The Vikings have trimmed their roster to 53. The names of players terminated or waived do not include any of their four quarterbacks.
For now, they’ll proceed with Kyler Murray, Carson Wentz, J.J. McCarthy, and Max Brosmer.
The following players were waived: CB Da’Veawn Armstead; WR Michael Briscoe; G Henry Byrd; WR Terrill Davis; C Gavin Gerhardt; G Joshua Gray; S Kahlef Hailassie; CB Tre Hawkins;LB Bangally Kamara; TE Marshall Lang; TE Matt Lauter; G Vershon Lee; OL Tristan Leigh;OL Delby Lemieux; CB Bryce Phillips; OL Tomas Rimac; DL Jahvaree Ritzie; LB Josh Ross; WR Trayvon Rudolph; WR Marcus Sanders, Jr.; RB Zavier Scott; OLB Cam’Ron Stewart; DL Smith Vilbert; and CB Jarod Washington.
Six players were waived, with the designation of injured: CB Marcus Allen; OLB Kenny Dyson, Jr.; WR Dontae Fleming; RB Jermar Jefferson; TE Bryson Nesbit; and LB Jacob Roberts.
The Vikings terminated these vested veterans: DL Jonathan Harris; P Johnny Hekker; DL Isaiahh Loudermilk; and S Tavierre Thomas.
Linebacker Tyler Batty was placed on season-ending IR, and center Michael Jurgens was placed on IR with a designation to return.
Finally, receiver Jeshaun Jones has been place on the reserve/suspended list; he’ll miss three games.
Vikings Clips
J.J, McCarthy won’t be starting at quarterback for the Vikings in Week 1, but it looks like he will be on the team’s roster.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that McCarthy has made it onto the initial 53-man roster in Minnesota. McCarthy was beaten out by Kyler Murray for the starting job this summer and there has been speculation about whether he’d stick with the team since that announcement was made earlier this month.
Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell left the door open to keeping four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster. Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer, who both started games for the team last year, are the other two quarterbacks that spent the summer with the team.
The Vikings will likely keep at least one of them and where everyone lands on the Week 1 depth chart will be something to watch as the Vikings prepare to face the Packers.
The Patriots are making a move for an offensive lineman ahead of the deadline to set their initial 53-man roster.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that they have agreed to a trade with the Vikings for Walter Rouse. The teams will exchange late-round draft picks as part of the deal.
Rouse was a 2024 sixth-round pick in Minnesota. He appeared in eight games over the last two seasons and did not make any starts.
Rouse was on the Vikings’ depth chart at right guard, but also has experience at tackle and will try to earn a reserve spot in New England heading into the season.
The Vikings have lost one of their young defenders for the season.
Per Tom Pelissero of Netflix, outside linebacker Tyler Batty suffered a torn ACL during Minnesota’s preseason finale on Friday.
He will be placed on injured reserve and will be out for the 2026 season.
Batty, 27, entered the league last year as an undrafted free agent out of BYU. He appeared in 12 games for Minnesota as a rookie, tallying 12 total tackles with two tackles for loss, with most of his playing time coming on special teams.
All teams must reduce their rosters to 53 players by 6 p.m. ET on Sunday.
The Vikings have resolved their punting competition.
Per multiple reports, veteran Johnny Hekker is out and rookie Brett Thorson is in.
Thorson, undrafted from Georgia, won the Ray Guy Award last year as college football’s best punter. A native of Australia, Thorson averaged 45.5 yards per punt in 2025.
Hekker, 36, is a four-time Pro Bowler and four-time first-team All-Pro who has played for the Rams, Panthers, and Titans.
Thorson replaces Ryan Wright, who held the job in Minnesota from 2022 through 2025 before signing with the Saints in free agency.
With all teams cutting to 53 players on Sunday afternoon, with a current maximum of 90, most if not all franchises will be making tough decisions.
The Vikings will likely be making tough decisions at quarterback, where the team has four quarterbacks. After Friday night’s preseason finale, coach Kevin O’Connell opened the door to the possibility of keeping all of them on the 53-man roster.
“I don’t think it is out of the question that we try to keep all of those guys,” O’Connell told reporters after the game (via a transcript generated by Minnesota’s opponent, the Broncos), “but at the same time, we got to do what’s best for our team. So we’ll work through that and that will definitely be part of the conversation because there was a reason why we wanted to have a deep quarterback room, and all four of those guys had their moments throughout the last month and six weeks or so, and that’ll definitely be a part of the evaluation as we go throughout each position — making sure that our 53[=man roster] and the practice squad are exactly what we want them to look like.”
Earlier in the session, O’Connell was specifically asked where 2025 starter J.J. McCarthy stands.
“We’re going to obviously evaluate our entire depth chart now,” O’Connell said. “First and foremost, we got to cut down our football team. It’s just going to be a tough couple of days and figure out our practice squad and potential additions to the roster at different positions. But we’re going to work through that as a staff and see where he’s at from a health standpoint, first and foremost. We don’t have any long term concerns, still consider him day-to-day and see what that looks like.”
That’s hardly a firm guarantee McCarthy will be on the roster. When asked point blank about the player’s status, O’Connell didn’t say he’s the backup to Kyler Murray. Then, O’Connell mentioned roster cuts and the practice squad.
