With a little less than five hours to go before NFL teams need to have their rosters down to 53 players, the Minnesota Vikings have started making some moves, and there’s one move that another team made that might be worth monitoring as well.
The team has announced that they have waived both offensive lineman Michael Gonzalez and running back Xazavian Valladay. Neither of these were unexpected moves, but they could both be practice squad candidates if the Vikings are interested in bringing them back.
Another move that we’ve already seen happen today is the Washington Commanders releasing wide receiver K.J. Osborn. Osborn spent his first four NFL seasons with Minnesota before signing with the New England Patriots ahead of the 2024 season. He struggled in New England, catching just seven passes for 57 yards and a touchdown in seven games before being released. He then signed with the Commanders, appearing in one game for them last year.
Osborn isn’t an earth-shattering option or anything, but he is someone who has some familiarity with the offense and could serve as an option depending on what materializes (or doesn’t materialize) in the trade market.
By my math, after waiving Valladay and Gonzalez the Vikings’ roster is down to 74 players, meaning that they have to make 21 more moves between now and 3:00 PM Central time. It’s really 20 moves, given that one of those moves is going to be placing Jordan Addison on the suspended list, but Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and company still have plenty of work to do over the next few hours.
We’ll be doing our best to keep track of all the moves the Vikings make today and bring them to you in as close to real time as possible.
