EAGAN, Minn. — News flash, pick No. 257 is not actually irrelevant, and neither are the hundreds of players passed up in the NFL Draft who are recruited, vigorously, by scouting departments afterward.

Undrafted, sure. But unimportant? That couldn't be further from the reality of successful team building — and of Minnesota's commitment to turning over every stone in a full-scale attempt to fortify its roster.

It's why, since the 2026 NFL Draft concluded, the Vikings worked out agreements with 19 undrafted free agents. Along with the franchise's nine-player draft class and others, they will convene next week for periods of learning and competing in a rookie minicamp at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center.

This year's crop of UDFAs will try to walk the trails blazed by the 21 undrafted rookies who have appeared in the regular season for Minnesota since Head Coach Kevin O'Connell was hired in 2022.

Last season, that list included double-digit appearances for WR Myles Price, OLB Tyler Batty, OLB Chaz Chambliss, OL Joe Huber, TE Ben Yurosek and LB Austin Keys, who was cut Dec. 31. The top contributing rookie UDFA in games played in 2024 was OLB Bo Richter; in 2023 it was LB Ivan Pace, Jr.; and in 2022 it was P Ryan Wright, who transformed his raw leg talent into a consistent boom and inked a lucrative deal with New Orleans in March after fending off training camp competition and re-earning his keep annually.

Suffice to say, there's precedent for one or more of the 2026 UDFAs to make the Vikings roster.

The group, like the draft class, favors defense and includes three cornerbacks, three outside linebackers, two off-ball 'backers, one safety and defensive lineman, plus one running back, three offensive linemen, four wide receivers and an Australian-born punter who is part of the NFL's International Player Pathway Program. That special-teamer, Brett Thorson, doesn't count toward the 90-player roster limit, by the way.

Now, here's a quick look at each of this year's undrafted Vikings (listed alphabetically by last name). Simple information — hometown, class, height, weight — is sourced from college websites, or NFL.com profiles/Dane Brugler's epic draft guide "The Beast" if applicable. Statistics are from Sports Reference.

Marcus Allen, CB, North Carolina

Hometown: Marietta, Georgia | Class: Senior | Ht: 6-foot-1 5/8 | Wt: 197 pounds

2025 stats: 36 tackles (29 solo), two tackles for loss, half-sack, eight passes defended

Career: 137 tackles (101 solo), 4.5 tackles for loss, half-sack, three interceptions, 22 passes defended

High-achievers: Allen tied for the eighth-highest vertical jump among corners at the NFL Scouting Combine (39 inches). Also of note, his father, Derrik, was a captain on the Army basketball team in the early '90s, and his mother, Chinita, ran for election to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2018.

Da'Veawn Armstead, CB, North Texas

Hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 6-foot-1 | Wt: 183 pounds

2025 stats: 43 tackles (30 solo), 3.5 tackles for loss, one sack, two interceptions, five passes defended

Career (including at TCU, 2021 and Sam Houston, 2022-24): 96 tackles (66 solo), 7.5 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks, three interceptions, 16 passes defended, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery

Mean coverage: In his one campaign with the Mean Green, Armstead was stingy! Quarterbacks registered an NFL passer rating of 62.0 targeting him in coverage, according to Pro Football Focus, which ranked 30^th in the FBS among corners with 300-plus coverage snaps. That entailed Armstead giving up 26 catches on 44 targets and one touchdown. FYI, the top two cornerbacks drafted this cycle, Mansoor Delane (6^th overall) and Chris Johnson (27^th), ranked second and first, respectively, on that same sheet.

Dillon Bell, WR, Georgia

Hometown: Houston, Texas | Class: Senior | Ht: 6-foot-0 3/4 | Wt: 209 pounds

2025 stats: 27 catches for 268 yards (9.9 avg.), two touchdowns; 17 rushes for 109 yards (6.4 avg.), two touchdowns

Career: 119 catches for 1,269 yards (10.7 avg.), 11 touchdowns; 51 rushes for 373 yards (7.3 avg.), five touchdowns

Two-a-days: Bell partnered with Chipotle for a commercial that was released heading into the 2024 season, starring alongside then-Bulldogs quarterback Carson Beck, offensive lineman Tate Ratledge and running back Nate Frazier. Of course, Beck transferred to Miami in 2025, and he was chosen by Arizona in the third round Friday; Ratledge was drafted 57^th overall by Detroit last year; and Frazier has led Georgia's rushing offense the past two seasons and is projected by some outlets as a high pick in 2027.

