In advance of two of joint practices with the Patriots, the Vikings have added a pair of defensive players.
Minnesota announced the club has signed outside linebacker Cam Gill and linebacker Max Tooley.
Gill, 27, has appeared in 50 career games, mainly playing special teams. He appeared in 10 contests for the Panthers last season, recording 22 total tackles. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2020 with the Buccaneers, winning Super Bowl LV with the club.
Tooley, 27, is returning to Minnesota for his second stint with the club. Having entered the league last year as an undrafted free agent out of BYU, Tooley spent time on the practice squad last year and was on the roster into the offseason program. He has also spent time with the Texans.
Vikings receiver Rondale Moore will not be able to play in 2025.
Minnesota confirmed Moore will miss his second consecutive year after suffering a season-ending knee injury during the club’s preseason opener over the weekend.
Moore went down after he was tackled on a punt return.
Moore, 25, spent last season on the Falcons’ injured reserve following a season-ending knee injury. He had been traded from the Cardinals in exchange for quarterback Desmond Ridder.
In 39 career games with 23 starts, Moore has caught 135 passes for 1,201 yards with three touchdowns.
Minnesota has placed Moore on injured reserve. The club also announced linebacker Brian Asamoah II has been waived and center Zeke Correll has been waived with an injury designation.
The Vikings claimed offensive guard Michael Gonzalez off waivers after losing offensive tackle Matt Nelson for the season.
The team announced it placed Nelson on injured reserve.
Nelson, who signed with the Vikings on July 31, tore a biceps at Monday’s practice, Darren Wolfson of KSTP reports.
Gonzalez entered the NFL in May as an undrafted rookie, signing with the Falcons. Atlanta placed him on waivers Sunday.
He did not play in Atlanta’s preseason opener, which was suspended Friday with 14:50 remaining in the game after Detroit’s Morice Norris was injured.
Gonzalez played 51 games over the course of four seasons at Louisville. He started 32 games, including all 26 Cardinals’ games from 2023-24. The North Carolina native finished his career by garnering an All-ACC honorable mention in 2024.
The most important objective for any preseason game is to minimize injury. The Vikings emerged from Saturday’s exhibition opener with two of them.
Receiver Rondale Moore has a “pretty significant” knee injury. After the game, coach Kevin O’Connell added that center Zeke Correll suffered a broken ankle in the fourth quarter.
Undrafted in 2025 from Notre Dame (and before that N.C. State), Correll is listed on the third string, behind Ryan Kelly and Michael Jurgens, a seventh-round pick in 2024.
With two more preseason games to play, the Vikings will need someone to take the game reps at center. It could be a free agent, or it could be another interior offensive lineman who slides over to the middle.
Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy waited a long time for his second taste of NFL game action after tearing his meniscus in his preseason debut last year and the payoff to his long journey back to the lineup hit him during the national anthem on Saturday.
McCarthy said he “had a little tear drop” while listening to the song at U.S. Bank Stadium and called it a “truly awesome” feeling to be back in uniform with his teammates. McCarthy then hit the field for the opening possession and went 4-of-7 for 30 yards while also running once for eight yards on the way to a field goal.
That was all head coach Kevin O’Connell wanted to see from the quarterback and McCarthy felt happy with how things played out.
“I feel like K.O. just thought of this as checking another box,” McCarthy said, via the team’s website. “He really wanted to see the operation and the fundamentals and doing the simple things at a high level. And I feel like we did that today. Obviously there’s a couple things here or there we’ve got to clean up, but it felt like we left today in a great spot.”
The Vikings have two joint practices with the Patriots this week and O’Connell has not committed to any more game action for McCarthy in the preseason now that he’s checked that box. Whether O’Connell puts him out there in the next two weeks or not, the next big bocx on the list is Week 1 against the Bears for McCarthy’s regular season debut.