The response opens the door to a possibility we hadn’t considered: The Vikings cut McCarthy, he goes to waivers, he clears waivers (given his fully-guaranteed contract through 2027), and they offer him a spot on the practice squad.
Of course, he may not take it. But if he’s going to be third on the depth chart, he’s not going to play. And if an opportunity emerges with another team that would get him closer to the field, he could take it.
Would it be a major blow to the ego of a top-10 pick to be on the practice squad? Sure. But how much worse is that than not being the starter — and possibly being No. 3 behind Carson Wentz?
Regardless, the Vikings have a decision to make. Murray is QB1. Wentz may indeed have won the backup job. What will happen with McCarthy and Max Brosmer? We’ll find out by Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET.
Former NFL quarterback Bob Lee died Aug. 17 in San Francisco, the University of Pacific announced in a news release. Lee was 81.
The Vikings selected Lee in the 17th round of the 1968 draft, and he spent most of his career in Minnesota over two stints. He played for the Falcons from 1973-74 and with the Rams from 1979-80.
He won an NFL championship as a rookie with the Vikings in 1969.
Lee was primarily a backup in the NFL but started 30 games, including 10 with the Falcons in 1973. He finished with a 19-11 record as a starter and appeared in 77 games.
Lee threw for 5,034 yards, with 30 touchdowns and 40 interceptions.
After retirement, Lee served as director of athletics at Pacific from 1991-96. He is credited with his efforts to build and expand several of Pacific’s athletic facilities.
Lee lettered two seasons at Pacific from 1966-67, playing both quarterback and kicker, and was named the Team MVP as a senior. He also played two seasons at Arizona State before transferring to Pacific.
He is survived by his wife, Janice, his children Matt, Jenna and Zac, and six grandchildren.
To the extent the Vikings still have a competition for the backup quarterback spot behind Kyler Murray, J.J. McCarthy won’t get a chance to make a preseason closing argument.
Via Kevin Seifert of ESPN, McCarthy won’t play on Friday night at Denver, due to an ankle injury suffered last Saturday against the Ravens.
McCarthy participated in scaled-down practices on Monday and Tuesday. He didn’t practice on Wednesday.
Per Seifert, it’s not considered to be a long-term injury.
The situation comes two days before all rosters must be reduced to 53. Unless the Vikings plan to keep four quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, they may have to choose between McCarthy or Max Brosmer — especially if Carson Wentz cements the spot behind Murray.
Brosmer could potentially clear waivers and join the practice squad. But he could, if waived, be claimed by another team.
McCarthy also could be a candidate for short-term IR, which would keep him off the 53-man roster while he heals.
Then there’s the possibility that the Vikings will simply decide it’s time to end the McCarthy experiment, either by trading him or releasing him. No one truly knows what’s happening behind the scenes; if the Vikings believe the best interests of the team are served by not having McCarthy on the roster, they could become motivated to admit the mistake and move on.
The fact that the Vikings have already moved on from the G.M. who drafted McCarthy makes it easier to be objective about whether it makes sense to keep him on the team. His two preseason performances did little to show that the deficiencies from last year (durability, accuracy, touch) have been resolved.
It sounds like most of Denver’s starters will not be on the field for the club’s preseason finale.
Head coach Sean Payton told reporters in his Wednesday press conference that quarterback Bo Nix “probably” will not play against Minnesota on Friday.
Payton then noted, tongue in cheek, that he didn’t want to go through the rest of the roster. But it stands to reason that if Nix is not playing, most starters won’t be out there either.
While Nix did not play in Denver’s first preseason game, he did get 14 snaps last week against the Packers. Nix led the offense to two scoring drives, tossing a 21-yard touchdown to RJ Harvey before leading the club to a field goal on his second possession.
Nix ended that contest 6-of-9 passing for 76 yards with a TD, displaying his health after suffering a fractured ankle toward the end of the Broncos’ divisional-round victory over the Bills in January.
Entering his third season, Nix has started all 17 games in each of his first two seasons. In 2025, he completed 63.4 percent of his league-leading 612 passes for 3,931 yards with 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Kickoff between the Vikings and Broncos this week is slated for 9 p.m. ET on Friday night.
Long-time Vikings safety Harrison Smith remains unsigned. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell continues to talk to Smith.
“I’ve had my kind of weekly, you know, dialogues and discussions with him that have ranged to a lot of different topics,” O’Connell told reporters on Wednesday. “But yeah, we’ve been in — I’ve talked to him as, you know, I’ve talked to him this week, and kind of just continuing to, in addition to all those other fun things to talk about, have some conversations about where he’s at, and what he’s thinking, and we’ll keep you guys updated if there is an update on that. But right now the priority is, obviously, these guys out here today and getting down to 53 [roster spots] and our 16 practice squad spots.”
Speculation regarding a potential Smith reunion intensified after Jamal Adams suffered a season-ending torn quadriceps tendon during the preseason opener.
A first-round pick in 2012, Smith has spent his entire 14-year career in Minnesota. It sounds like it’s still possible there will be a fifteenth.
The Vikings seem to be more than willing. It may all come down to what Smith decides to do.
