Vikings Respond to Paper Thin OL Depth By Signing a New Large Lad
Currently, the depth along the offensive line is paper thin. That’s what will happen when a trio of starters — LG1 Donovan Jackson, C1 Ryan Kelly, and RT1 Brian O’Neill — succumb to injury.
The Vikings responded with an addition for the practice squad. Craig Peters of the team website offered the news: “A Minnesota native has signed to the Vikings practice squad, joining the team across the Atlantic, the team announced Tuesday. Offensive lineman Matt Waletzko, who is from Cold Spring and played high school football for Rocori before attending North Dakota, traveled overseas to meet the Vikings at their UK headquarters.”
Vikings Respond to OL Need with New Signing
Start off with a simple reality: Matt Waletzko is a massive man.
By definition, NFL offensive linemen are huge people. Even among those huge people, the Vikings’ new large lad stands out. After all, he’s coming in at 6’8″, a tremendously tall offensive tackle. Coaches love having tackles with height since they generally possess long arms and large hands, allowing them to better wrestle with the NFL’s explosive edge rushers (players who similarly get a boost from being tall and having long arms).
Still just 25, Matt Waletzko is officially listed as being 6’8″ and 305 pounds. He arrived in the NFL courtesy of the No. 155 selection in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Dallas was his first NFL home. Generally speaking, that’s an excellent landing spot for an o-lineman. Recent seasons have featured some wonderful o-lines for the Cowboys, so they’ve clearly figured something out when it comes to drafting and developing along the offensive line.
In the end, though, the job in Dallas was fairly modest. Just eleven games played from 2022-2024. Within those games, Waletzko snagged twenty snaps on offense and thirty-eight on special teams. The lineman therefore still has much to prove.
Part of the problem for Waletzko is that he has battled injury. Both the 2022 and 2023 seasons required time in the infirmary to get back to full health. In August of 2025, Waletzko was shown the door in Dallas while working through another injury.
Creating an open spot for Matt Waletzko involved moving on from a different player: WR Tim Jones.
Kick it back to Peters from Minnesota’s website: “In order to make room for Waletzko, the Vikings released receiver Tim Jones, who had spent time this season on Minnesota’s 53-man roster and the practice squad. Jones played six offensive snaps and 25 on special teams.”
Jones has some fans among Vikings coaches, but do note that the receiver room is back to full capacity.
Operating at the top of the position is Justin Jefferson. Jordan Addison is back from suspension, someone who exploded for 4 catches for 114 yards in Week 4 (he likely would have scored had the ball not been underthrown). There’s then Jalen Nailor working as the WR3 while Adam Thielen is the WR4. Both of Tai Felton (WR5) and Myles Price (WR6) are on the roster, capable of playing on offense but finding employment mostly due to special teams.
So, moving on from a receiver made some sense. Tim Jones could get re-added in Minnesota once there’s greater health along the o-line.
Going into Week 5, the Vikings appear likely to roll out this starting offensive line:
- LT1 Christian Darrisaw
- LG2 Blake Brandel
- C2 Michael Jurgens
- RG1 Will Fries
- RT2 Justin Skule
The primary depth going into the game will be backup interior o-lineman Joe Huber and depth offensive tackle Walter Rouse. Seeing Henry Byrd get bumped up to the active roster from the practice squad seems likely given that he’s been in town for a while and has been elevated before. Otherwise, there’s Vershon Lee — listed with an ambiguous “OL” label instead of being an OT, G, or C — and then the newest addition, Matt Waletzko.
So far, Minnesota’s quarterbacks have been getting walloped on Sundays. Some of that is a quarterback problem, passers not getting the ball out quickly enough. Some of that, though, is due to protection (or lack thereof). J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz have been sacked 9 times apiece. Crunch the numbers on the 18 sacks and that’s an average of 4.5 sacks allowed per contest.
Continuing at the current pace would mean finishing the 2025 season by allowing either 76 or 77 sacks (depending on whether the reader wants to round up or down). Chicago finished off the 2024 season by allowing the most sacks in the NFL with 68.
If disaster strikes, Josh Oliver is the team’s emergency offensive lineman.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference helped with this piece.
