Exiled Vikings Corner Is Back in the League
Under Mike Zimmer in the 2020 offseason, the Minnesota Vikings attempted a pretty ridiculous strategy that backfired dramatically, and the franchise still has not fully recovered. Spielman and Zimmer watched Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes, and Mackensie Alexander walk in free agency and tried to replace them with Mike Hughes and a bunch of rookies.
Exiled Vikings Corner Is Back in the League
In the first round, the club added Jeff Gladney, a productive corner out of TCU. Two rounds later, Spielman pulled the trigger on Cam Dantzler out of Mississippi State. Cornerback guru Zimmer would form a decent unit out of that group.
Dantzler actually showed some promise in his rookie season, matching up well against Adam Thielen in camp and with some other decent wideouts throughout the season. His career didn’t continue as planned, but he’s now back in the league after a stint in the UFL.
Adam Schefter reported Tuesday afternoon, “Roster moves: Dolphins officially signed LB Matthew Judon and CB Cameron Dantzler Sr. They waived WR Tarik Black and P Ryan Stonehouse.”
Punter Stonehouse broke some records in college and in the pros, but the Dolphins aren’t fans, apparently. Dantzler joins a team that has issues in the secondary with various injured or departed players. In recent weeks, the Dolphins have already added Mike Hilton and Jack Jones, two of the better remaining free agents, to bring some experience to the crew.
Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson wrote after the Dantzler news, “Dantzler will get a look in a cornerback room that lacks established players behind Mike Hilton Jr. and Jack Jones.”
Both Hilton and Jones were names connected to the Vikings at one point in the offseason. The former is a blitzing slot corner, which would fit the Brian Flores mold, and the Vikings were interested in Jones in the past.
Jackson continued, “Storm Duck, rookie fifth-round pick Jason Marshall Jr. and Hilton are likely to make the team, and Jones, Cam Smith, Isaiah Johnson, Ethan Bonner, Dantzler, Kendall Sheffield and rookies BJ Adams and Ethan Robinson are competing for other jobs on the 53-man roster. Bonner is expected to miss some time with a hamstring injury and Sheffield did not practice on Tuesday because of undisclosed reasons.”
After his promising rookie season, folks thought Dantzler might be the team’s long-term starter on the outside. The Vikings then signed Patrick Peterson in free agency and later added Bashaud Breeland. Is the latter just depth or a potential threat for Dantzler? Shockingly, when Week 1 arrived, Dantzler was inactive and used social media to voice his displeasure.
Dantzler still played 14 games and started seven of them, but he was clearly not Zimmer’s top choice. He only logged extensive snaps when Peterson was hurt or after Breeland was cut. Ed Donatell arrived in 2022, and fans hoped Dantzler would escape the doghouse. He did not, playing in ten games and starting nine, because rookies Andrew Booth Jr. and Akayleb Evans struggled to stay on the field. Later in the year, he was inactive multiple times.
The Vikings moved on in the 2023 offseason. Since then, he has had stints with the Commanders, Bills, Texans, and Saints. Only the Saints gave him some playing time: nine snaps on special teams, to be exact. He couldn’t even last with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League, who released him after a few weeks on their practice roster.
In the spring, Dantzler played with the Memphis Showboats, and he did quite well, earning a PFF grade of 75.6, which ranked him 5th among UFL corners with at least 200 defensive snaps. Finally, an NFL organization called.
It remains to be seen whether Dantzler can be more than just a camp body and actually show enough to convince the decision-makers that keeping him around is the right call.
Dantzler will turn 27 next month.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Pro Football Reference helped with this article.