Courtesy of Vikings The Vikings released Jaylen Twyman on October 4, 2022.
It was a long time coming, but Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman has returned to the game of football.
A sixth-round pick out of Pitt, Twyman hadn’t played in a football game in 961 days before the Vikings’ preseason opener against the Las Vegas Raiders on August 14 — a 26-20 loss where Twyman tallied three tackles.
Twyman opted out of his senior season of college in 2020 due to family concerns amid the pandemic and saw his rookie season derailed after he was shot four times in Washington D.C. before the start of training camp last year.
The 23-year-old has since made a full recovery and played in his first football game in over two and a half years.
His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, has represented hundreds of NFL players and negotiated over $7 billion in contracts, and is still struck by Twyman’s full recovery, recently sharing his insight.
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‘One of the Greatest Comebacks I’ve Ever Seen’
In an August 12 Pioneer Press article, Rosenhaus went on record saying Twyman’s recovery over the past year is one of the greatest comebacks he’s ever seen in sports.
“I’ve been an agent for 35 years, and this is one of the greatest comebacks I’ve ever seen,” Rosenhaus said, per Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press.
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.@JaylenTwyman just became your favorite Viking ♥️
Twyman was visiting relatives in Washington D.C. on June 21, 2021, and, while sitting in a vehicle, shots rang out, four of which struck Twyman. Twyman and three other innocent bystanders were shot in what was deemed a random shooting incident by local authorities.
“I don’t even remember it, it’s such a blur,” Twyman told Tomasson. “Immediately after being shot, he blacked out.”
“It was unfortunate,” he added, “but I can’t dwell on the past.”
Twyman reported to training camp last offseason, but upon a physical, was placed on the non-football injury list for the 2021 season.
Twyman Cut 40 Pounds to Return to Playing Shape
A the end of the 2021 season, Twyman went to South Florida to begin his offseason program. Away from football for over a year, Twyman weighed 330 pounds in February, roughly 40 pounds over his ideal playing weight, Tomasson reported.
Undergoing a rapid transformation, Twyman dropped 20 pounds before minicamps in April by working with a dietician and sticking to a rigorous training regimen.
Twyman returned to South Florida and cut another 20 pounds before the start of Vikings training camp on July 24, weighing in at his ideal playing weight of 291 pounds.
Twyman has turned heads with the shape he is in just a year after the shooting incident.
On his birthday, less than a week before training camp on July 19, Twyman tweeted a photo of himself flexing in his refined form before heading to Minnesota. His personal trainer, Sean Washington, said Twyman recently bench-pressed 470 pounds, 15 pounds more than his personal best before the shooting, per Tomasson.
“Honestly, I wasn’t even looking for a reaction. I had reached my weight goal after being super heavy earlier in the year. So getting down to my weight goal right before camp, I was just excited to do that and show off some of my hard work,” Twyman said, via Vikings.com. “The nutrition and the lifting and all the running hills down in that South Florida heat … it paid off.”
Stronger Than Ever
At 6-foot-2, 291 pounds, Twyman is undersized at the defensive tackle position but intends to make his mark on the NFL.
While Twyman is stronger than ever, he intends to lean on finesse moves as an interior pass-rush specialist behind starting defensive tackles Dalvin Tomlinson and Harrison Phillips.
His ideal NFL comparison: Aaron Donald, a fellow Pitt alumnus who has mentored Twyman since he arrived on campus.
Twyman has a long way to go, but last Sunday against the Raiders was a step forward after a long hiatus from football.
“He never gave up and kept fighting,” Rosenhaus told Tomasson. “He nearly died. But with unrelenting determination, he worked his way back to not only recover but actually get stronger. He’s a remarkable young man.”
Impossible to not root for @JaylenTwyman.
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