Vikings Make the First Shocking Decision
Until 10:36 a.m. CST on Tuesday, the NFL’s cutdown day, all the Vikings’ cuts were expected. Players who were thought to be on the outside looking in were shown the door. Of course, trading a trio of players away might have been a little surprising.
Vikings Make the First Shocking Decision
Then, Tom Pelissero, one of the industry’s top reporters, announced via social media, “The #Vikings plan to waive OLB Gabriel Murphy barring a trade before today’s cutdown deadline, per source. Murphy had 1.5 sacks in the preseason.”
That came as a huge surprise considering Murphy’s preseason domination.
He led the entire league in QB hits in the preseason and added 1.5 sacks to the scorecard. In many instances, he looked like he didn’t belong on the football field with the other depth players and should remain on the roster.
Well, it turns out the preseason can lie. If eight QB pressures, five QB hits, and a pair of sacks can’t get the job done, then what can?
Murphy was signed in 2024 as an undrafted rookie out of UCLA. In his final college season, he put up some excellent statistics, 16 tackles for loss and eight sacks, to be exact. Short arms might have played a role in his draft tumble, but the Vikings have proven in the past that they don’t always care about that.
The highly-touted rookie then missed most of last year’s training camp with an injury and didn’t return until late in the season. Still, the Vikings kept him around all year, and he appeared in a couple of games.
This offseason, he had to fend off special-teamer Bo Richter and undrafted rookies Chaz Chambliss and Tyler Batty, and it looked like he did exactly that in the preseason.
Just a couple of weeks ago, after his first preseason explosion, head coach Kevin O’Connell said, “Gabe’s been a guy that has shown up daily at camp, highlighted in front of the team. It feels like a man on a mission right now in a lot of ways. And I’m just proud of him, proud of where he’s at in camp right now.”
The Vikings will still enter the season with the Pro Bowl duo of Andrew Van Ginkel and Jonathan Greenard, with Dallas Turner just waiting for his chance to shine after earning a ton of buzz throughout the summer.
Behind them, it’s currently only Richter, who has shown massive potential on special teams but not as much on defense, and rookies Batty and Chambliss. If Murphy is out, the Vikings either see one of them as a future puzzle piece, or another edge rusher could be headed towards the Twin Cities.
Si.com’s Will Ragatz noted, “The Vikings will waive OLB Gabriel Murphy if they can’t trade him, according to Tom Pelissero. That’s a legitimate surprise. Murphy had an excellent first preseason game and seemed to be fourth on the OLB depth chart. Instead, that’ll likely be Bo Richter. Maybe rookie Tyler Batty or Chaz Chambliss makes the 53 too?”
It was the first of potentially many surprises. The Vikings will have an active cutdown day and look for reinforcements throughout the week.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.