Minnesota Vikings finalize 53-man roster: Lewis Cine CUT; Levi Drake Rodriguez, Dwight McGlothern IN

purple daily is daily Vikings entertainment we just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die I will ride with this group seriously man please and a away we go breaking news we have a 53 man roster well got a lot of guys lot of guys cut a lot of guys waved live on the purple daily YouTube channel this is sort of part two we gave you we jumped on earlier today we gave you the K wangu was kind of the big shocker I guess of the morning and now so if you missed that we also talked about tua's comments about Brian Flores and it's a full episode but um let's just go through it I have not even seen it yet it's just it just popped into our inboxes so if I can bring it up on screen I may uh I know you do but I'm thinking like for the YouTube audience if I could put it on I just lose a light okay so but you but you go ahead and read through position by position the Vikings 53 man roster well I'll go through the what they have here are the actual moves so so the guys that are no longer Vikings placed on waivers safety lisine oh they waved him they did now Doogie informed me late this afternoon that the Eagles and another mystery team always a mystery team were interested in seen but nothing got done and so you know he had the really good game against Cleveland he played a ton against the Eagles last week not as good or on Saturday LS seen first round pick 2022 is now a former Viking wow also placed on wavers as we talked about on episode one of today's purple daily K Wong wo cornerback Nisha Wright acquired from the Dallas Cowboys for Andrew Booth Jr has been waved outside linebacker Andre Carter II priority udfa last year is probably going to be resigned to the practice squad unless he is claimed offensive lineman Henry bird guard Tyrese Robinson who according to Doogie was told that he was very close to making it they used Tyrese a lot it's clear that they liked him I think they're hoping to get him through to the practice squad but he might be a guy might be on The Fringe of being claimed wide receivers three of them are gone lucky Jackson jwn Jones May Thomas um quellin Roy not surprisingly as was reported I think by Tom peloso our NFL Network buddy defensive tackle he has gone linebacker Dallas Gant and Edge rusher Bo RoR so those are the guys placed on waivers terminated contracts so these are veterans who can now immediately sign elsewhere they can also return to the Vikings practice quite if they so choose tight end nille Harry cornerback Duke Shelly running back miles gasin defensive back Bobby McCain uh defensive lineman James Lynch tight end Robert tanion and defensive lineman Jonah Williams which is interesting because he got a bunch of run with the first team uh during the course of the training camp practices but he has also had his contract terminated the Vikings waved uh wide receiver Malik nolles with an injury designation which means that they had to come to an agreement because you can't just flat out wave a guy who's injured um as we knew T.J hackinson was left on the pup list must miss four games the Vikings also placed uh linebacker Jordan was it it's KU n a zyk I won't butcher his name Naga nag and I don't have his uh and I don't have the pronunciation guide he's been placed on IR kunic right kunic season is over Kun kunich now he he might be a guy who gets healthy and then gets waved off the IR but his his season is technically right now done and then as we also talked about two players the new rule placed on the IR designated to return Rush end and Phil Mackey's favorite Gabriel Murphy and guard Dalton Ryner so 2022 first round pick scene is gone um interestingly enough now that means that that for now Brian oima survived Doogie said that they were shopping him and that he still might be traded but he was kept on the 53 and uh the same thing don't know if if he was being shopped there were rumors out there cornerback Caleb Evans for now remains on the 53 so again and and we're waiting for like the you just gave us all the cuts and I think the math works out here we're waiting for like the official depth chart in 53 but according to some other reports here Alec Lewis from the athletic Dwight mlo undrafted rookie free agent has made the 53 the highest graded player defensively in the preseason for the Vikings on PFF defensive tackle Taki taiani really impressive preseason 6'3 330lb monster defensive lineman yeah huge that's some football for you right there undrafted free agent out of Oregon right has made the team and I believe that means Levi Drake Rodriguez seventh round pick has also made the team yes uh on air production meeting if you go to vikings.com call up the roster and hit the positions it will positionally it will positionally sort out and I'm trying to see if the cuts are all done no they're not I don't think they are they weren't five minutes ago okay it looks like they're still not I thought that they were cuz it once that happens we'll pop it up hopefully for the