Tag: Jaylen Twyman

Dolphins signed 7 players to reserve/future contracts

Here’s who’s sticking around from the practice squad.

With the Miami Dolphins 2022 season officially coming to a close on Sunday, the restrictions that force teams to keep their active rosters at 53 players are lifted, allowing teams to sign up to 90 players.

Once a team is eliminated they can sign a number of players to reserve/future contracts which adds them to the active roster through the spring and summer.

On Monday, the Dolphins signed these seven players from their practice squad to such deals:

Dolphins make a number of practice squad moves

Miami signs two to the practice squad and releases two to make room.

After a game that resulted in more injuries on Sunday, the Miami Dolphins have decided to make some transactions with players on their practice squad.

According to the NFL’s transaction wire, the Dolphins have released defensive lineman Big Kat Bryant and cornerback Chris Steele from the practice squad. With the two open spots, Miami has signed cornerback Tino Ellis and defensive lineman Jaylen Twyman.

Ellis and Twyman were just in for visits last week. The former spent part of the offseason with Miami before he was waived with an injury settlement while the latter had spent parts of the last two seasons with the Minnesota Vikings.

Bryant and Steele were signed to the practice squad right after the final roster cuts before the start of the regular season. Neither had been elevated to the active roster yet this season.

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Dolphins try out two defensive players on Thursday

One spent time with Miami this offseason.

The Miami Dolphins are dealing with a number of injuries to their defense with players like Xavien Howard, Byron Jones, Keion Crossen, Raekwon Davis, Zach Sieler and Brandon Jones all dealing with something that has impacted their practice participation this week.

With all these questions, the Dolphins have looked at some potential options for the practice squad or active roster, as they tried out defensive back Tino Ellis and defensive lineman Jaylen Twyman.

Ellis spent part of this offseason with Miami before he was waived with an injury designation following the preseason matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After reverting to injured reserve, Miami and Ellis agreed to an injury settlement, allowing the defensive back to hit the market again. His knowledge of the system could make for an easy transition if he were to come back.

Twyman was a sixth-round selection of the Minnesota Vikings in 2021 after a collegiate career at Pittsburgh that saw him earn First-team All-ACC honors once. He spent all of his rookie season on injured reserve and started this year on Minnesota’s practice squad.

Hopefully, Miami won’t need to start looking around at free agents to fill holes due to injuries, but they’re doing due diligence for now.

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Vikings make 5 roster moves: Lewis Cine officially to IR

The Vikings did some roster shuffling

The Minnesota Vikings were busy on Tuesday afternoon. After word came through that rookie first-round pick safety Lewis Cine had successful surgery on the compound fracture in his left leg, they placed him on injured reserve, officially ending his season.

Along with Cine ending up on IR, they made four other roster moves, including signing NT Khyiris Tonga off of the Atlanta Falcons practice squad.

The activation of Ryan Connelly from the PUP list means that he enters a 21-day practice window before he has to be either put on season-ending injured reserve, the active roster or placed on waivers.

Jaylen Twyman had a tough route back from being shot in the abdomen prior to the start of the 2021 season after the Vikings selected him in the sixth round. He struggled during the preseason and it pushed him to the practice squad.

Travis Toivonen was a receiver that had bounced around the NFL after spending some time in the Fan Controlled Football League. He ended up being on the practice squad for just over a month.

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7 Minnesota Vikings get their jersey numbers

Multiple player numbers were announced on Thursday

Seven Minnesota Vikings, whether new or tenured, got their new jersey numbers on Thursday.

  • The most anticipated jersey number change was rookie punter Ryan Wright who went from 66 to 14, which was previously worn by Sean Mannion.
  • New Vikings wide receiver Jalen Reagor will be wearing number 5.
  • New Vikings defensive tackle Ross Blacklock will wear number 96.
  • Defensive tackle Jonathan Bullard goes from 79 to 93 previously worn by Jaylen Twyman.
  • Defensive tackle Twyman, now on the practice squad, goes from 93 to 51.
  • New practice squad wide receiver Travis Toivonen will wear number 87.
  • New practice squad cornerback Tay Gowan will wear number 31.

With new quarterback David Blough just added to the practice squad, there will be at least one more number announced in the coming days.

Minnesota Vikings waive DT Jaylen Twyman

The former sixth-round pick was waived on Tuesday

The Minnesota Vikings continue their purge of Rick Spielman’s 2021 draft class by waiving former sixth-round pick Jaylen Twyman.

