Young Vikings Pass Catcher Gets “Clean Up on His Knee”
The competition at tight end is growing increasingly intense. T.J. Hockenson is recovering, so the approach has been to really beef up the depth.
Well, there could be another reason for making such a concerted effort to increase the competition since a young Vikings pass catcher is also ailing. Per Kevin O’Connell, depth tight end Nick Muse has had to have a minor surgery to get himself back to full health.
O’Connell spoke with the media on Wednesday, June 12th. Across the seventeen minute back and forth, O’Connell ventured into different topics, but one of the notable ones involved Mr. Muse.
“Nick Muse did just have a small kind of clean up on his knee,” O’Connell explains. “Something that was kind of lingering, and kind of developed to a point where we wanted to make sure he was able to have the best possible training camp he can. By getting that cleaned up when we did, he’ll be a full participant to start training camp at the tight end position.”
Nick Muse, The Young Vikings Pass Catcher, Has Surgery
Thankfully, things don’t sound overly serious.
O’Connell frames the issue as one that was “kind of lingering.” Doing the surgery now is about getting Muse back to 100% during the offseason’s slowest portion. When the competition really gets moving in training camp in July, Muse should be locked and loaded.
Originally, Muse got added to Minnesota’s roster in Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s initial draft class.
The GM scooped up Mr. Muse at 227th overall, which lands in the 7th Round. So, not an elite draft placement but still a chance to get an NFL career started. He stands at 6’5″ and weighs 252 pounds. He played some of his college ball at South Carolina.
As a rookie, Muse was involved in ten games. He didn’t pickup any work with the offense but he did get involved on special teams. He was on the field for 108 snaps with Matt Daniels’ crew.
Largely due to the addition of Josh Oliver, Muse saw a minimized role in 2023. However, he did get involved in a pair of games while picking up 29 special teams snaps. Even more significant, perhaps, is that he got involved in a pair of snaps on offense. He even turned his single target into a catch for 22 yards.
Muse, who will turn 26 in November, won’t get onto the team unless he shows he can be a strong presence on special teams. Offering some strong blocking and tackling in that phase of the game could be enough for him to stick around as a TE3/4. Within that role, Muse could even get worked into the offense at different points.
Hopefully, the recovery goes well and Nick Muse is able to put together a strong training camp and preseason.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference 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 and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.