Waived Viking Claimed off Waivers
A little surprising, the Minnesota Vikings announced Tuesday that former third-rounder Brian Asamoah would be waived after over three years with the team. In itself, the move was expected, but not for another two weeks, before cutdown day would take place.
Waived Viking Claimed off Waivers
When a player is waived, he is going through the waiver process, and the other 31 teams have the opportunity to claim the player. The Vikings recently did that with Michael Gonzalez. The waiver order is formed by last year’s record and is pretty much the draft order (without trades).
The first pick in the draft belonged to Tennessee, and the Titans picked Cam Ward. They are also first in the waiver priority list, so they just picked up the once-promising linebacker.
Jeremy Fowler, ESPN, reported on social media, “The #Titans plan to claim linebacker Brian Asamoah off waivers, per sources. The Vikings’ former third-round pick was released Tuesday, now gets fresh start in Tennessee, which is first in the claim order.”
That fresh start was much-needed for the 25-year-old, who has not gotten any run with Brian Flores calling the shots on the defensive side of the ball. He was a backup under Ed Donatell and was drafted to be a long-term asset in his defense. Indeed, Asamoah showed flashes in 2022, but the Oklahoma product had to watch the Vikings exchange coordinators in the following offseason. Under Flores, Asamoah was demoted to irrelevance.
Si.com’s Jeremy Brener, who’s covering the Titans, chimed in: “The move comes after the Titans made some other changes to their linebacker room earlier in the week. The team said goodbye to Anfernee Orji and David Gbenda while adding Khaleke Hudson and Blake Lynch to their active roster.”
Blake Lynch is another former Viking, who started seven games under Mike Zimmer but has bounced around on practice squads ever since.
“The Titans don’t have much depth at the linebacker position with Cody Barton as the only player guaranteed a starting spot on defense,” Brener added. “James Williams Sr. is currently in the lead for the second starting spot while Cedric Gray and Otis Reese IV compete for the job as well.”
Besides Barton, those guys aren’t household names. There’s a reason why the Titans haven’t had much success recently. Asamoah certainly has a shot to earn a roster spot and even play a role on that defense, but he needs to show promise in the next two weeks in practice and the preseason.
In his three seasons with the Vikings, Asamoah appeared in 46 games and logged 30 tackles, two forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery. Most of his snaps in the past two years came on special teams. He ultimately played 802 snaps in the third phase and only 188 on defense.
He still played in the preseason opener and was listed as a second-team linebacker. With his departure, Kobe King, a late-round rookie, just moved up from the third team and is now virtually guaranteed to be on the 53-man roster.
Asamoah gets the much-needed career reset and has a couple of weeks to audition for the Titans. Whenever a former high draft pick is released, like clockwork, someone is giving him a shot, hoping to be able to rekindle some of that talent. He’s still only 25 years old and, at the very least, is a capable special teamer.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Pro Football Reference helped with this article.