Kene Nwangwu, Lewis Cine cut. Vikings roster cut reactions

[Music] welcome in Minnesota sports fans to another edition of Vikings on SI Jonathan Harrison here joined alongside will raggeds will a busy day for the Minnesota Vikings we kind of previewed it yesterday on the YouTube channel and now here it is roster cut day the Vikings have officially got down to a 53-man roster and the biggest note of the Day Lewis seen the first round pick from 2022 quy adfo Mena's first ever draft pick for the Vikings was cut just after two years and 10 defensive plays your immediate thoughts on the Vikings parting ways with a first round pick just two years after taking him yeah it's not great uh I mean nobody wants this to happen when Vikings draft a guy in the first round and it was a tough situation for scen with the injury his rookie year that I think really kind of affected things and um his development and just his his progress in the NFL and then he also happened to the very next year have a new defensive coordinator come in that he wasn't drafted to to play in Brian Flores system um and then he happens to play in like the deepest safety room in the NFL where they have three really good guys and Theo Jackson uh their fourth safety has emerged and looks like a player who would start on a lot of teams so it's just the Vikings then you know drafted Jay Ward um this new regime finding another young guy last year and for lisen this isn't really surprising he had the nice game in the second preseason game against the Browns where you thought okay that that looks promising you know he was flying around making plays looking like Georgia lisine maybe he's gonna make the roster maybe there's something there uh and then it seems like that may have just been kind of a a onetime thing because he didn't do a whole lot in the final preseason game against the Eagles the Vikings apparently tried to trade him and couldn't even really get that done so now he's probably going to just end up with a fresh start somewhere else which I think could be good for him like I I wouldn't be shocked if Cen you know finds something somewhere else he's I don't know if he's gonna get claimed on waivers because then the Vikings would be off the hook for his $4 million and guaranteed money left on his uh his first round rookie contract um they're probably going to have some dead money on there and then Cen will just sign with somebody else but we'll see speaking of Cena and the 2022 draft class guys like uh Brian asima and Caleb Evans were rumored and we talked about them yesterday possibly being on that bubble of being cut they ended up making the roster are you surprised by those guys making the roster or could they just be kind of placeholders while the front office looks through the rest of the league at the other cuts and they could be the first to go yeah it's possible I was a little bit surprised I didn't have either of those guys making it uh in my most recent my final 53 man roster prediction just cuz that kind of seemed like where the buzz was going but uh Brian Asimo makes it probably as the fourth out of four linebackers um Dallas Gant the the undrafted rookie who I thought outplayed aim one in training camp in the preseason he'll potentially be a practice squad guy and then Caleb Evans makes it quite possibly as the seventh out of seven cornerbacks which is more than you usually see a team keep if you're if you're counting Jay Ward as a cornerback and not a safety that is uh they kept Seven Corners so yeah with Evans and and asima I mean there's still some upside there from what they've shown over the past couple years but it's just been a lot of inconsistency a lot of kind of struggling to move up the depth chart so it would not Shock me if their spots are are not super set in stone uh as we head into the start of the regular season the other surprising note from today Kenny a Wango was cut by the Vikings kind of the kick return specialist struggled over the past couple years to break into Kevin OK connell's offense had the injuries last year of course but uh when he did get back and was healthy he just really didn't find a spot in the offense is that the reason why he was cut or is that another just kind of out of left field surprise move for you this was the biggest surprise of the day and seen is the biggest name that was cut today I would say but scene wasn't super surprising to me because you we had thought for a while that this guy probably wasn't going to make the roster just because he had been hurt in training camp he was buried on the dep chart um K Wong I never really considered for a second not making the the cut in the 53 men roster because you know they got rid of Dwayne McBride and mo Ibraham who were always long shots they were they cut miles gasin which we expected um but then they cut wongo too now they only have two running backs on the roster and Aaron Jones and Tai Chandler um and obviously that's going to change and fluctuate and maybe they'll have practice squad guys that they can Elevate because you got to have more than two running backs but yeah with with wongu I mean he showed some burst during training camp he had the 48- yard touchdown um back when JJ McCarthy was still playing in the preseason opener against the Raiders finished I think with like eight yards per carry uh throughout the preseason and it was surprising to me because this is a guy who I mean technically he's a former allpro he had two kickoff return touchdowns as a rookie had another one in 2022 um so it's interesting to me that he's not here um it clearly means the Vikings want to look elsewhere I suppose for their for their third running back um or maybe it was just kind of some roster manipulation where they wanted to keep more guys elsewhere and they feel like they can get wongu or Gaskin or whoever on their practice squad it also could have something to do with the new kickoff format where wongo was really valuable in the old kickoff format although last year he didn't do a whole lot because it seems like teams nowadays can kind of just kick it through the end zone every time so he didn't get a ton of opportunities last year but now it's a completely different format and maybe the Vikings don't feel like he's a good fit for that I'm not sure but it is it is surprising to me uh that Ken wongo is not on the roster in the final year of his rookie deal yeah I think that's the one that surprises me the most because as you said there at the end that he was a kickoff return specialist and it seemed like he might that might have played with how this new kickoff return uh kind of incentivizes teams to kick to the other team and let them bring the ball out instead of just kicking it through the back the back of the end you would think that that his role would would have gone back up in that phase but I don't know yeah very surprising move there another note for the Vikings in these cuts and you can read all of Will's uh thoughts and five reactions to the