These Former Vikings Will Participate in the Super Bowl
Super Bowl LVIII is set to take place this weekend.
It pits the final two remaining teams, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, in a battle for the Lombardi Trophy. While the Vikings aren’t participating in the big game yet again, they are indirectly represented by a number of former Vikings players and coaches who are on these two rosters. Here is a look at five of them.
NOTE: Players with asterisks (*) next to their names indicate that they currently reside on the practice squads.
TE Blake Bell
Blake Bell has been with the Kansas City Chiefs for each of the past three seasons, but before that, he was a journeyman in the NFL. He began his career in 2015 with the San Francisco 49ers, and after two seasons in the bay area, he hopped aboard the Minnesota Vikings for the 2017 season.
Bell appeared in 13 games for the Vikings that season, including three starts. He was not a massive contributor for the offense, but he did catch three passes for 19 yards over the course of the year. Now, he is Kansas City’s TE3 behind Travis Kelce and Noah Gray.
OL Jesse Davis*
Jesse Davis spent a couple months with the Vikings prior to the 2022 season, but Minnesota opted to trade him to the Pittsburgh Steelers before the regular season began.
Since that trade, Davis has found himself on the practice squad with the San Francisco 49ers, and he has appeared in one game this year. That appearance happened in Week 12 against the Seattle Seahawks.
Coach Klint Kubiak
Kubiak began his NFL coaching career by bouncing between the Denver Broncos and Minnesota Vikings for a number of years, but now, he finds himself as the quarterbacks coach of the San Francisco 49ers before he takes on the New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator job in 2024.
Kubiak has had two separate stints in Minnesota. His first occurred during the 2013 and 2014 seasons as an offensive quality control coach. After a year at the University of Kansas and a stint with the Denver Broncos, he came back to Minnesota in 2019 as the quarterbacks coach. In 2021, he was promoted to offensive coordinator before heading back to Denver in 2022.
DL T.Y. McGill*
T.Y. McGill was a preseason hero for the Vikings during the 2022 season, but he did not make the final 53-man roster that year. He did appear in two games for Minnesota during the 2021 season, though, as a practice squad player.
Since his stint in Minnesota, McGill has been with the San Francisco 49ers, and he has appeared in 11 games, recording 10 tackles, two tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. He is yet to play in this year’s playoffs but appeared in all three playoff games for the 49ers last season.
RB Jerick McKinnon
After missing the beginning of the playoffs because of an injury, Jerick McKinnon seems ready to get back on the field for the Super Bowl. McKinnon has been with the Chiefs for each of the past three seasons, and already has one ring under his belt with the team.
Before his time in Kansas City, though, McKinnon began his NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings after being selected in the third round of the 2014 Draft. He spent four years with the Vikings, including their run to the NFC Championship Game in 2017, and he totaled 474 carries for 1918 yards and seven touchdowns with the team before signing with the 49ers in 2018.
Editor’s Note: Statistics for this article were found via Pro Football Reference.
Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho and managing editor of PurplePTSD.com. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.