Vikings’ Overlooked Path to the Roster
https://vikesnow.com/analysis/2026/vikings-overlooked-path-to-the-roster/
The Vikings’ Overlooked Path to the Roster
There are 53 places on an NFL roster. On game day, only 48 players can dress.
That five-player difference is where special teams become less of a third phase and more of a career decision.
Those five inactive spots are rarely occupied by starters or essential specialists. They usually belong to depth players whose offensive or defensive role is not large enough to justify a game-day jersey by itself. That is why special teams carries so much weight. A reserve linebacker, receiver, defensive back or tight end who can contribute on multiple coverage or return units gives the coaching staff a reason to activate him. A player who cannot may still be talented, but he is much harder to dress.
That calculation begins before a team ever reaches game day. When two players are competing for a final roster spot, a coaching staff will often choose the reserve linebacker who can cover kicks, the depth receiver who can block on returns or the defensive back who can contribute on multiple units. Special teams coordinator Matt Daniels does not make Minnesota’s final roster by himself, but his evaluation can be decisive for players whose offensive or defensive role alone does not justify a roster spot.
“It’s not my job to play you,” Daniels said. “It’s your job to make me play you.”
That is the right way to view a Vikings roster that appears deeper than it has been in recent years. The stars are obvious. Justin Jefferson, Christian Darrisaw, Brian O’Neill, T.J. Hockenson, Andrew Van Ginkel and Byron Murphy Jr. will have roles because of what they do on offense or defense.
The difficult decisions will come farther down the depth chart. A player may be a third linebacker, a sixth receiver, a fourth tight end or a developmental defensive back. He may have a future in the organization, but that does not guarantee a game-day jersey in September.
For those players, special teams is often the deciding factor.
“If you think that you’re going to be a third linebacker in this league, but you have no special teams value, you’re going to be in street clothes just like me,” Daniels said. “If you want to have the opportunity to be able to play on Sundays, you’re going to need to have some special teams value to you.”
The Vikings’ first week of camp has made that reality easy to see. Minnesota has rotated returners, given young players chances as gunners and coverage men, and tested rookies in a phase that asks for a different kind of football intelligence than offense or defense.
The result is a roster battle with consequences well beyond the bottom of the 53.
A deep roster creates a narrower path
Daniels believes this is one of the deeper Vikings rosters he has coached. That is good news for a team trying to contend. It is tougher news for the players without established roles.
“It’s probably one of the deepest that we’ve had,” Daniels said. “A whole lot of talent across the board.”
Training camp has already supplied examples. Jeshaun Jones has been one of the more productive receivers in camp, and Vikings.com noted that his competitiveness on special teams has stood out, as well. Dontae Fleming has made catches and drawn attention as a possible receiver to watch in the preseason. Zemaiah Vaughn was praised for a gunner rep in which he split a double team and sprinted downfield.
None of those players can afford to be one-dimensional.
That is not only a question of who dresses on Sunday. It is often the question that decides who survives the final roster cuts. A sixth receiver or a developmental defensive back might have a place in Minnesota’s long-term plans, but special teams gives him a way to contribute immediately. Without it, the Vikings may prefer a player who can help in all three phases from Day 1.
Jake Golday is a slightly different case. The rookie has already taken on an unusually broad defensive workload early in camp, and Kevin O’Connell has praised his ability to learn multiple jobs, including work inside and at the SAM linebacker spot. But his size and versatility also give him the kind of profile that can make a young player valuable on special teams from the outset.
“He’s probably a linebacker like we haven’t had since I’ve been here,” Daniels said. “You talk about a guy 6-foot-4, athletic, can have a ton of versatility to him. Has a combination of strength, speed and power, the ability to play in space.”
That description applies to defense. It also describes the kind of athlete special teams coaches want running in open grass, shedding blocks and tackling in space.
Daniels calls it “playing in the ocean.” Unlike a normal offensive or defensive snap, special teams often leaves players with enormous amounts of space to cover and only a moment to identify their leverage, their help and the returner’s path.
For a young player, especially one who was an offensive or defensive star in college, that adjustment can be significant.
“A lot of these guys coming out of college who are All-Americans haven’t played special teams since their freshman year,” Daniels said. “It becomes a matter of, okay, how can I get this guy to understand the importance of special teams and understand that it’s a third of the game and you can’t waste a snap?”
That is why a roster spot is not simply about whether a rookie can eventually become a starter. It is about whether he can help immediately while he waits for that opportunity.
Joshua Metellus is the blueprint
The current face of this idea is Joshua Metellus.
Before Brian Flores arrived in Minnesota, Metellus was known primarily as a valuable special-teams player. The sixth-round pick played only 16 defensive snaps as a rookie in 2020 and 54 in 2021, but logged 262 and 298 special-teams snaps in those seasons. He made himself useful while waiting for a larger opportunity. Injuries to Lewis Cine and a Harrison Smith absence elevated his defensive snap count to 258 in 2022. He also played a career-high 381 snaps on special teams.
Then Flores saw more.
The defensive coordinator liked Metellus’ physicality, tackling, instincts and ability to work through blocks. Those traits had been visible on special teams, where players have to tackle in space, defeat blockers and recognize a play before it develops. Flores turned that background into a defensive role unlike almost any other in the league.
Metellus became a versatile chess piece, moving between safety, linebacker and other hybrid alignments. He played nearly 3,000 defensive snaps across Flores’ first three seasons in Minnesota and became one of the defense’s leaders.
Metellus has credited special teams for preparing him for that transition.
“I think special teams had a lot to do with that,” he said in 2024. “You’ve got a guy who can move a lot in different ways. Some of those things just translate to defense, like getting off blocks and tackling.”
