial 53 but were quick to ink Gaskin to the practice squad.
Well, I'm happy they managed to save some guys to the practice squad I really liked, but sad to see Kene [Nwangwu] get cut and perplexed at why they cut a promising Jaren Hall in favor of another journeyman QB in Rypien.
Cheers,
— Nicholas Balkou
Gaskin's performance this preseason (128 yards on 27 carries and helping out on special teams), teams trying to work through the new kickoff rule, and the limited number of spots at running back all factored into the Nwangwu decision.
"That move was about Myles Gaskin, his versatility to really be a true three-down back from a standpoint of what he had improved on during his time here," O'Connell said before noting Gaskin's fit with the "play style" Minnesota wants to incorporate this season.
O'Connell added he considers Nwangwu to be a good football player beyond his impact on kickoff returns.
I haven't kept meticulous stats on this, but all 17 players on the initial practice squad had been with the Vikings for part of all of training camp (two — McBride and rookie Jeshaun Jones — have since been replaced by newcomers Ricky Lee III and Zavier Scott). I don't require an entire initial practice squad being formed by players who had already been here. That shows the Vikings did well in building their roster, with negotiating practice squad deals with veterans like Jonah Williams and Bobby McCain and with assessing who would clear waivers.
View exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from the Vikings 2024 preseason games against the Las Vegas Raiders, Cleveland Browns, and Philadelphia Eagles.
With a big sigh of relief, I was glad to see those players selected going to the practice squad. Way too much talent to let get poached by other teams. Now without digging too much into salaries for the players, do the players on the practice squad work at a designated pay amount set by the NFL, or is that something negotiated in their initial signing contract? I would imagine that their pay would reflect something about their position but at a lesser amount until the time that some unfortunate injury occurred that would activate them to the main team. What do you say?
SKOL,
— Jerry in Ohio
And…
With roster reductions in full swing, what is the life of a practice squad player during the year? Do they attend practices and meetings with the team? Are they on the sidelines of home games and travel to away games? Do they count against the salary cap? Any team can sign them to an active roster?
— Kevin from Mississippi (Southern Fried Vikings fan)
Combining these questions from Jerry and Kevin because of the shared interest in the workings of the practice squad.
Teams are allowed to have up to six veterans as members of the 16/17-player practice squads.
The expansion of the practice squad (it used to be 10 players and no veterans when I began working for an NFL team) has led to multiple positives, including a way to strengthen a team's depth and enable further development of players. There's also been a bump in pay for players on the practice squad, which can further increase if they are elevated for up to three games of a regular season (teams are not limited in their elevations for a postseason run).
Since non-veteran practice squad player salaries are set across the league at $12,500 per week, I feel I can relay that info. Veteran practice squad players' salaries can range between $16,800 and $21,300 per week, depending on their deals with their teams.
If a player is elevated for a game, he will have his salary elevated to 1/18th of the minimum salary for players on a club's Active/Inactive List with the practice squad player's number of Credited Seasons for that game. Veterans who are bumped up from the practice squad receive an additional salary benefit.
Practice squad players are at every practice and meeting (team and positional) — and many with the Vikings have also used their free time to join in social impact efforts around the community. They also are at home games. The Vikings usually announce any roster elevations on Saturday before a Sunday game, so those players who are getting elevated travel and participate.
Practice squad players are free to sign to the 53-man roster of another team but not to another team's practice squad.
Congrats to the entire Vikings organization for completing the preseason undefeated. I hope the momentum carries over to the season. My biggest complaint about preseason has to do with the announcers of the games. Unfortunately, I do not get the Vikings broadcast, so this is directed at the network announcers. Every game I watch, the announcers switch to interviewing players not in the game or start talking about issues that are not occurring on the field while live play is occurring. This is especially true later in the game. I think this is very disrespectful to players fighting for a roster spot. They may not be the stars of the team, but they all worked extremely hard to get this opportunity, and this may be the only time for them, or their families, to hear their name announced during an NFL game. I hope this situation changes in the future!
— Jeff in Alaska
Hopefully it is more about bandwidth than any intentional slighting of players who are working hard and chasing their dream — and are so close to making it a reality. The amount of time broadcast crews have to prep for two teams with rosters as large as they are in the preseason is small. I think folks who have been able to hear the FOX 9/KFAN 100.3-FM simulcast with Paul Allen, Pete Bercich and Ben Leber have seen a good production, and that's in large part to the significant dedication to preparatory work by those professionals.
I thought the guests during the third quarter (Justin Jefferson, Harrison Smith and Kevin O'Connell), as well as Kwesi Adofo-Mensah joining the broadcast for part of the Browns game was a great way to work in some household names but also still relay what was happening in the game. Allen, Bercich and Leber are great at that because they have to be for the radio listeners. It was truly fantastic to hear Jefferson's enthusiasm when his fellow receivers made plays against the Raiders.
I've been a fan since the '70s. Glad to see you seem to be a little more focused on defense this year. Sorry about J.J. McCarthy, but I feel they're in good hands with Sam Darnold. Bold prediction: Vikings go 10-7 this year, and Sam Darnold is Comeback Player of the Year.
Skol,
— Tim in Utica, N.Y.
Appreciate the long-time support. I've theorized here that fans from that era of Vikings football identify a bit with how things are going on defense, regardless of which decade we are in.
Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores made numerous differences for the Vikings defense in his first season, and he has so many more variances for how he can have players attack opposing offenses this season. Flores obviously has not shown many exotics during the preseason games, but I thought his group had an impressive day of work in the red zone against the Browns when the teams held the second of two joint practices.
Darnold's in-game action was highly limited (one possession) during the preseason, but he hit a couple of explosive throws and has repeatedly shown good chemistry with Jefferson, Addison and others in practices. He's continued progressing his comfort in this system. He knows the opportunity ahead of him, and he's put in the work.
