Familiar Face Returns: Vikings Shake Up Practice Squad
The Minnesota Vikings have not been on the lucky side for injuries, losing Mekhi Blackmon and J.J. McCarthy even before the season started. The duo likely would’ve played significant roles in the 2024 campaign as the club had transitioned from the Cousins era to rookie McCarthy. Blackmon was expected to be one of the top three CBs.
Familiar Face Returns: Vikings Shake Up Practice Squad
T.J. Hockenson’s recovery took some extra time, Ivan Pace landed on IR, and Christian Darrisaw is out for the season with a severe knee injury.
On Friday, the Vikings announced on their official airwaves that practice squad offensive lineman Henry Byrd would join the list of injured players. Coy Cronk, who has spent time with the Vikings in the past, takes his spot on the practice squad: “The Vikings have signed T Coy Cronk to the practice squad and placed G Henry Byrd on Practice Squad – Injured.”
The club did not release any details about Byrd’s injury.
Byrd is 25 years old and attended Princeton. He went undrafted in 2023 and has bounced around since, starting out with the Denver Broncos as a UDFA signing. The lineman was released after the preseason, and the Vikings added him to the practice squad, where he would stay until the team released him in November of 2023.
He then had a short stint with the 49ers on their practice squad, but later in the season, he returned to the Twin Cities. After spending the entire offseason and preseason in Minnesota, he failed to make the 53-man roster but did enough to earn another campaign on the practice squad.
Cronk is on a comparable NFL odyssey. At the age of 26, one could call Cronk a practice squad veteran. First things first, he played college football at Indiana and Iowa and went undrafted in 2021. The Packers signed him to their offseason squad, but he didn’t make the team, so he subsequently moved on to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Urban Meyer Jaguars actually kept him for the majority of the 2021 campaign but he spent the next season on the practice squad. However, in Week 16 of the 2022 season, the lineman made his NFL debut. To this day, he has played in three games (six snaps on offense and 15 on special teams).
Cronk was released from the practice squad halfway through 2023, and the Vikings signed him up for theirs. He was released with a non-football injury designation in April of 2024. Outside of a week with the Falcons in October, he had been looking for work ever since.
It surely would be surprising to see Cronk enter a game with the Vikings, but the NFL is unpredictable.
The Vikings currently employ 11 offensive linemen on the 53-man roster and the practice squad.
- Brian O’Neill
- Cam Robinson
- David Quessenberry
- Walter Rouse
- Dalton Risner
- Blake Brandel
- Ed Ingram
- Michael Jurgens
- Garrett Bradbury
- Dan Feeney
- Coy Cronk (PS)
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference 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