YouTube audience but yes exactly right um so so the biggest surprise I'm I'm going to take the word surprise out of it the the most noteworthy Cuts K wangu which was a surprise Lewis seen noteworthy because he was your first round pick two years ago exactly but not a surprise yep so let's let's do a second here on Louis scene you know they they apparently tried to find a trade partner I'm sure at various points this offseason and specifically the last couple days Doogie had floated the Eagles as a team um they were hoping to save like 1.75 million to the cat but at the end of the day MH Lewis seen first round pick 2022 winds up being one of the biggest busts in Vikings draft history right is that a is that hyperbole like from two two years trade back 20 spots yeah to draft him first round picks yeah the the leg injury is part of this story as well he can't be the same player he was physically a couple years ago but by all accounts it wasn't necessarily his like physical inability to play safety it was other things whether it was retention of the scheme um the Vikings also have some talented players that are just above him on the depth chart but that's I mean that's the headline out of this is LS seen is not on the Vikings 53 manad roster going into year three of his career yeah and and so I think this is attrib attributable to a few things first of all we don't know like we know that quazy doam Mena traded back okay I still don't know to this day who said we got to take scene Doogie has told us before that I think it was the Buccaneers who were right behind the Vikings early in the second round Tampa Bay was and that they liked him and that the Vikings like liked him too uh but I also think that this is a situation where you know you look at Brian Flores clearly does not have time for guys he doesn't think fit right yeah like I think the donatell scheme was hey he's going to fly around deep safety it's going to work and then Flores got here and you know I got a lot of push back throughout the course of 2023 about well he was hurt his leg was broken what do you expect give him a year but when he just flat out wasn't dressing for games and he wasn't being placed on a list an injured list of some sort it pretty it became pretty crystal clear and then when he played the entire game every snap plus about 15 special team snaps at Cleveland like they were desperately trying to shop him if nothing else to to shed the salary cap hit that they now have to take it's not huge but they were trying to get rid of that but yeah I think you're right I think that this goes with just off the top of my head arasmus James Williamson right as far as first round picks I mean heck you could probably put Ponder because he was a quarterback but if we were to go back to the last 20 24 years now of Vikings first round busts scen definitely qualifies yeah I mean he yeah he to your point he joins the list that we that we reminisce about the the whiffs now the Vikings have also had some incredible first round Hall of Fame level hits too but this uh as we sit there during the offseason on purple daily every year doing our fun offseason rankings I mean Louis scen will at some point maybe next summer be part of a 10 worst first round picks ever discussion on purple daily here uh let just moving through here so that means jiren Hall has made the 53 man roster as third quarterback so Sam darnold Nick Mullins jiren Hall on the cut side of the fence and you went through uh these names but let's just pause on a couple of them Sure jono Williams veteran defensive lineman the Vikings have decided cuz they had some veterans and some guys with experience in the room but they've decided at least the initial 53 that two uh undrafted free agents from this year's class are going to be in the defensive line room so Levi Drake Rodriguez seventh round pick and then Taki taiani that we just mentioned him 300 depending on you know depending on how many carbs he had in the morning either 315 or 320 lb is 6' 2ish yep I love this and I again these guys have to prove it outside of preseason in training camp but take the young guys with motors who are 23 years old 24 years old put him on the 53 some of the you know that defensive line room defensive tackle room is full of guys who we kind of know who they are just a bunch of Jags so I love it man reward these guys who've been awesome it's you know you have one really known commodity in that defensive line room not counting Edge rushers it's Harrison Phillips and maybe there you know you could maybe make a case for like Jonathan Bullard but I love I love because it kind of felt like are they going to maybe keep Levi Drake Rodriguez maybe Taki taiani to keep both of them at this juncture this could change in 48 hours right I I love that decision Jud and I think that uh goes back directly to what Flores likes and this is also why Brian you know rotates guys in constantly right like we both were at practices where the first team defense would consist of the Veterans for one play and then they would start to replace