Vikings rumors: 3 players who won’t be on roster by end of NFL Draft

The Minnesota Vikings roster is clearly in flux after the offseason decisions they’ve made but they could see some more big departures by the NFL Draft.

Despite an impressive regular season, the Minnesota Vikings saw the embarrassment of the playoffs and knew that something had to change. So they’ve been active in making those changes this offseason.

Guys like Eric Kendricks, Adam Thielen and Cameron Dantzler, among others, are now gone, and that’s not including free agents the team lost such as Patrick Peterson, Irv Smith Jr. and several others.

But the changes are likely not done, particularly with an oft-used deadline for potential trades looming in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Whether to create cap space in order to sign the draft class, to reshape the roster with new draftees coming in, or to simply cut ties because a trade never materialized, there are more players who could be gone by the time the draft is over and May 1 rolls around. No, Kirk Cousins probably won’t be one, despite a wild recent rumor.

These three players, however, could be gone by the time the draft ends.

Vikings rumors: 3 cap casualties who could be gone by end of NFL Draft

Ross Blacklock doesn’t have much of a role on the Vikings defense

Early in March, the Vikings made the move to convert nearly $700,000 of former second-round pick Ross Blacklock’s salary into a playing time incentive. Now, his cap hit sits at $1.01 million for the 2023 season. But all of that would be saved if he were to be released.

It seems like that could be a likely outcome when it’s all said and done.

Blacklock wasn’t a Minnesota draft pick. In fact, he was acquired via trade from the Texans, the team that did draft him No. 40 overall out of TCU in 2020, ahead of cutdown day prior to last season with only a pick swap in the sixth and seventh rounds.

In his lone season with the Vikings, Blacklock was hardly impressive and, frankly, rarely saw the field as he played just 139 snaps and graded out horribly when he was on the field, an unfortunate theme from the start of his career in Houston too.

Now, with Minnesota adding the likes of Dean Lowry and Jonathan Bullard, this defense is getting a facelift and it doesn’t seem like Blacklock makes sense to survive that when it’s all said and done, especially if the franchise can save his entire 2023 salary by letting him loose.