Tag: Junior Aho

Vikings waive defensive lineman

After he clears waivers, the Vikings will sign him to the practice squad

The Minnesota Vikings made a roster move on Monday morning, waiving defensive lineman Junior Aho. Head coach Kevin O’Connell noted the move during his media availability on Monday afternoon.

Having come to the Vikings from France via SMU and the International Pathway Program, Aho did not count toward the 53-man roster. According to O’Connell, they will be signing Aho to a roster-exempt spot on the practice squad.

Each year, one division in each conference gets the opportunity to have a roster-exempt spot on their roster. Aho is the Vikings representative for 2023.

Making this move will save around $400k on the salary cap.

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Vikings state of the roster: Defensive line

After losing Dalvin Tomlinson, can the Minnesota Vikings defensive line take a step forward with Harrison Phillips and Dean Lowry?

The 2023 season is inching closer and closer by the day and we here at Vikings Wire are previewing the season from every angle. Today, begins profiling the Minnesota Vikings roster on the defensive side of the football.

We are currently writing player profiles on each Viking on the roster with projections for what their 2023 season could look like. How things look projecting forward is where the real intrigue lies.

Leading up to training camp, we will be looking at each position from a more in-depth perspective. Today, we will be looking at the defensive line.

Vikings 90-man roster player profile: OLB Junior Aho

Acquired through the International Pathway Program, Aho won’t count toward the 53 man roster this season. What does he bring to the table?

Welcome to the beginning of our 2023 season preview content!

Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at each player on the roster in-depth with backgrounds and how they currently project forward on the Minnesota Vikings roster.

What is the best-case scenario? What is the worst-case scenario? What should we expect from them during the preseason and beyond? We will break all of that down here.

As a staff, all of us at Vikings Wire ranked the entire 90-man roster 1-90 and will be releasing player profiles in reverse order.

Vikings add DL Junior Aho via International Pathway Program

The Minnesota Vikings added a defensive lineman in Junior Aho from SMU to their roster via the International Pathway Program.

After the 2023 NFL draft, teams have a mostly finalized roster. There will be a few sporadic free-agent signings throughout the offseason and one way teams can add to their roster is through the International Pathway Program.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Minnesota Vikings have added one of those players in defensive lineman Junior Aho from France.

After playing in his native France, Aho played for SMU this past season. In 2022, he played in all 13 games and recorded 23 tackles, 2.0 sacks and a forced fumble. He played 25 games over three seasons for the Mustangs, totaling 43 tackles, 5.0 sacks, 7.5 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles.

The NFL launched the program in 2017 and it allocates eight players a season to clubs across two divisions to help broaden the game worldwide.