Jordan Botelho, OLB, Notre Dame

Hometown: Honolulu, Hawai'i | Class: Sixth-year Redshirt Senior | Ht: 6-foot-3 | Wt: 260 pounds

2025 stats: 20 tackles (10 solo), 1.5 tackles for loss, one sack

Career: 97 tackles (55 solo), 16.5 tackles for loss, 12.5 sacks

Island legacy: Botelho captured three straight Hawai'i football state championships at Saint Louis High School in Honolulu and was touted as the big island's No. 1 player in the Class of 2020. If Saint Louis HS sounds familiar … It's produced more than 20 NFL players, including QBs Tua Tagovailoa and Marcus Mariota, current Steelers WR Roman Wilson and OLB Nick Herbig, and former Bears center Olin Kreutz.

Tyreek Chappell, CB, Texas A&M

Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 5-foot-10 3/8 | Wt: 180 pounds

2025 stats: 34 tackles (23 solo), 3.0 tackles for loss, four passes defended

Career: 143 tackles (99 solo), 10 tackles for loss, two interceptions, 28 passes defended, one fumble recovery

Fantastic frosh: Chappell received the Defensive Top Newcomer Award at the Aggies football banquet after his freshman season, in addition to being named to the 2021 SEC Coaches' All-Freshman Team and The Athletic Freshman All-America First Team. Chappell broke up a career-high nine passes that season.

Monkell Goodwine, DL, South Carolina

Hometown: Upper Marlboro, Maryland | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 6-foot-4 | Wt: 290 pounds

2025 stats: 31 tackles (23 solo), 4.0 tackles for loss, one pass defended, two forced fumbles

Career (including at Alabama 2021-23): 46 tackles (33 solo), 5.0 tackles for loss, one pass defended, two forced fumbles

Mom's spirit: Goodwine announced on Instagram in November that he was excited to become an awareness ambassador for the South Carolina Cancer Alliance. He honored his mother, who passed away from cancer, by kneeling beside a portrait of her during a preseason photoshoot. Goodwine was the co-recipient of South Carolina's 2025 Overcoming Adversity Award, and he expressed gratitude for his family, and especially his mom, in the letter he penned declaring for the NFL Draft, thanking her for displaying "true courage." Goodwine wrote, "I carry your spirit with me into every step of this journey."

Shaleak Knotts, WR, Maryland

Hometown: Monroe, North Carolina | Class: Senior | Ht: 6-foot-3 | Wt: 194 pounds

2025 stats: 44 catches for 717 yards (16.3 avg.), six touchdowns

Career: 67 catches for 958 yards (14.3 avg.), seven touchdowns; one rush for 7 yards

Finest five: Knotts entered last season with 23 catches for 246 yards and a touchdown over 31 career games. Then, in his first four outings, Knotts totaled 14 catches for 276 yards and five touchdowns, doing his finest work to spark four straight wins for the Terps. Knotts caught just 30 passes for 441 yards and a touchdown the rest of the way as Maryland finished 4-8; he flashed in his college finale, though, making eight receptions for 139 yards and a score. In his "finest five," if you will, his receiving line was 22-415-6.

Keli Lawson, LB, UCF

Hometown: Stephens City, Virginia | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 6-foot-4 | Wt: 230 pounds

2025 stats: 34 tackles (25 solo), 2.0 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, one pass defended, one fumble recovery for a touchdown

Career (including at Virginia Tech 2021-24): 178 tackles (95 solo), 13.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, three interceptions, one interception returned for a touchdown, 12 passes defended, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, one fumble recovery for a touchdown

Athletic gem: Bruce Feldman's 2023 “Freaks List” for The Athletic was prescient of top NFL prospects, featuring the likes of Marvin Harrison, Jr. (No. 2), Francis Mauigoa (5), Cooper DeJean (14), Byron Murphy II (18), Sonny Styles (20), Jared Verse (26), Malik Nabers (33), Abdul Carter (43), Brock Bowers (49) and David Bailey (68). Lawson's explosiveness landed him there, too, tucked right inside the Top 20 at 19. Calling him "one of the gems of the Hokies' 2021 signing class," Feldman highlighted Lawson's 82-inch wingspan and intriguing athleticism. At UCF's pro day last month, Lawson ran a 4.57 40 (2.64 20-yard split), and posted vertical and broad jumps of 41 inches and 11 feet, 3 inches, all contributing to a Relative Athletic Score (RAS) of 8.37, which ranked 570th out of 3,481 linebackers tracked since 1987.

Tristan Leigh, OL, Clemson

Hometown: Fairfax, Virginia | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 6-foot-4 | Wt: 312 pounds

2025 stats: one sack and 13 pressures allowed on 378 pass-blocking snaps; four penalties (Pro Football Focus)

Career: seven sacks and 61 pressures allowed on 1,301 pass-blocking snaps; 12 penalties

Top recruit: The Top 50 football recruits for 2021, per 247Sports, included future Vikings Donovan Jackson (7), Dallas Turner (12), Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins (20) and J.J. McCarthy (38). Go ahead and add Leigh (16) to the mix. He was the No. 2 recruit in the state of Virginia, and the No. 4 tackle in the nation.

