Let’s recap everything here
After not making any moves at Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, the Minnesota Vikings found themselves busy on Wednesday morning, as they’ve made a handful of roster moves.
Perhaps the biggest of these moves was the designation of edge defender Gabriel Murphy to return to practice. Murphy was a much-heralded UDFA out of UCLA who was graded as a mid-round pick by many but wound up getting placed on injured reserve by the Vikings during their final cutdown. This opens his 21-day window to be placed on the active roster, meaning the Vikings have until 27 November to make the decision on him.
The team has also signed defensive lineman Jalen Redmond from the practice squad back to the active roster. Redmond has already used his allotment of three standard practice squad elevations after spending the early part of the season on the active roster, so this is a move the Vikings needed to make to have him available on game days.
The team also made the signing of kicker John Parker Romo, which we talked briefly about on Tuesday, official.
After those moves, the Vikings had two empty spots on the practice squad after losing offensive lineman Tyrese Robinson to the New England Patriots. They filled those spots by signing long snapper Jake McQuaide and defensive lineman Travis Bell.
McQuaide has been in the National Football League for a very long time, as the 37-year-old is now in his 14th season. He signed with the St. Louis Rams. . .yes, St. Louis. . .ahead of the 2011 season and served as their long snapper for ten seasons. After that, he spent a couple of seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and has also had stops in Detroit and Chicago before getting to Minnesota. He’s a two-time Pro Bowler, having garnered those honors in 2016 and 2017. He will serve as the replacement for Andrew DePaola, who the team has not yet officially placed on injured reserve.
Bell is designated as a nose tackle and was a seventh-round pick of the Chicago Bears in 2023 out of Kennesaw State. He wound up on the Bears’ practice squad and was poached by the Atlanta Falcons during the 2023 season. He was then waived by the Falcons and wound up with the Cincinnati Bengals to finish out the 2023 season and went through camp with Cincinnati before being waived in August and going back to Chicago’s practice squad. He has appeared in two career NFL games and has a total of two tackles.
With those moves, the Vikings’ practice squad now looks like this:
- DL Travis Bell
- G Henry Byrd
- OLB Andre Carter II
- RB Myles Gaskin
- WR Lucky Jackson
- WR Trishton Jackson
- WR Jeshaun Jones
- DB Bobby McCain
- LS Jake McQuaide
- LB Calvin Munson
- OT Julian Pearl
- RB Zaiver Scott
- WR Thayer Thomas
- TE Robert Tonyan
- LB Max Tooley
- CB Nahshon Wright
That should get you caught up on everything the Vikings have done on this Wednesday morning. This afternoon we should get the first injury reports of the week as the purple prepare to travel to Jacksonville for Week 10.