them in waves and it it's an interesting thing but it allows you at full speed and this to me is where personally Levi Drake Rodriguez stood out because when they put him with the first team nothing changed he didn't get intimidated he um he was still just going constantly I'm guessing it's annoying as hell to the players especially the old line that you're going against but if you're the coaches you love that and so yeah I think that this is a I think when you look at what we're seeing right now Phil I think a lot of it is a very it's very indicative of where this team thinks that they're at and I do not say that in a bad way I say that in a way that they that they basically are structuring themselves not to be this old long inth tooth team hey we signed this guy so we have to keep him but to be a young team that's up and coming and who knows like from here on out there's a lot to find out but I like the thought process I really like the thought process of what the Vikings have done for the most part since probably April yeah or March but like they've done a lot of things where I question them and they've done almost everything like I think that this show would say okay good job yeah okay let's I've got the 53 here nice so let's let's go through it would love to shout out our friends at Federated mut ual insurance company quickly before we fly through this 53 man roster this LIVE edition of purple daily here purple daily YouTube channel if you're a business owner out there and you're trying to solidify your game plan to make sure that you can keep growing your business make sure you account for risk management and preventing claims and safety those are huge huge factors for making sure your business is healthy moving forward and those are the areas that Federated specializes in they're very much like an offensive line protecting your business you can find out more about all the work they do going back to 1904 at Federated insurance.com at Federated Mutual Insurance Company it is our business to protect yours so let's start I'll just go through this year and you can offer Sports dad judge Camp notes commentary quarterbacks three of them Sam darnold Nick Mullen Darren Hall that was a so I think that there was not in my mind but I think there was some controversy or you know conversation before we found out the practice squad rules for quarterback and the emergency QB we're going to revert back to last year so as far as I'm concerned nothing surprising post McCarthy about that jiren Hall had the team made the second that that rule got passed and I think with oconnell as coach he had the team made before that like if any team found out that you might need every single quarterback that you have on your roster plus one it was oconnell and the Vikings last season right yes yeah okay running backs and actually let me you know old madak by the way Dex is uh scorner twin show right now Target Field yeah Michael tonin all right we're fixing the bullpen baby just trying to pull this up here let me see if I can do this all right I'm going to show you this is going to be more than you bargain for here but this is our guy Andrew Kramer oh yeah old friend to 1500 ESPN um let's see here bear with me let me pull this up for the YouTube audience so you guys can see what I'm looking at which is Andrew Kramer with the nice layout of the 53 you see this here yeah very nice Andrew all right we're logged into the oine committee uh Twitter account so if you want me to tweet any any uh weird things on behalf of Alex Bo you let me know so okay running backs Aaron Jones Ty Chandler and then CJ ham is classified as a running back so they're they're definitely a body short in that room yes so someone's going to get so someone who made this roster should really celebrate tonight because they might find out in the next couple of days that they are uh not going to be on the roster here's my only question about that if there is a veteran that they like uh who is a running back who is released do you wait until after the Giants game because you know after that game contracts for the season aren't guaranteed so like there can be some finagling here where would would you go into the Giants game with Jones Chandler ham and I don't know a practice squad guy that gets promoted and then after that game sign a guy that you do like to be your true third back based on the fact that then you don't guarantee or have to guarantee a salary could wide receivers they kept the six that Jud has been predicting for a couple weeks now Justin Jefferson Jordan Addison Jaylen Naylor Brandon Powell Tristian Jackson and Trent sherfield no surprises there you've been all over this exact group of six for a purpose yep tight ends only three so Josh Oliver Johnny Mt and Nick Muse with TJ hackinson still lingering on the pup list that means that um Robert tanion doesn't make the team and nikil Harry who they converted from wide receiver does not make the te I bet one of those two is signed to the practice squad I bet one of those two get gets signed um but this was