Vikings Say Goodbye to Young, Promising Defensive Lineman
The NFL can be a cruel business. The recent Vikings news simply confirms that basic reality.
Minnesota has decided to move on from Jalen Redmond, a young defensive tackle who had actually picked up a bit of work in 2024. The team website offered the update, noting, “The Minnesota Vikings (5-0) on Friday announced they have waived Jalen Redmond.”
Vikings Say Goodbye to Jalen Redmond
Mr. Redmond is a candidate to return to the practice squad. After all, Minnesota kept him on the roster for a reason; clearly, they like his game and think he has some upside.
Standing at 6’2″ and weighing 291 pounds, Redmond is built like a 3-technique. In theory, he should be a bit more nimble and be able to get penetration on passing downs. Across his pair of games with the Vikings, Redmond did pick up a sack.
Originally, Redmond entered the NFL with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent. The undersized defensive tackle ran a 4.81 forty and tossed up 27 reps on the bench press, so there’s upside in his athleticism and strength.
Moving on from him means that Levi Drake Rodriguez, a 7th-Round selection who hasn’t played yet, is sticking around. Perhaps we’ll see Mr. Rodriguez before too long, but the defensive front is playing well.
Harrison Phillips remains the top option. Next up are Jonathan Bullard and Jerry Tillery, players who have had some productive moments without being dominant in 2024. Plus, Jihad Ward has been soaking up a lot of snaps along the interior on obvious passing downs, relieving the pressure on the DL to produce in the passing game.
Carving out a roster spot should raise some alarm bells. Or, put differently, some sort of alert about what Minnesota has going on.
Ben Goessling of The Star Tribune is thinking the right way when he connected to move to a certain star on offense: “The Vikings waived defensive lineman Jalen Redmond. The undrafted free agent had played in two games, posting a sack against the Texans. There was no corresponding move, so the Vikings have an open roster spot (with T.J. Hockenson’s return coming).”
Prior to the news of Redmond’s cut, PurplePTSD published a piece discussing the possibility of a roster cut. There was merely a bit of purple dot-connecting, explaining how re-adding Mr. Hockenson would involve subtracting someone else from the roster. Is that what’s going on?
The Vikings’ next game takes place on Sunday, October 20th. Coincidentally, the game will come against the 4-1 Detroit Lions, the team that drafted Hockenson before trading him to the Vikings.
Minnesota sits at 5-0 and is coming off of its bye.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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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, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.