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Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer had seen enough from second- and third-string players after an ugly 33-6 loss to the Denver Broncos on Saturday.
Approaching the 85-man roster deadline on Tuesday, the Vikings cut defensive end Jordan Brailford and undrafted rookie long snapper Turner Bernard on Sunday.
Brailford, who played five games in 2020 as a midseason signing, saw 11 defensive snaps in the preseason opener against the Broncos. Bernard played two snaps on special teams.
A few more cuts will be necessary with Minnesota’s roster now standing at 88 players.
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Brailford Flashed Promise in Minnesota
Signed off the Washington Football Team’s practice squad, Brailford played in five games last season for the Vikings.
Brailford’s shined in Minnesota’s 27-24 overtime victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars last year, forcing and recovering a fumble late in the third quarter. He posted a 98.6 Pro Football Focus grade that game.
Touted as a “raw talent” coming out of college in 2019, the seventh-round pick out of Oklahoma State led the Big 12 with nine sacks his junior year led the defensive line with 54 tackles.
Brailford, standing 6-foot-3 and 252 pounds, has been considered undersized in the NFL. He posted a 4.65 40-yard dash, a 37.5-inch vertical, and a 126-inch broad jump at the NFL Combine.
His 40-time ranks in the 86th percentile, vertical in the 89th percentile and broad jump in the 94th percentile, per Mockdraftables. His player comparison by Mockdraftables: Yannick Ngakoue, who was also undersized out of college but excelled on the same three tests.
However, with a slew of new defensive ends this season that the Vikings spent valuable draft picks on, Brailford appeared to be the odd-man-out in the defensive end room.
He is also considerably older than most third-year players, approaching his 26th birthday in October. His athleticism may have reached its peak, while Minnesota has several other prospects it’d like to develop.
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More Cuts to Come
Less than a month away from Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Vikings will need to continue to trim its roster.
After Tuesday’s 85-man deadline, Minnesota must get down to 80 players by Aug. 24, three days after its second preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts.
The regular-season 53-man roster deadline falls on Aug. 31.
The Vikings seem settled on at least their top 31 players who all sat out against Denver, which attributed to the abysmal outing by the team.
However, coach Mike Zimmer was not thrilled with his depth’s performance, which could leave Minnesota searching free agency for more talent.
“We were going to give these other guys some opportunities to see if they could make the club,” Zimmer said. “Some of them proved us right, some of them proved us wrong.”