Delby Lemieux, OL, Dartmouth

Hometown: Duxbury, Massachusetts | Class: Senior | Ht: 6-foot-5 | Wt: 305 pounds

2025 stats: 1.0 sack and six pressures allowed on 272 pass-blocking snaps; two penalties (Pro Football Focus)

Career: 3.0 sacks and 28 pressures allowed on 950 pass-blocking snaps; six penalties

Standing out: An Ivy League history major and former Duxbury High School lacrosse team captain, Lemieux became the first Dartmouth football player invited to the Senior Bowl since Dave Shula in 1981, and he showed his position flex in Mobile, drilling at center after exclusively playing tackle at Dartmouth.

Kejon Owens, RB, Florida International

Hometown: Miami, Florida | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 5-foot-11 | Wt: 210 pounds

2025 stats: 213 rushes for 1,334 yards (6.3 avg.), 11 touchdowns; 18 catches for 67 yards (3.7 avg.)

Career: 411 rushes for 2,262 yards (5.5 avg.), 22 touchdowns; 41 catches for 206 yards (5.0 avg.)

Breaking away: Hailing from Miami Central HS, the same proving ground as former Vikings home-run threat Dalvin Cook, Owens set the single-season FIU rushing record and was the 2025 C-USA Offensive Player of the Year. Chunk gains were his game as he logged more than half his yards (718; 54.1 percent) on breakaway rushes (runs of 15-plus), according to PFF; that ranked second in the country among backs with at least 150 carries. UTSA's Robert Henry, Jr. (Commanders UDFA signing), finished first (60.8%), and Notre Dame's Jeremiyah Love — Arizona's No. 3 overall pick — fared third on the leaderboard at 52.9%.

Tomas Rimac, OL, Virginia Tech

Hometown: Brunswick, Ohio | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 6-foot-6 | Wt: 317 pounds

2025 stats: 2.0 sacks and 15 pressures allowed on 414 pass-blocking snaps; four penalties (Pro Football Focus)

Career (including at West Virginia 2021-24): 2.0 sacks and 41 pressures allowed on 1,423 pass-blocking snaps; 13 penalties

Moving around: Following four seasons at West Virginia — and 1,009 pass-blocking snaps sans a single sack allowed — Rimac portaled to the Hokies and branched out from purely playing left guard to starting two games at right tackle, two at left tackle, one at left guard and seven at right guard. Rimac was a key part of Virginia Tech's rushing offense ranking third in the ACC with 182.4 yards per game on the ground. Additionally, Rimac scored the 37th-best RAS out of 4,286 offensive linemen gauged from 1987 to 2026.

Marcus Sanders, Jr., WR, Georgia Southern

Hometown: Montezuma, Georgia | Class: Senior | Ht: 6-foot-1 | Wt: 190 pounds

2025 stats: 50 catches for 797 yards (15.9 avg.), five touchdowns

Career: 85 catches for 1,217 yards (14.3 avg.), eight touchdowns; two rushes for 14 yards (7.0 avg.)

Playmaker badge: Sanders built his breakout résumé on the back of contested catches (eight) and missed tackles forced (13) in 2025, per PFF. For context, the former equaled No. 33 overall pick De'Zhaun Stribling's total for Ole Miss, and the latter was one short of No. 24 overall pick KC Concepcion's total for Texas A&M. Furthermore, Sanders averaged 6.7 yards after the catch, greater YAC per reception than No. 20 overall pick Makai Lemon (6.4) managed for USC (granted, Lemon had 29 more catches than Sanders).

Cam'Ron Stewart, OLB, Temple

Hometown: Shillington, Pennsylvania | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 6-foot-5 | Wt: 250 pounds

2025 stats: 32 tackles (19 solo), 10.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, one pass defended, one forced fumble

Career (including at Rutgers 2021-23): 54 tackles (32 solo), 16 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, one pass defended, one forced fumble

Winning edge: Stewart only started a handful of games at the college level, but he maximized his 2025 reps, accumulating 39 pressures on 144 pass-rush snaps, according to PFF. That amounted to a pass-rush win percentage of 26.9%, which placed Stewart near the pinnacle of 2026 draft year defenders; among guys with a minimum of 100 pass-rush opps, it was No. 2 to Western Michigan's Nadame Tucker (28.4%), who signed as a UDFA with the Chargers. Stewart's 90.4 pass-rush grade tied for 12^th in that same crop.

