Vikings Rumors: Practice Squad Poach, Nudie on The Team, and Clean Health
Since we’re officially into the portion of the year when Vikings rumors are ramping up, we’ll be highlighting some of the purple rumblings.
The “Vikings Rumor Wrangle” is a series that keeps readers informed on what’s being whispered about in Vikings Land. In this iteration, we discuss a Vikings player potentially getting poached while trying to slide down to the practice squad, Dwight McGlothern — a.k.a. Nudie — making the team, and Minnesota moving ahead with a clean bill of health.
Vikings Rumors: 08.21.2024
Rumor #1 — Sliding a QB to the Practice Squad Will Lead to that Player Getting Poached
Almost certainly.
In the 2023 NFL Draft, Jaren Hall was a 5th-Round selection. In his final college season, Hall completed 66% of his passes. He accumulated 3,171 passing yards for 31 touchdowns and just 6 interceptions. Moreover, he rushed for 350 yards and 3 scores on the ground. Promising stuff.
In early August, PurplePTSD discussed Hall as a cut candidate while indicating that the practice squad route would lead to getting scooped up by another team: “Moving on from the rookie would be risky. In all likelihood, Minnesota’s desire would be to place him on the practice squad. The NFL’s other 31 teams, though, likely wouldn’t let that happen. Young, intelligent, and athletic QBs don’t grow on trees, so someone would scoop him up.”
Recently, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk arrives at a similar conclusion.
“Currently, [Jaren Hall is] No. 3, behind Darnold and Nick Mullens,” Florio says, “After yesterday, it might be hard for the Vikings to slip Hall through waivers and add him to the practice squad. They’ll likely have to carry Darnold, Mullen, and Hall into the regular season on the 53-man roster.”
Truth be told, Minnesota likely always planned on devoting three of their roster spots toward quarterback. The only thing that’s different is that J.J. McCarthy has been subtracted from the equation. Expect Darnold, Mullens, and Hall to make the final team.
Rumor #2 — Dwight “Nudie” McGlothern is Going to Crack the Roster
At a recent press conference, Brian Flores mentioned the nickname. In fairness, though, it’s directly in the man’s social media, so the “Nudie” moniker isn’t exactly a secret.
What’s more notable than the nickname has been the play during training camp and the preseason. Legitimately, McGlothern has a shot to make the roster, as PurplePTSD discussed during the summer months. In the preseason, the young corner has been doing some excellent work, such as his interception that was nearly returned for a touchdown:
Apparently, the impressive play wasn’t constrained to just that single moment. PFF gave him a mighty 86.1 grade for his effort on Saturday. He got targeted a pair of times but didn’t allow any production, meaning the young corner put up a shutout in his second preseason tilt.
Understandably, a lot of the focus has been on the addition of veteran Stephon Gilmore. The veteran corner is going to slide into one of the starting spots in Minnesota. While that’s an encouraging development, it’s similarly encouraging to see Dwight “Nudie” McGlothern make a strong push to be included on the roster.
McGlothern is 6’2″ and is only 22 years old. As Janik Eckardt argues, the corner may be staring down a bright future.
Rumor #3 — The Vikings are Moving Ahead with a Clean Bill of Health
Well, to a certain extent. Guys like J.J. McCarthy, Mekhi Blackmon, and T.J. Hockenson are all working through their own ailments. The good news is simply that the Cleveland game didn’t result in anymore injuries.
O’Connell was asked if Minnesota made it through the game healthy. “We did,” O’Connell said, “yeah, we did. There was really nothing to make note of.”
The head coach’s reflection: “We had a couple guys that maybe would have played if it was the regular season, but just through the physicality of the joint practices, which I did like, we decided to hold those guys out and just be smart.”
True to form, O’Connell erred on the side of caution when it came to his players’ health. That’s become standard in Minnesota since O’Connell took over, so it’s merely a reconfirmation of the coach’s commitment to being careful with injuries.
Minnesota’s final preseason contest will take place on Saturday, August 24th at 12 p.m. CT. O’Connell’s Vikings travel to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles. Pulling off the win would mean going an impressive 3-0.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.