Twyman was viewed highly coming out of the 2021 draft. He was a gap-shooting 3-technique defensive tackle that specialized in rushing the passer.

At the NFL combine, Twyman weighed in nearly 30 pounds over his college playing weight and had historically bad athletic testing, especially compared to his college tape.

Unfortunately,  Twyman had his rookie season come to a screeching halt after he was shot in Washington D.C. just before week one last season.

With a new regime coming in, it should come as no surprise to see the Vikings move on from a lot of the 2021 draft class, as there were quite a few players that weren’t up to par.

Third-round picks Wyatt Davis, Chazz Surratt and Kellen Mond were also casualties, along with fourth-round pick Janarius Robinson.

Be sure to keep tabs on all the Vikings roster cuts with our tracker.

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Vikings vs Broncos: 3 things to watch for during Saturday night’s game

During tonight’s final preseason game against the Denver Broncos, here are three things you should be watching for.

The preseason for the Minnesota Vikings wraps up tonight as they take on the Denver Broncos at 8 pm central time.

The third preseason game is an interesting one this year for the Vikings. Historically, it has been the game where the starters get the most run in preparation for the regular season opener in just 10 days.

With only three preseason games, that contest has moved to the second game. The Vikings, having had joint practices with the San Francisco 49ers during the week chose to rest all but one of their starters.

Going into Saturday’s game, head coach Kevin O’Connell hadn’t given any clear direction as to whether the starters would be playing in the game.

For the sake of this piece, we are going with the assumption that the Vikings choose not to play the starters and we get to see a lot of developmental players get quality snaps. With that in mind, here are three things to watch for in Saturday’s game against the Broncos.

 

Instant analysis of Vikings 17-7 Loss vs. 49ers in Preseason Week 2

Major takeaways from the Vikings loss against the 49ers

After joint practices for two days earlier this week, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Minnesota Vikings 17-7 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Just an hour and a half before game time, the Vikings announced that 27 of their 85 players on the roster would not play.

In turn, the 49ers also announced that they would also not be playing 27 players.

Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo and Kirk Cousins all missed the game, meaning it was an opportunity for the backup quarterbacks for both sides to get meaningful reps.

For two offensive coaches, the offense was pretty sloppy throughout. Dropped passes, multiple turnovers and numerous missed opportunities for big plays.

Some of that is on the quarterbacks, as they are not what you would consider NFL starting-caliber quarterbacks. The running game was inconsistent on both sides, although the 49ers turned it up at the end of the game to seal the deal.

The game itself left us with some vital takeaways. Here were my four biggest takeaways from Saturday night’s loss.

4 Things to Watch Heading Into Week 2 vs San Francisco

The most important game of the preseason is on Saturday

The second week of the preseason is arguably the most important.

Much like week three used to be before the 17th game was added last year, week two is treated like a dress rehearsal. This game has some game planning involved and gives players and teams a true game week experience.

Usually, the starters will play a significant amount of time. Per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, that might not be the case for the Vikings having spent two days facing the 49ers in joint practices.

If they don’t play much on Saturday, it will be great for the young players to get some extra reps in. With the game not meaning anything from a record standpoint, the score is less important than the performance of players and units.

Here are four things that you need to be watching out for during Saturday’s game.

 

Vikings DT Jaylen Twyman continues remarkable comeback story after being shot four times

Jaylen Twyman takes another step in his remarkable comeback story.

With Tuesday’s voluntary workouts being open to the media, there was a major positive takeaway from the session: Jaylen Twyman was back on the field participating in drills.

Twyman, a former sixth-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft, was one of four people shot in a vehicle when visiting family in the Washington D.C. area last July. Thankfully, none of the gunshot wounds were fatal, and everyone survived the incident.

Twyman was hit four times and missed the entire 2021 season with the Vikings.

Considering he also sat out the 2020 season in college due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been over two years since he’s played a meaningful snap of football.

Twyman has a lot of catching up to do in what will essentially be his rookie season this year.

The 290-pound defensive lineman was wreaking havoc on the front the last time we saw him on the field in a Panthers uniform—10.5 sacks, 12 tackles for a loss, 41 tackles and two pass deflections.

Regardless of what happens on the football field, this is a remarkable comeback story worth celebrating.

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