Vikings Cut a Player Ahead of the Draft
The Minnesota Vikings will be in the spotlight on Thursday when the front office selects the new generation of athletes in the draft. Earlier this offseason, the decision-makers already added some players in free agency to fill the roster.
One of those is already off the team, the franchise announced on Tuesday.
The Vikings posted on social media, “The #Vikings have waived (non-football injury) DL Jaylon Hutchings.”
Hutchings, a defensive tackle, starred in the Canadian Football League, so Minnesota gave him a shot. A few months later, his NFL dreams are at the very least derailed. The details of the injury are unknown.
A non-football injury designation is used for players who are unable to practice as a result of conditions unrelated to football, or injuries that did not occur during NFL games or practices.
The interior defender was initially signed by the Vikings in January. He joined on a futures contract, which basically begins when the new league year kicks off in March.
Hutchings is a 26-year-old defensive tackle with a 2025 CFL All-Star nomination on his resume. He recorded eight QB sacks (ranking 5th in the league) and 39 tackles in the 2025 campaign and is listed at 6’0″ and 304 lbs. PFF graded him as the best interior defender in the CFL last season. In fact, his 90.7 was the highest grade of any non-quarterback in the entire league.
That’s why folks were immediately reminded of Jalen Redmond’s journey. Last year’s breakout defender went undrafted and failed to make Carolina’s roster in 2023. Then, he headed to the UFL and caused chaos in the backfield there before signing with the Vikings. Two years later, he’s a promising star on Brian Flores’ defense.
Hutchings went undrafted out of Texas Tech, signed with the Bears and was released a few weeks later. His next stop was the CFL.
PFF’s Bryson Vesnaver called Hutchings the league’s most outstanding defender in November. He wrote:
“It’s rare for an interior defender in the CFL to be equally as good at run defense as he is at pass rushing. But that’s exactly what Hutchings did this season. As a run defender, Hutchings recorded 41 total tackles, the second-most among non-linebackers. His 19 run stops were the eighth-most in the league. He finished with the fourth-best PFF run-defense grade in the CFL at 86.7.”
Minnesota’s run defense could use an extra body or two, especially after Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen were released last month.
“As a pass rusher, Hutchings recorded eight sacks, eight hits and 40 hurries. His 56 total pressures were the fifth-most in the league, and 13 more than the second-best interior defender. His 86.4 PFF pass-rushing grade ranked sixth in the league,” Vesnaver added. “What’s most impressive is that Hutchings did all of this while being double-teamed at the second-highest rate in the league. Hutchings faced a double- or even triple-team on 59.24% of his snaps. Teams tried their hardest to remove him from the play, and they failed week after week.“
Now that he’s off the team, the Vikings are even more short-handed along the defensive line. Besides the aforementioned Redmond, the organization employs Levi Drake Rodriguez, Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, Taki Taimani, and Elijah Williams. The club will likely add several other defensive tackles this week in the draft and as undrafted rookies.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.