Daily Norseman
The Minnesota Vikings made a flurry of roster moves on Thursday, a couple of which will see them lose a couple of their players for at least four weeks. Let’s recap all of the moves for you here.
The two most important moves involve the Vikings placing both linebacker Blake Cashman and running back Ty Chandler on injured reserve. We speculated that Cashman might end up on IR with his hamstring issue, but Chandler has joined him. Both were injured in the fourth quarter of the Bears game on Monday night.
This move means that both Cashman and Chandler will have the better part of six weeks to fully recover from their injury issues. They’ll be forced to miss the next four games, which includes the Vikings’ road trip to Europe in Weeks 4 and 5. Then the Vikings will have their bye in Week 6 ahead of their matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday of Week 7. Hopefully that will be long enough for them to get themselves right.
To fill their spots on the active roster, the Vikings signed wide receiver Tim Jones and tight end Nick Vannett to the active roster from the practice squad. Both of them went through camp with the team and Jones was elevated to the active roster for the season opener against the Bears.
To fill the spots that Jones and Vannett were occupying on the practice squad, the Vikings signed cornerback Tyrek Funderburk and linebacker Sione Takitaki.
Funderburk was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Appalachian State by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the 2024 NFL Draft. He made the Bucs’ active roster and appeared in 13 games for them with two starts. He played snaps on both special teams and defense, though accoring to Pro Football Reference his snaps on the defensive side. . .well, they weren’t great. He was targeted 16 times and allowed 15 completions for 201 yards and two touchdowns, with quarterbacks putting together a perfect 158.3 quarterback rating against him. On the bright side, I suppose it can only get better from here.
Takitaki has been in the league for a while. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft out of BYU and played his first five seasons in Cleveland. His best season was 2020, where he appeared in 15 games with 12 starts. Overall, he appeared in 83 games with 40 starts for the Browns. He played for the New England Patriots this past season, appearing in 11 games with four starts.
That should have everyone caught up on today’s roster moves from the Vikings. Warren will be along with today’s injury report here shortly while everyone settles in for Thursday Night Football.
