The Vikings’ Most Wide Open Roster Competition Has At Least 6 Options
Not often, folks, does an NFL team’s open roster spot contain as many options as a standard order of dinner rolls or donuts. Seeing a half dozen donuts being ordered at a bakery? Quite normal. Seeing a half dozen players all pushing for a single starting spot? Not as a normal.
The Vikings’ most wide open roster competition rests at punt returner.
All of Silas Bolden (rookie UDFA signing), Tai Felton (rookie 3rd-Round selection), Rondale Moore (veteran FA signing), Jalen Nailor (incumbent WR3 and last year’s PR2), corner Isaiah Rodgers (veteran FA signing), and receiver Thayer Thomas (practice squad player since 2023) could be in the mix. Seeking to figure out who is leading the race is a tough task.
The Vikings’ Most Wide Open Competition: Punt Returner
Were I forced to make an educated guess right now, I would throw my weight behind Silas Bolden.
The diminutive rookie is coming off a promising season as a key specialist for Texas (leading to the nice payday). He stands at just 5’8″ and weighs 160 pounds. Not too many NFL players are so small — one thinks of stud returner Darren Sproles, but he was quite a bit stockier — so Bolden stands out as being quite unique. What’s so intriguing is simply that he turned his 30 punt returns into 315 yards last season while playing in the SEC, good for a healthy 10.5 yards-per-return average. Even better is that he scored, too.
But then one thinks of someone like Rondale Moore. He, too, is smaller, listed at just 5’7″ while weighing 181 pounds. The 25-year-old has been in the NFL since 2021 after getting drafted at No. 49 by the Cardinals. Not lacking in talent, Mr. Moore offers some uncertainty insofar as he’s working back from serious injury.
The production on offense has been reasonably modest — a total of 1,201 receiving yards across his career, which would be a very slow single season for Justin Jefferson — but he has done a bit of work on specials. Back in 2021, Moore turned 21 returns into 171 yards (8.1 average). His single return in 2023 went for 11 yards. The intrigue is twofold: he’s still quite young and ran a blazing 4.28 forty.
Felton is also incredibly fast and has a bit of experience of bringing kickoffs and punts back. Can the rookie receiver prove capable of jumping into the opening? Nailor — who has the flattering nickname Speedy — may not inspire a ton of confidence after last season’s punt-return error, but he has previously been looked at as an option.
Rodgers is genuinely among the fastest players in the NFL. Kickoffs are more of his thing, but he could end up being considered as an option, especially if the team finds itself in a critical moment in a game (such as a late-game comeback effort). And then there’s Thomas, the smaller receiver who has been around with the Vikings since the ’23 offseason. Clearly, he’s doing something right since he sticks around on the practice squad. Thomas’ college career involved 70 punt returns for a total of 681 yards (9.7 average).
Kicking out the competition even further could involve taking a look at Ty Chandler (a speedy running back with kickoff return experience), Myles Price (an UDFA receiver with an impressive return average from college), Jeshaun Jones (a high-priced UDFA add from a year ago who was a practice squad player in 2024), and others.
In short, the Vikings’ most wide open roster competition is precisely that: wide open. Again, I’ll make the educated guess that Silas Bolden ends up being the one who shines, but this is a competition that could go in any number of directions.
Something to watch, to be sure, in both of training camp and the preseason.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference, Over the Cap, and Sports Reference CFB helped with this piece.
