View photos of new Vikings LB Hardy Nickerson who recently signed with the team.
Eagan, Minn. (September 8, 2020) – The Minnesota Vikings have announced the following roster moves:
SIGNED TO PRACTICE SQUAD:
NO...... PLAYER............................. POS…EXP................. COLLEGE
67....... Albert Huggins...................... DT....... 2.................... Clemson
9......... Chase McLaughlin................... K....... 2........................ Illinois
47....... Hardy Nickerson.................... LB....... 4........................ Illinois
The Vikings practice squad now stands at the limit of 16 players.
Albert Huggins (6-3, 305) enters his second NFL season on the Vikings practice squad following a rookie campaign that saw him play four games for Philadelphia. The Clemson product was an undrafted free agent in 2019 with Houston and spent time on the Texans practice squad early in the year. Philadelphia signed Huggins to their 53-man roster on October 21, 2019 and he played in four games for the club, notching five tackles. He was released by Philadelphia on November 30, 2019 and claimed by New England on December 2, 2019 before being released on December 7, 2019 without playing for the team. He was re-signed on December 10, 2019 to Philadelphia's practice squad where he spent the rest of the season. During 2020 training camp Huggins went from Philadelphia to Houston and lastly Detroit where he was released in final roster cuts. A two-time national champion at Clemson in 2016 and 2018, Huggins was the consensus top player in South Carolina as a senior at Orangeburg-Wilkerson High.
Chase McLaughlin (5-11, 187), a second-year player from Illinois, joins the Vikings practice squad in the opening week of the season for the second year in a row. McLaughlin originally entered the NFL with Buffalo as an undrafted free agent in 2019 before being released following preseason and joining the Vikings practice squad for a week. McLaughlin went on as a rookie to play for three teams in the regular season and score 80 points. He kicked for the LA Chargers, San Francisco and ended the season with Indianapolis, where he spent 2020 training camp before his release last week. He was 18-of-23 on FGs and 26-of-26 on PATs as a rookie, hitting 3-of-3 FGs of 50-plus yards. The Cypress, TX, native earned the Big Ten's Bakken-Andersen Kicker of the Year award as a senior for the Illini.
Hardy Nickerson (6-0, 235) joins Minnesota's practice squad after being waived by the club on September 6. Nickerson originally signed with the Vikings on August 18 following three seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals where he tallied 81 tackles (55 solo) and a forced fumble through 37 games with nine starts. A native of Oakland, California, Nickerson signed with Cincinnati as an undrafted free agent in 2017 after a postgraduate season at Illinois that saw him notch 107 tackles and career highs in tackles for loss (5.5) and interceptions (two). He began his college career at California and recorded 133 tackles in his first two seasons with the team. In a breakout season as a redshirt junior in 2015, he made 111 stops. Nickerson is the son of four-time All-Pro and NFL All-1990s team member Hardy Nickerson.