my initial prediction and I changed it damn it so I should have just stuck with three you'll notice the math here too I believe it's only 24 offensive players versus 26 defensive players I was surpr I'm surprised by that so they kept an extra defensive player mathematically and lisen still wasn't one of them interesting okay offensive line they kept nine Christian darisaw Blake brandle Garrett Bradberry Ed Ingram Brian O'Neal as you're starting five mhm and then uh quessenberry feny Walter Rouse Michael Jurgens your your gu stuck Jurgens yeah well they like it man they really quasy especially r yeah I think Griggs I think he might have found him actually the offensive line expert of the organization yeah exactly right but this is good because what I like the last two Walter Rouse I think he's pretty raw right now but I mean he definitely looks the part and quinberry I thought had a really good good camp as a veteran swing guy so he can play both right or left tackle feni was hurt at the end but he can play guard or Center so Jurgens so I don't know if Jurgens will be up on game day or not but I think this is a pretty good room we always complain about this room we always complain about this room ah the offensive line sucks I actually think this is a decent room it's definitely not the Detroit Lions offensive line room which is the best in the NFL and uh there's definitely questions at both guard spots but it feels like they've got some guys that could step in I mean feni you know it's it it really depends too on Ryner like is he the 10th guy here is he a legitimate backup or fallback option once he gets back or are they just going to wind up after the first four weeks saying goodbye to him he's not eligible until a month into the season if Ed Ingram can take the same type of Step this year that he did last I think he's a very serviceable guy I'm not saying he's great and and I'm not saying that he can't be replaced eventually but he was brutal as a rookie took a step was not great but was not a train wreck in 2023 right if he could take that next step I think he becomes a very you know I think we a lot less about him yeah okay let's go to the defense here outside linebackers or Edge rushers as they are known Jonathan grenard anderan gingle Dallas turer Patrick Jones II Jihad Ward Jihad Ward big big dude massive dude he's the he's the biggest body of all these guys yep can can flip to the inside on peer passing situations and then obviously they still have Gabriel Murphy as we talked about earlier yep on the uh short-term ir and then maybe they sneak Andre Carter and or Bo RoR onto their practice squad for a couple extra talented developmental bodies mhm but I like this room I like this room well and it's very much designed now I think to what Flores wants like grenard van GLE and Turner look at them and we've discussed this before but I mean they are not the type of edge guys that that we have seen previously now keep in mind In fairness 2 they converted to a 34 from a 4-3 so like Hunter was a 4-3 Patrick Jones II drafted as a 4-3 guy those guys are naturally bigger this room now it's lacking it's lacking Hunter who's a great player but I would argue that it's more tailored to what Brian Flores wants to do and there's a lot of speed there now grenard van GLE and Turner especially you're going to have guys that um they might not overpower you as an O lineman but they might fly by you defensive line so the the down lineman the interior guys Harrison Phillips Jonathan Bullard Jerry Tillery those are your your veterans and then Levi Dr Rodriguez Taki taiani and Jaylen Redmond shout out to uh Forno Tyler fornes yesterday called this Redmond he loved him he loved him on meat and potatoes he broke he broke it down it was fantastic but I said really you think so on that one he's like yeah man he he said he didn't flash because he's doing all of the crap that allows guys to flash around him turned out to be exactly right and Phil to go back to what what we talked about before when it came to the bottom of the room for the offensive line look at the last three names here all kids all young guys so you're not recycling guys you're actually and you know one of those three could be could be cut tomorrow but your thought process I love which is again you are into Player Development too you are you're taking three guys that you like a lot they all might might have cleared waivers and could have gone the practice squad but you said you know what no and at least a couple of those guys because they definitely rotate their defensive linemen at least a couple of them are going to get chances to play yeah should get substantial snaps I love this man like Jaylen Redmond's like 25 Levi Drake Rodriguez is what like 22 23 yeah and then Taki taiani is 23 maybe 24 yep uh redond under drafted by the Panthers I believe a year ago and then uh Taki taiani undrafted so guy yeah guys that were definitely not day one t day two but they've shown motor they've shown aptitude and yeah just let's just some some young fresh blood maybe one of