That is the message for the players fighting for the final roster spots now. Special teams does not guarantee a defensive or offensive breakout. But it can keep a player active long enough to reveal skills the team can use elsewhere.
Metellus is no longer trying to make the roster through special teams. He is one of the veteran players responsible for setting the standard. His path, however, remains the best example of why the work matters.
Replacing C.J. Ham means replacing more than a fullback
C.J. Ham’s retirement removed a familiar piece of the Vikings offense. It also left a leadership void on special teams.
Ham was not just a fullback who blocked in the run game. He was one of the organization’s defining special-teams players, a veteran presence for younger teammates and an example of how a player can create lasting value by embracing work that rarely makes a highlight video.
Daniels did not minimize the loss.
“Losing a guy like C.J. Ham is a huge, huge, huge hole to fill,” he said.
The Vikings will not replace Ham with one player. Daniels identified linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. and veteran defensive back Tavierre Thomas as the players the team will lean on to establish the daily standard.
“Ivan and Tavierre are going to be those guys,” Daniels said. “From a leadership standpoint, from a how-to-do-it standpoint, a standard standpoint.”
Pace was a key defensive contributor in 2023 and 2024, when he played 62 and 59 percent of Minnesota’s defensive snaps. That number fell to 30 percent last season, increasing the importance of his special-teams role. The next step is carrying his leadership into a phase that demands effort from players who may not receive many snaps at their primary positions.
Thomas, meanwhile, has the experience to help younger defensive backs understand the less glamorous but necessary parts of building an NFL career. He played on 371 special-teams snaps in 2025, while only seeing the field 18 times on defense.
That brings us to rookie fullback Max Bredeson.
Bredeson arrived as Ham’s replacement at fullback, but he has already treated the former Vikings captain as a resource. He said Ham reached out shortly after Minnesota drafted him, and Bredeson has studied not only Ham’s game film but the practice and preparation that went into it.
“I always took pride in violence,” Bredeson said when asked about the fullback position.
That mindset belongs on special teams, too. The Vikings do not need every player to be C.J. Ham, but they do need more players who understand why a violent block, a well-timed tackle or a proper lane can determine whether they make the roster.
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The return game has become a competition
The returner battle is one of the clearest examples of how special teams and roster construction overlap.
Myles Price enters camp as the incumbent returner, but Daniels made clear that the job is not secure merely because Price handled it last year. The next stage of Price’s development is technical. Daniels wants him catching punts with “quiet feet,” square to the ball and in a balanced position that protects against fumbles.
“Ball security is always at the top of the mind for him,” Daniels said after watching his rookie make a few costly mistakes last year.
Price is also trying to prove himself as more than a returner. Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips revealed the Vikings were not initially certain where Price would fit as a true NFL receiver, but praised the work Price has put into improving his routes, transitions, hands and ability to separate against press coverage.
That combination matters. If Price can contribute on offense while remaining trustworthy in the return game, his roster case becomes much stronger.
But he is not the only option.
Rookie running back Demond Claiborne has received kick-return work and has shown the burst that made him intriguing during the draft process. Daniels was careful not to put Claiborne in an unfair category too soon, but his assessment was revealing.
“I don’t think we’ve had a guy like this since Kene,” Daniels said, referring to former Vikings returner Kene Nwangwu. “I don’t want to put him in that category just yet, but the way that he moves, the first-step burst that he has, the explosion that he plays with, the lateral quickness and short-area quickness and lateral agility that he does have, it gets you really, really excited.”
Nwangwu quickly became one of the NFL’s most dangerous kick returners after entering the league in 2021. The Vikings parted ways with him in 2024, but Nwangwu still logged a return touchdown in each of the last two seasons with the Jets, an element the Vikings have been missing.
Claiborne’s path to a game-day role may not depend on beating out Aaron Jones or Jordan Mason for offensive snaps. It may begin with proving he can protect the football and turn his rare acceleration into field position.
Tai Felton is another possibility, while Fleming and Trayvon Rudolph also received punt-return work during a recent practice. That is not a meaningless camp drill. The Vikings are looking for players who can create value in a role that directly affects the offense’s starting field position and the defense’s workload.
Every opportunity carries risk. A returner can flip a game with one cut. He can also lose one with one fumble.
The value of one play
Special teams is easy to dismiss until it decides a game.
Daniels does not allow his players to think about the phase that way. He calls it a “one-play phase,” because there may not be another kickoff, another punt or another coverage rep to correct a mistake.
“We live in this world where it’s a one-play phase,” Daniels said. “You don’t get the luxury of screwing up on a kickoff and say, ‘Well, I’m going to get them the next time,’ because that next kickoff could never happen.”
That urgency is what separates a camp body from a player a coaching staff can trust.
A young defensive back who can cover a gunner, a linebacker who can defeat a block in space, a receiver who can run down on kick coverage or a running back who can secure a punt may not attract the same attention as Jefferson’s contested catches or a quarterback’s deep ball. But those skills determine who can be active when the Vikings play meaningful games.
Minnesota’s roster will not be built exclusively around special teams. The team has too much established talent for that.
Still, the final spots will be shaped there.
The players competing for them have already been given Daniels’ formula: prepare the right way, understand every assignment and be good enough that the coaches cannot deny them.
In a deep camp, that may be the only formula that works.
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I find the 53 man dress 48 to be stupid. Increase the roster size. Allow exemptions for QB's or players on the cusp.
Practice squad is both good and bad. The fact a team in your division can pluck a player off your practice squad put them on the 53 man roster for only 3 weeks is ridiculous. As I have said before there should be roster exemptions for someone like Harry. Stays on the team. Pay him something reasonable but doesnt count against the cap or the 53. "Call it Legacy player"
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