Former NFL wide receiver Lance Rentzel died Sunday in Virginia, Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News reports. Rentzel was 82.
Rentzel was a star at Oklahoma, earning first-team All-Big Eight honors and playing in the Senior Bowl and College All-Star Game after his senior season. The Vikings selected Rentzel in the second round of the 1965 NFL draft, and the Bills took him in the sixth round of the 1965 AFL draft. He signed with Minnesota, where he played two seasons.
After his second season, Rentzel exposed himself to two young girls on a St. Paul, Minnesota, playground. He pleaded guilty but served no jail time with the charges reduced to disorderly conduct after he promised to seek psychiatric treatment. The Cowboys traded him to the Rams in a three-team deal.
The Vikings traded him to the Cowboys for a third-round pick in the 1967 offseason.
Rentzel wrote in his biography, When All the Laughter Died in Sorrow, that he battled mental illness.
He was arrested again in November 1970 after exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl in Dallas. Rentzel pleaded guilty in 1971 and was sentenced to five years of probation and mandatory psychiatric care with no jail time. The Cowboys traded him to the Rams.
Rentzel played two seasons in Los Angeles before police raided his home and arrested him for possession of marijuana. He pleaded guilty, and because he was already on probation with the NFL, Commissioner Pete Rozelle suspended Rentzel for the 1973 season.
Rentzel returned in 1974 in what was his final season before retirement.
He played 115 games over nine seasons and totaled 268 receptions for 4,826 yards and 38 touchdowns and also contributed 26 rushes for 196 yards and two touchdowns.
Rentzel was married to and divorced from entertainer Joey Heatherton.
He is survived by brothers Del Rentzel and Chris Rentzel of Dallas, and a daughter, Jenny.
“To all who knew him,” his obit reads, via Sherrington, “Lance was larger than life – hilariously funny, unfailingly optimistic and happy, warm in spirit, and deeply loyal. He formed many close relationships over the years, most notably the enduring bonds that he shared with his teammates.”
Vikings Clips
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell told reporters on Thursday that the team’s quarterback competition will continue into training camp, but that won’t be the next time that Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy get to work with their top wide receiver.
Justin Jefferson declined to share any of his views about where things stand between the two quarterbacks at the end of the team’s offseason program and said it is going to be O’Connell’s call about which way to go heading into Week 1. Given the uncertainty, Jefferson said that he feels it is important to get as many reps as possible with both quarterbacks and that he’ll use the time before training camp to address that desire.
“For sure, both. Just carrying on what we have been doing for the past couple weeks and just continuing that throughout the summertime,” Jefferson said. “It definitely would be impactful. Just to continue to see my route running, to continue to get that timing down pat is really key so we’re not really starting over back in training camp. We’ll just continue to do the same things that we’re doing here but at a different location.”
After some tumultuous seasons at the position, Jefferson said recently that he’d like to play with the same quarterback for multiple years. It remains to be seen if that will happen, but building a close relationship with whoever winds up with the job in 2026 would probably help the chances of making that happen.
Kyler Murray said this week that splitting quarterback reps with J.J. McCarthy has made it tougher to learn the Vikings offense, but it looks like that will continue to be the situation for a little while longer.
The Vikings are turning their attention toward training camp and head coach Kevin O’Connell said at a Thursday press conference that the team will not be naming a starter before they get there. O’Connell said that Murray and McCarthy “had really good days” at this week’s minicamp and that there are “still plenty of opportunities to learn” as the team moves closer to the season.
O’Connell did not say when he anticipates making a decision when he was asked about Murray’s comment, but he acknowledged the need to have the starter get more time at the helm of the offense this summer.
“We have a plan in place to make sure that the decision we make is going to be about what’s best for the Minnesota Vikings,” O’Connell said. “The timeline of that does involve making sure we get our starter ready to go. . . . To give an actual date would be not necessarily accurate from a portrayal of how we see it, but there is a timeline to make sure that we can allow the competition to continue and advance, and really lay out a training camp that will allow us to do that but also make a timely decision.”
O’Connell said that there should not be too many assumptions made about who gets which reps once the team gets to camp, but followed that up by saying that he realizes that won’t be the case because plenty of people in Minnesota are waiting to see who gets the nod for Week 1.
New Vikings G.M. Nolan Teasley is making changes to the front office he now runs.
Via Alec Lewis of The Athletic, the Vikings have parted ways with assistant G.M. Demitrius Washington, senior personnel executive Jamaal Stephenson, assistant director of college scouting Pat Roberts, and pro scout Salli Clavelle.
Per Lewis, Stephenson and Roberts were long-time employees of the Vikings. Stephenson arrived in 2002 as a college scout. He became director of college scouting in 2009. As of 2021, he was promoted to co-director of player personnel. Roberts started as a national scout before becoming assistant director of college scouting in 2022.
Former G.M. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah had hired Washington and Clavelle.
It’s relatively late in the offseason for these kinds of moves. For scouts, however, the draft is a more natural ending point to a given year than the end of football season.
As the Vikings try to resolve their quarterback competition, the primary candidates to start — Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy — are splitting practice reps. On Wednesday, Murray acknowledged that sharing reps makes it harder to learn the offense.
“I think the toughest part is, again, I was [in Arizona] for seven years,” Murray told reporters. “I know I had two different offensive systems. But at the same time, you’re getting all those reps, you know, now having to split reps. Me already being behind, not getting the amount of reps that, you know, you would typically want a guy to get [while] learning an offense. That’s probably the toughest part, just, again, going back to the past, being in control of everything, understanding what we were already doing, because I was comfortable within the system. Now I’m coming into the new system, learning on the fly, trying to play fast, efficient, and then let it loose while learning.”