them pans out to be a roster main stay over the next couple years so I like it MH inside linebackers Ivan Pace Jr Blake Cashman kamu gu Hill and then Brian a kind of feels like that might be a threers room at some point maybe aswa gets traded in the next few days before week one or maybe maybe it's a four it's a four player room even if asaw does get traded but at I would think at some point they might take one count off the defense and add a running back on the offensive side so got to kind of figure that out as we do this number crunch I think it says a four-person room my question is are they going to try and um pluck a guy that they consider a a better special teams player than asoa who's not bad but like that would be the the one thing they don't I don't think have right now from the interior linebacker spot is the Troy D type of guy who was really good on special teams you didn't necessarily like playing him on defense so I think that probably set as a four-person room I don't know that those are the four and asoma to me if they can trade him they definitely will because this goes back to the talk about draft picks if you can get a conditional late round pick in your team with three draft picks right now for 2025 you take that in a heartbeat and then defensive backs Kramer just has them all bundled as a group of 11 here and there's some there's definitely some cross training with a couple of these guys but Harrison Smith Josh Matt Tellis cam bam Theo Jackson Jay Ward and then so those are your safeties MH and then Stefon Gilmore Byron Murphy Jr sha Griffin a Caleb Evans Fabian Moro Dwight mlo as your cornerbacks six six cornerbacks five defensive backs Jay Ward has cross trained at cornerback for a big chunk of training camp right and I I think he's probably free of that now uh barring injuries because of of the fact that they have so you're starters at cornerback against the Giants in week one Gilmore is my guess Griffin or I'm I'm sorry in the base I bet it's Gilmore and Murphy and then and then I bet that Griffin comes in outside on the boundry in nickel mgan does a couple of things one he proved that he can play cornerback two he replaces I think to a large degree Naji Thompson who was an absolute special team like he'll beat the Gunner on punts so the MN thing is twofold one the dude had a really good camp just playing cornerback which is invaluable but two the Naji Thompson loss actually does hurt yeah because if you recall that guy was getting down on special teams and making tackles and was really really good so if mlan can replace Thompson in that role at least early in the season I think that becomes a huge huge plus because if they don't have that type of play player I don't know that they have necessarily another guy to to fill the role that Thompson played and then three Specialists big leg bill will rard Ryan Wright the punter and then Andrew dalala your Long Snapper all all those guys uh well two of them were in competitions air quotes at some point during camp and those obviously ended in the past few weeks so that's your initial 53 they're going to solidify a practice squad here in the next like like 48 hours and there could easily be another move or two on the 53 if if somebody else's you know uh if somebody else another team threw a player out on waivers that the Vikings like they could make a claim there could be a trade so this doesn't mean it's the 53 that goes into week one but it's the 53 that comes out of training camp there are currently right now with uh Cuts done where teams had at least 90 guys down to 53 there are currently at least 1,184 football players on the wire 1,184 guys who were told your services are no longer required get out of our locker room here's your goodies see you later so like like this this gets intriguing now because while I'm sure that you have some ideas of guys that were cut that you like to what you just said you're trying to set your practice squad yeah you're trying to ordinarily set that with guys from your team and and then I think we talked about this on episode one of PD today what will happen in the next couple of days is teams will try to cut guys to sneak them through because teams have set their 53 and practice squad yeah so there is some the next 48 to 72 hours will have some real football trickery coming oh interesting update from Justina Anderson here Dalvin cook visited with the Cowboys today and and the visit is now over my understanding though is cook looked good and in shape according to a source yeah I saw a uh I saw something of him working out last night I did too yeah he's yeah and he looked chiseled he looked chiseled and the I forget who tweeted it but the reasoning was that a year ago he was coming off the injury and so he couldn't like work out fully and he was not in the greatest of shape and now he could um and I have seen some tweets saying bring back Dalvin I'm okay if you don't bring back Dalvin oh here's another note so while the Vikings did cut Nishan wght did you say this already Andrew booth has made the Cowboys 