Viking roster cut down on Vikings on SI right now do the Vikings have another UD udfa success story Dwight mcln makes the roster out of camp in a suddenly veteran Laden cornerback room that we went into training camp worrying about this room looking at this room and thinking who's going to make this who's going to be the starter now it's all veterans and Dwight mcln yeah and and it's like I think like you set it up it's another potential success story for quy dafomo who has had his fair share of ups and downs in the draft I think would be fair to to characterize um some struggles in the 2022 draft Jordan Addison looks good but maybe there's not a whole lot else from from last year's draft and then this year I would still obviously still too soon to know but what quacy has done is supplemented those picks well with with undrafted free agents it was Ivan Pace Jr last year and a couple other guys last year Andre Carter and Naji Thompson uh made the roster as rookies I mean Pace just an absolute steal I'm not suggesting that Dwight mcln is going to be on that level because he doesn't have the same path to to playing time as a rookie that pace did last year where all he had to do was come in and beat out Brian asima um mclover is in a room that has Stefan Gilmore and sha Griffin and Byron Murphy and Fabian Moro and MB Evans like we mentioned he's still there but I think long term just from what I've seen from ML and this looks to be a guy who has some real potential down the line with his playmaking ability his ball skills um he can play some man coverage he's not the biggest guy but he's not small either um so I think the Vikings really liked him you know they had the connection where he played under their DBS coach Dante Jones at LSU before transferred to Arkansas um so yeah mcln could be a definite name to to keep an eye on moving forward and he's not the only one who made it Taki taiani the nose tackle out of Oregon also made this roster as an undrafted free agent so um kind of a testament to to the Vikings front office and their scouting staff for what they've been able to do after the draft the last couple years sticking along the udfa lines uh Minnesota put Gabriel Murphy on short-term IR is that a sign that though we didn't see much of him in training camp preseason that they clearly saw enough that they wanted to try and keep him on the roster or is there something else there that they placed him on short-term IR no it is you're absolutely right and and I'm just talking about the undrafted free agents and Murphy was the guy who was the biggest name that they signed I mean right away after the draft when they signed their undrafted rookies you're like okay Gabriel Murphy filled it up at UCLA and he looks like he has a chance to be maybe a pace type of of Steal because because it's the same profile where you're super productive in college super athletic um but there's just size concerns Pace was really undersiz and still is for an inside linebacker clearly he was able to overcome that last year as a rookie Gabriel Murphy has really short arms for an NFL Edge rusher and that can be a real hindrance when you're trying to beat tackles off the edge but a good football player a great athlete really productive in college and I do think um the Vikings spoke highly of him from what we've heard I think they saw enough from him to really want to keep him around and see what he can become in the future which is why they use one of just two um of those IR spots you have two spots that you can use where a player is on short-term ir and designated to to be able to come back after four games they went Dalton Ryner and they went Gabriel Murphy there um and they were able to do that by putting T.J hackinson on on the pup list so I do think that they have um some real kind of belief uh in what Gabriel Murphy could be down the line last note from me wide receivers the Vikings keeping six of them Tristan Jackson and Trent sherfield rounding out the six receivers the other four Justin Jefferson Jordan Addison Jaylen Naylor Brandon Powell are we surprised it was those two guys or did you expect that are we surprised lucky Jackson didn't make the list no I think that that was pretty expected that was the six that I had uh and I think most people had in in the final predictions obviously the top four uh were locks Brandon Powell was going to make this team Jaylen Naylor was really one of the stars of the summer in training camp in the preseason he's going to be the number three receiver um and then Jackson another star of the summer had a great Camp great preseason led the NFC in receiving touchdowns in the preseason um so he was it seemed like there was a good chance he was going to make it and it also seemed like there's a good chance Trent sherfield was going to make it because of his veteran experience his ability as a run blocker um so not surprised that those were the six the Vikings kept I do think they will really try to get uh like lucky Jackson Desa Jones maybe theer Thomas onto the practice squad as well because you can never have too much depth um at that at that wide receiver position overall thoughts then on the initial 53 man roster for Minnesota what does this say about what they expect to do this season I think they have high internal expectations and and obviously the expectations externally are not particularly High I think their their projected win total is 6 and a half at at most sports books and uh people aren't given them much of a chance to do things this year with Sam darnold at quarterback and that's understandable but I do think the Vikings have a lot of internal belief in their coaching staff uh in their pieces their their high-end Talent at a lot of positions their veteran experience at a lot of positions and and then I think they believe uh in what Sam darnold can do in the best situation he's ever been in um in a Kevin oconnell offense throwing to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and T.J hackinson once all those guys are healthy and you got Aaron Jones in the back back field so I mean specific to the 53 man roster I don't know that anything they did today tells us a ton about this season um I I thought like the lisen and K wongo were the two biggest names they cut um there were a few surprises here and there you had Jaylen redond was another defensive tackle uh who made the roster as a kind of cool Underdog Story coming out of the UFL and um turning heads in pre- season but bigger picture with the regular season coming up which we'll talk about plenty uh on this channel right here I I do think the Vikings believe that they can make some nois this year and what's going to be a really tough NFC North division absolutely looking forward to it will good stuff from you today go read Will's work and the rest of the bring me the sports teams work over at Vikings on SI twins ons Gophers Timberwolves on SI and Badgers on SI as well uh Minnesota sport friends we'll talk to you tomorrow [Music]