Murray said he’s embracing the process of learning the offense, and that he’s giving himself grace to make mistakes as he figures things out.
Still, every rep counts. The sooner the Vikings pick a starter, the sooner the starter will be ready to go. That’s even more important if the starter is eventually going to be Kyler Murray, since he has more to learn about the way the Minnesota offense operates.
Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy got a chance to discuss his approach to the team’s quarterback competition on Tuesday and he said it is centered on a narrow view of what’s in front of him.
McCarthy said that the way practice reps between him and Kyler Murray are “being distributed are something out of my control,” so he has taken the stance that the task at hand matters much more than the bigger picture.
“I’m only focused on that next rep,” McCarthy said.
Reports from an open OTA practice in late May pegged Murray as the leader in the battle for the No. 1 job and McCarthy was asked if he’s given any thought to what his future might hold if he fails to win the job.
“I love this organization,” McCarthy said. “I love the coaching stuff. I absolutely love these players to death. This is where I want to be. I feel like I can thrive in this system. Everything played out exactly how I wanted it. I wouldn’t want anything else to change.”
McCarthy may have a different view on that last point if Murray is officially named the team’s starter, but, for now, the next rep is the sole focus for the quarterback.
Former NFL safety Darren Sharper, who pleaded guilty or no contest a decade ago to multiple charges of rape, is moving closer to being released from custody.
Via Ramon Antonio Vargas of the Guardian, Sharper was transferred from federal prison on May 27 to either home confinement or a halfway house.
Sharper, 50, had allegedly drugged and raped (or attempted to rape) multiple women in Louisiana, California, Nevada, and Arizona. He was sentenced in August 2016 to 18 years, with credit for the time he had spent behind bars following his original arrest in February 2014.
A second-round pick of the Packers in 1997, he spent eight seasons in Green Bay, four in Minnesota, and two with the Saints. He was a member of the New Orleans team that won Super Bowl XLIV.
A court filing advocating for early release argued that it would allow Sharper “to finally receive treatment for . . . traumatic brain injuries . . . and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy . . . disease developed from his years playing football.” That motion was denied in August 2025.
Sharper is currently due to be freed on December 27, 2028.
Vikings star wide receiver Justin Jefferson said recently that it would be great to have the same quarterback for “these next couple of years.” But it remains to be seen whether the Vikings will have that.
The Vikings have started eight different quarterbacks the past three seasons after Kirk Cousins started 49 of 50 games during Jefferson’s first three seasons. The Vikings do not even know who their starting quarterback will be this season.
Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy are competing for the job. Murray is on a one-year deal, and McCarthy enters his third season with a lot to prove.
Jefferson lauded Murray during a Monday appearance on KFAN FM 100.3, but said he is “excited” to see how the quarterback competition plays out this summer.
“He understands the game,” Jefferson said. “He understands the defenses. He understands just how to put touch on the ball, just enough to where it gets to where it gotta go, without making it difficult for us. So, he understands the game a lot more just because he’s been in the game for a couple of years now. So, he kinda throws the ball before you even get out of that break. Throws you open for sure. He’s a smart guy, and he’s a competitor just like me.”
“I’m looking forward to see how good he does in training camp. I’m looking forward to J.J., seeing his improvements and seeing the different things that he has picked up over the offseason. I’m excited for the competition. I’m excited for that to go on in training camp and see the different plays that they make.”
Murray, who turns 29 in August, gets a second chance after going 38-48-1 in seven seasons in Arizona, with 20,460 yards, 121 touchdowns and 60 interceptions.
Titans wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson wore No. 17 in his four seasons with the Giants. When he signed with the Titans, Robinson could have tried to buy the No. 17 from Chimere Dike, who earned All-Pro honors as a returner last season as a rookie, or pick another number.
He chose another number in honor of a friend.
“I didn’t want [No. 17],” Robinson told Kay Adams of FanDuel TV. “I was going in wanting a single digit, and then also my late friend, Rondale Moore, he wore No. 4. So that was kind of the reasoning behind me getting that number. Just kind of to honor him, and the time that he was here. That’s where I was going in. I wanted No. 4. I don’t know about Carnell [Tate] and exactly what went on with him and Chim. But, yeah, I was good with leaving 17 in the past.”
Tate wore No. 17 at Ohio State. The first-round wide receiver will wear No. 14 with the Titans.
Moore died in February from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Robinson and Moore trained together in the Louisville area the final two years of Robinson’s high school career and became fast friends.
The Vikings have played 34 regular season games over the last two seasons, but they’ve only had left tackle Christian Darrisaw for half of them.
Darrisaw tore ligaments in his knee in October of the 2024 season and he missed seven games last year after returning to action. Darrisaw also missed portions of several other games, which left the Vikings to do a lot of shuffling along the offensive line on their way to missing the playoffs with a 9-8 record.
The line took another hit when center Ryan Kelly retired this offseason, but Darrisaw said on Thursday that he feels he’s turned a corner in terms of his health.
“Best it’s felt in two years,” Darrisaw said, via Emily Leiker of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “I’m trending in the right direction. Full motion, everything feels great.”
The Vikings have to settle on a quarterback for the 2026 season, but any choice will have a better chance to succeed if Darrisaw is available more often this fall than he’s been the last two seasons.
