Strib: Vikings rookie fullback Max Bredeson knows about following in footsteps

Most of his clips feature his receptions. This one focuses on his blocking. I had not seen this one before. Really good stuff.

I am excited to see Bredeson play. He looks to be very versatile and to be an elite blocker. Kind of a cross between Kleinsasser and Ham.

Gotta love when you can actually hear him cracking pads in a highlight video! Guy is a blocking machine, setting up angles, & taking sometimes multiple defenders out of the play. Going to be fun to watch! Power football!? There I said it, LFG…!!!

In the eyes of Vikings director of college scouting Mike Sholiton, fifth-round pick Max Bredeson “was given almost no opportunity.”

In Bredeson’s eyes, “it’s kind of a tricky story,” he told the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Max Bredeson, the youngest of three boys, was no Ben Bredeson — 2015 Gatorade Player of the Year out of Arrowhead High School in Hartland, Wis., and now a guard for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Ben was a five-star recruit. Max had no stars coming out of Arrowhead, where he was a mobile quarterback named the Classic 8 Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 2020 despite a knee injury.

When the University of Michigan offered a preferred walk-on spot, Max jumped at the chance to follow in the footsteps of his older brothers Jack, a former Wolverines pitcher, and Ben, the standout offensive lineman.

But their parents, Mike and Debra, just had one thing. Michigan’s out-of-state tuition can be almost $70,000 and Max did not have a scholarship.

“’You’ve got a year,’ ” Max recalled his parents saying.

They told him he would have to take out a student loan.

He told them, “‘Trust me, I’ll figure it out.’ ”

Max’s football future hinged on his freshman season in 2021.

Despite learning new positions, tight end and fullback, and working from the bottom of the roster, he earned scout team accolades in practices.

After his first year, he earned a scholarship.

“There may have been a soft shot clock,” said Jack Bredeson, the eldest brother who now works in analytics for the New York Mets. “It may have just been a thing for my parents to put in the back of his mind. But for Max to make it happen and get on scholarship was obviously a huge moment in his life.”

Max’s backup plan? Join the Navy SEALs.

“He’s been talking about that since he was like 10 years old,” said Ben Bredeson, the middle brother and 315-pound Buccaneers guard. “He’s always wanted to be in that top of the top tier, always wanted to be the best of the best no matter what sport, occupation, no matter what it was. He was always striving to be that guy.”

Sholiton, the Vikings director of college scouting, said, “That type of competitive spirit, it makes you believe in him.”

The internal drive that pushed Max through 53 games at Michigan, where he also followed Ben as a two-time captain, was fortified in the backseat of car rides from his brothers’ high school hockey and baseball games.

Jack and Ben are about 6 and 4½ years older than Max, who was forced to punch above his weight class from an early age. Their parents did not allow the boys to specialize in just one sport; Max was also a center fielder in baseball.

Jack said the boys were held to “a very high standard” by parents willing to trek across the country for youth travel leagues, going to Faribault, Minn., to face Shattuck-St. Mary’s in hockey.

“They always gave us every opportunity we wanted,” the eldest Bredeson said, “and certainly held us to a very high standard because of that. There were definitely some tough car rides home at times if they didn’t think it went the way it should have. Credit to them for that, just kind of put that competitive mindset in all of us.”

Jack recalled his youngest brother developing self-sufficiency on those road trips, “doing weird stuff: climbing poles, running around, making friends.”

The older brothers were sure to instill strength by not going easy on him in the backyard hockey rink.

“As any youngest of three brothers, got his [behind] beat a little bit in a friendly way,” Jack said. “That probably contributed a little bit to the toughness.”

After missing most of his junior football season because of a broken collarbone, Max transferred from Oconomowoc High School to Arrowhead, where his brothers went. Max flourished as a dual-threat quarterback despite playing through a midseason knee injury in 2020, earning conference player of the year honors.

The future fullback wasn’t afraid to lower his shoulder.

“His first game starting for us his senior year, we probably called 35 passes and he only threw 10 balls,” said Matt Harris, the coach at Arrowhead. “He’d drop back, see a little hole and just run and Hulk smash these small high school kids.”

The scene changed quickly at Michigan, where Bredeson was thrown into the fire on the 2021 scout team facing future No. 2 overall draft pick Aidan Hutchinson in pass protection drills. When he’d talk to his older brother Ben on the phone, he’d talk about trying to hold his own but not being there yet.

By Michigan’s 2023 national championship season, Max was a frequent contributor at tight end and on special teams. He was voted team captain by teammates each of the next two seasons, when he split time in the running back room as he carved out more pass protection responsibilities.

“The kid that you see now was not the 18-year-old that walked into Michigan,” Ben said. “He’s grown up a lot: gotten bigger, stronger, more mature, and that was the best thing that ever happened to him.”

Max Bredeson’s range of skills as a run blocker, pass protector and special teams ace are why the Vikings drafted him in the fifth round (159th overall) to help replace fullback C.J. Ham, the Pro Bowl player and Duluth native who retired this offseason after 10 Vikings seasons.

Bredeson said he spoke with Ham via FaceTime after he was drafted.

“Crazy special moment,” Bredeson said. “One of the greats.”

Bredeson already had one Vikings connection at his draft party in Hartland: Quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who made an appearance behind Bredeson during his videoconference with Twin Cities reporters on April 25. Bredeson said that he and McCarthy developed a friendship in college but that they knew each other before they arrived as part of the Wolverines’ 2021 recruiting class.

“We threw with the same quarterback coach in high school,” Bredeson said. “He turned out to be a better quarterback than I am, fortunately.”

The Bredeson family has one Vikings game circled on the calendar: Sept. 27 in Tampa Bay, where they’ll be at Raymond James Stadium to cheer on both teams.

“That’ll be a special moment when I get to share the field with him,” Ben said.

Max also used “special” — and “crazy” — to describe his path to the NFL compared to his brother’s.

“We were able to end up in similar spots,” Max said. “I’m grateful for the journey I had, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I take pride in being a walk-on. But never let that define or put a cap on what your career is supposed to be.”

Strib

CJ Ham was 5'11", 231 lbs....looked like a FB. Max is 6'2", 252 lbs and bigger, stronger and more hybrid-ish. Versatile. Way more upside to play more snaps than Ham ever did.

I think Max will quickly become a fan favorite