Vikings Unleash 2 Practice Squadders
The Minnesota Vikings are 1-0 and hope to snag another win on Sunday, when the Atlanta Falcons aim to unseat the purple squad after dropping their season opener versus Tampa Bay. It’ll be the first home game of the season for Kevin O’Connell’s operation.
Vikings Unleash 2 Practice Squadders
Minnesota has drawn some bad injury luck early in the season. They will be without starters Andrew Van Ginkel, Blake Cashman, and Christian Darrisaw, as well as CB3 Jeff Okudah. Harrison Smith is questionable, and wideout Jordan Addison is suspended.
As the team is slowly running out of players, the Vikings use the NFL trick of calling up a couple of players from the practice squad for gameday. One experienced and one inexperienced guy will wear the purple throwback uniform on Sunday.
Fabian Moreau
Corner Moreau will be needed due to Okudah’s concussion-related absence. The Vikings only have four cornerbacks on the 53-man roster, and if one is out, they are at least one short. As usual, Byron Murphy Jr. and Isaiah Rodgers will be the main cornerbacks. In Week 1, Okudah played 16 defensive snaps, which was about a fourth of the plays.
That role will either belong to sophomore Dwight McGlothern or veteran Moreau. The coaching staff can choose between experience and youth. This week, coordinator Brian Flores pointed to McGlothern as Okudah’s primary replacement, but it remains to be seen whether he was serious or just trying to protect his Moreau strategy.
Moreau is an NFL journeyman with plenty of games in his resume. He has played in 113 games for five different franchises, including the Vikes. Last year, when Stephon Gilmore was sidelined for a couple of games, Moreau was promoted to CB3.
He had not signed with a new team all offseason, but was added to the practice squad after roster cutdowns. At 31, Moreau is not the player anyone wants to see on the field all day, but if there’s any concern about McGlothern, he’s reliable enough to play the dozen vacant snaps.
Gabriel Murphy
Murphy was an undrafted signee in 2024. The highly-touted UDFA joined the Vikings and immediately received some buzz in training camp. Unfortunately, a knee injury knocked him out of the preseason and most of the regular season.
Yet, the club kept him around, and he made his NFL debut later in the season, playing a couple of games, including one against the Falcons. Strangely, Murphy was fantastic in this year’s preseason, but the Vikings released him. Even more bizarre is the fact that nobody else picked him up, and the Vikings had the chance to stash him on the practice squad.
With Van Ginkel out, the Vikings will have sophomore Dallas Turner starting and need some rotational rushers. That could include Bo Richter and Chaz Chambliss, but they are on the roster for their special teams prowess. Murphy might be the more disruptive defender and could actually get some run against Michael Penix Jr. and Bijan Robinson.
Both Moreau and Murphy are candidates to be elevated to the 53-man roster in a full-time capacity later in the season. A solid performance against the Falcons would certainly help their case.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Pro Football Reference helped with this article.