Vikings Change Punters and Backfill their Practice Squad
Joe Oberle
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The Minnesota Vikings finalized their 53-man roster on Saturday (releasing long-tenured players such as Terence Newman and Brian Robison), but the work was far from done. On Sunday, they filled their practice squad with nine (of their allotted 10) players who had been with them through training camp and jettisoned punter Ryan Quigley. The team is not set to stand pat this season.
The Vikings replaced Quigley, a six-year vet who had been with the team for two seasons, and acquired punter Matt Wile via waivers. The team released the following information on Wile.
“Wile (6-2, 215) joins the Vikings via waivers from the Steelers after spending the entire 2018 offseason with Pittsburgh. The second-year punter has appeared in four career games (three with Arizona in 2016 and one with Atlanta in 2016) and has 12 career punts for a 39.7 career net average. Wile signed with the Steelers on January 19, 2018 after not appearing on an NFL roster in 2017. The San Diego, California native originally enter the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2015 with Carolina and has also spent time with Atlanta, Arizona and Dallas.”
Clearly unsatisfied with Quigley’s performance, Wile goes straight the 53-man and will be lining up to punt next Sunday versus the San Francisco 49ers. The teams re-acquired players to the practice squad won’t be in uniform, but here is a list of the Vikings retained.
Jeff Badet………………….WR………….R………Oklahoma
Chad Beebe………………WR…………R………Northern Illinois
Reshard Cliett………….LB…………..2……….South Florida
Curtis Cothran…………DT………….R……….Penn State
Garret Dooley…………..LB………….R……….Wisconsin
Cornelius Edison……..C……………3…………Portland State
Colby Gossett……………G…………..R…………Appalachian State
Storm Norton……………T…………..1…………Toledo
Jack Tocho…………………S…………..1…………North Carolina State
There are few surprises in the that list other than the fact that players such as Beebe passed through waivers without getting picked up by another team after putting some decent work on tape.
The roster is now set, for the most part, unless the team is not done wheeling and dealing for more players. They do have one spot open on the practice squad, and we know that anything can happen in this league, even in practice (Jerick McKinnon, Teddy Bridgewater), so hopefully the Vikings are good to go. Bring on the Niners!