Jacob Thomas, S, James Madison

Hometown: Ashburn, Virginia | Class: Senior | Ht: 6-foot-1 | Wt: 212 pounds

2025 stats: 71 tackles (35 solo), four tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, two interceptions, seven passes defended, one forced fumble

Career: 199 tackles (101 solo), 13 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, five interceptions, 16 passes defended, one forced fumble

Fit for Flores' defense?: Requisite agility, check; Thomas completed the 3-cone drill at JMU's pro day in 6.80 seconds, which would have been the second quickest performed at the NFL Scouting Combine this year (WR Germie Bernard clocked a 6.71). A nose for the ball, check; see Thomas' backend and front-line production. The primary reason Thomas may be a good understudy for Vikings Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores, though, is his versatility. Thomas aligned everywhere for the Dukes while they advanced to the College Football Playoff First Round against Oregon — 320 snaps in the box, 250 at free safety, 156 as a slot corner, 57 on the defensive line and four on the perimeter — and was Second-Team All-Sun Belt.

Brett Thorson, P, Georgia

Hometown: Melbourne, Australia | Class: Senior | Ht: 6-foot-2 | Wt: 235 pounds

2025 stats: 46 punts, 45.5 avg., 43.4 net avg., 23 punts inside 20, four touchbacks, 4.38 seconds avg. hang time (Pro Football Focus)

Career: 156 punts, 45.6 avg., 42.9 net avg., 78 punts inside 20, 12 touchbacks, 4.34 seconds avg. hang time

How about this: The 2025 Ray Guy Award winner, who studied osteology for two years in Melbourne, was nails for the Bulldogs going back to their title-winning 2022 campaign. Thorson's 45.6 career average ranks in the Top 30 all-time (T-25^th) for college football punters who booted 100 or more kicks, and is level with Randall Cunningham's 1982-84 tallies at UNLV — yes, the future Vikings Pro Bowl quarterback!

Arden Walker, OLB, Colorado

Hometown: Denver, Colorado | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 6-foot-2 | Wt: 250 pounds

2025 stats: 46 tackles (19 solo), 4.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, one pass defended

Career (including at Missouri 2021-22): 102 tackles (52 solo), 14 tackles for loss, 8.0 sacks, one pass defended, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries

Flashback: Walker was the second-highest graded pass rusher off the edge in the Big 12 two years ago (min. 100 pass rushes). His 88.5 PFF score put him hot on the heels of Colorado teammate B.J. Green II and ahead of conference standouts such as Vikings 2025 UDFA signing Tyler Batty, and 2026 first-rounder Malachi Lawrence. Walker was unable to replicate his grade, but his 2025 pressures were identical (27).

Scooby Williams, LB, Texas A&M

Hometown: Birmingham, Alabama | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 6-foot-2 | Wt: 230 pounds

2025 stats: 19 tackles (eight solo), four tackles for loss, one sack, one interception, one forced fumble

Career (including at Florida 2021-23): 132 tackles (66 solo), 15.5 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, two interceptions, four passes defended, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery

See ya later, Gator: Williams caught our eye on the first day of practices at the Senior Bowl, knifing through the offense with speed and tipping passes with length, but he didn't participate the full week. His signing with Minnesota will be a reunion of sorts, as he was a starter in "The Swamp" alongside Vikings top rookie Caleb Banks during the 2023 slate. They each notched a sack on that Florida defense.

Lyke Wysong, WR, Arizona

Hometown: Rio Rancho, New Mexico | Class: Redshirt Senior | Ht: 5-foot-10 | Wt: 186 pounds

2025 stats: 24 catches for 278 yards (11.6 avg.), two touchdowns; 12 punt returns, 124 yards (10.3 avg.)

Career (including at New Mexico 2021-24): 158 catches for 1,743 yards (11.0 avg.), five touchdowns; 56 rushes for 198 yards (3.5 avg.), one touchdown; 37 punt returns (9.4 avg.), two touchdowns; 27 kickoff returns (17.7 avg.)

Making a splash: Wysong parlayed being the New Mexico Gatorade Player of the Year on the gridiron as well as the Gatorade State Track and Field Athlete of the Year into a solid career with the Lobos (where his father and uncle also played), and then parlayed a stellar 2024 season that included an eight-catch, 129-yard, one-touchdown game early on the calendar at Arizona into a transfer to the Wildcats and an opportunity to face stiffer competition. Putting an exclamation point on his football lore so far, Wysong crushed his pro day, pairing a 4.32 40 with a 39-inch vertical leap, 10-foot-10-inch broad jump and 17 reps of 225 pounds on bench. His 9.06 RAS is in the Top 400 out of nearly 4,200 WRs tracked since 1987.

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