Unlucky Former Vikings Draft Choice Signs with Jets
The Minnesota Vikings are once again scheduled to travel overseas to play a regular season game in London. After escaping with a narrow victory in 2022 by beating the New Orleans Saints in a nailbiter, Skol Nation will face an old rival this time: Aaron Rodgers and his New York Jets. It will be Rodgers’ first game versus the Vikings without a Packers uniform.
Unlucky Former Vikings Draft Choice Signs with Jets
The future Hall of Famer will be joined by some electric weapons like Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson, and an improved offensive line is supposed to keep him upright in his first season after the Achilles tear suffered a few plays into his 2023 campaign.
In addition to the promising offense, the Jets have an elite defense captained by head coach Robert Saleh. He just acquired a former Viking for his unit: Jaylen Twyman.
Twyman was drafted with the Tom Brady pick ‒ 199 ‒ in the sixth round of the 2021 draft. Coming out of Pittsburgh, he unsurprisingly reminded some folks of a light version of Aaron Donald, as they share an alma mater, both wore number 97 in college, and are both undersized linemen.
Of course, Donald was a first-round pick, while Twyman was available in the sixth round, so those comparisons had to be treated with extreme caution. Donald will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer and is one of the best defenders of all time. Twyman is now a 25-year-old with a third chance in the league after stints with the Vikings and Dolphins.
Twyman dominated in his redshirt sophomore season in 2019, tabulating 12 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks, showing his enormous potential. The defender was named second-team All-American for his electric campaign. He then opted out of his 2020 season because of COVID-19, which was a significant reason for his tumble in the draft.
Others pointed at the lack of explosiveness for an undersized interior defender. PFF wrote a short bottom line in their draft guide: “Twyman has a pure 3-technique frame without the pure 3-technique athleticism.”
Regardless, the Vikings were excited to get him. Then, unfortunate circumstances hit in the summer of his rookie season. Twyman was shot four times while driving in a car in Washington, D.C. He was visiting his aunt. While none of his wounds was expected to be a long-term issue, he missed the entire season on IR.
More unfortunate events occurred entering year two, as the regime that drafted him with a vision to turn him into a contributor was fired. Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman were replaced by Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who didn’t share that vision.
The duo didn’t have any ties with Twyman, so they tried him out in the preseason under the guidance of defensive coordinator Ed Donatell and waived him. Still, he was signed to the team’s practice squad until the franchise released him in October.
After joining the Miami Dolphins practice squad, he stayed part of their franchise for the remainder of the season and the following preseason but failed to make the team. The USFL Birmingham Stallions signed him in December of 2023. Twyman was released in April and signed with the San Antonio Brahmas.
The defender played three games for the Brahmas and tabulated a pair of sacks.
Signing this late with a franchise automatically puts his chance to make New York’s 53-man roster at a shallow rate. His task is to do enough in a preseason game to get a shot either on their practice squad or somewhere else.
Twyman turned 25 in July.
Editor’s Note: Information from UFL and Sports Reference CFB helped with this article.
Janik Eckardt is a football fan who likes numbers and stats. The Vikings became his favorite team despite their quarterback at the time, Christian Ponder. He is a walking soccer encyclopedia, loves watching sitcoms, and prefers Classic rock over other genres. Follow him on Twitter if you like the Vikings: @JanikEckardt