53 man roster after that preseason game yes he did look good in game two I told you this I saw him playing against the Raiders and he looked good now he did get beat on a few occasions but immediate tackle decent play very active but then I saw the highlights from last Saturday and it was a Gong Show dude I yeah it was at one point there was there was an offensive play buzzing by down the field and he was like the last line of defense but he was like running he was coming from like the bench he literally came like from off the field to chase the play super weird deal but good for him Andre Bo Jr found a home in Dallas we'll see how long that Zimmer you think Zim's patience is going to be super high the first time that that actually happens in a regular season game yeah it could it could definitely have been uh general manager Jerry Jones too saying stubbornly no we acquired this asset yeah I'm going to keep him on the 53 to validate my trade so there it is all right write that down predictions tomorrow any other final thoughts from you here on this 53 man roster recap episode uh no I I just was going through the 2022 draft class now on scene Booth OTA and vieran low who I believe was traded to the Patriots last year and started a couple games left for now Ingram ASA Evans Chandler Naylor and Nick Muse if you actually go backwards on this draft class that's great if you go backwards it's better Chandler like if you flip it and say Nick Muse in the first run I mean Nick Muse made the team he's still around Naylor looked great Tai Chandler is then your fourth pick you're better off going backwards yeah and then well I'm trying to think of undrafted I don't think they really hit on any undrafted guys in the 22 draft CU Ivan Pace was 23 last year yeah I think they yeah I I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the defensive moves that have have worked have not coincidentally been with Brian Flores probably telling them what he thinks yeah that dude hey he may be uh an an ass when it comes to communicating with quarterbacks but he can scout Talent def defensive guy it's okay matters yep they want to be quarterbacks there's your 53 man roster write that down predictions on tomorrow's show jud's Camp notes are officially it's over the job is done the roster is complete people wondering what was jud's batting Aver I was fairly I think I did okay not not great the wongu one definitely caught me by surprise yeah you missed that one you nailed the wide SE room yeah offive line you were just a man short offensive line Jurgens you cut I mean everyone whiffed on the defensive line room because Jonah Williams you had four of them but then yeah Jonah Williams I whiffed on oh no you had did you have four no you yeah you had him keeping Levi Drake so you nailed that one ni job thanks and then you also had him keeping mlo so you nailed that one pretty good I think I missed I think I missed on like four guys right pretty good I think I missed on four it's not perfect though still some work to do for no question about it and I just hope that the Vikings can get this right next year judge C line with Jud yes I'm gon gonna call KOC right now see what happened 3,000 of you hanging out live at the end of a 53 man roster unveil so thank you guys hav't click the Subscribe button please by the way for the YouTube channel like like what's your thought eight eight nine wins etish depending on how many turnovers and Sam darnold I'm bullish on it feels like the over six and a half Hammer the over for me I'm bullish on the philosophy I really like the philosophy hang on to some young guys cut your losses look like we can joke and rip the 22 draft class as much as we want but I'd far prefer that scen is gone today than to be like well Pride our pride we can't do that right yeah like I like the philosophy here I I don't even know like the wins I probably am inclined to agree with you but I don't even know that I'm thinking about the wins like when I see what they kept I'm like okay I can see what they're doing here they're not trying to milk a bunch of vets right like oh we can get another win if we keep this guy I think it's pretty smart although I mean they're not trying to milk a bunch of vets but they did bring in and keep Fabian Maro Stefan Gilmore like there's a couple of those guys okay but the cornerback Gilmore's good still quarterback room and potentially although they did keep three uh young guys the cornerback room and defensive tackle room are Works in progress yeah like I've said that the whole time I mean Gilmore is literally there to stop the hemorrhaging for a year yeah so throw yeah and and to fortify and to get a look at the future in those rooms they W up keeping three undrafted free agents and a seventh round pick Y and I I love it and if mlo can play who says he doesn't play yep so all right he's the sports dad jud's Camp notes great job over the past few months helping us get to a 53 man Rock sun screen off this is daily Vikings entertainment we just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die