The Minnesota Vikings have released DE Dean Lowry and ILB William Kwenkeu to save salary cap space.
The Minnesota Vikings continue to make things happen in free agency. After agreeing to terms with six players and re-signing two of their own, the Vikings announced they have released defensive end Dean Lowry and linebacker William Kwenkeu.
The move is projected to save about $3 million on the salary cap with Kwenkeu having a non-guaranteed salary of $915,000 and $2,082,353 with the Lowry release. He does incur $2,400,000 in dead cap from his signing last year.
During his time playing with the Vikings, Lowry only ended up playing in nine games before tearing his pectoral muscle. Those eight games weren’t great either, having a grade of 47.4 overall.
Kwenkeu was waived during training camp last year with an injury designation and he reverted back to injured reserve. He was initially signed as an undrafted free agent in 2022.
More moves are likely coming, especially with safety Harrison Smith having a cap hit of over $19 million for the 2024 season.
The injured linebacker cleared waivers and was sent to injured reserve.
One day after the Minnesota Vikings waived him with an injury designation, linebacker William Kwenkeu cleared waivers. Upon clearing waivers, he was reverted back to injured reserve. The move was first reported by KPRC 2 Houston’s Aaron Wilson.
A second-year player, Kwenkeu played special teams for the Vikings and was in competition for one of the linebacker spots. A second-year player out of Temple, Kwenkeu was thought of highly by general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who spoke highly of him when asked about the Vikings linebackers.
“We have a lot of confidence in Brian Asamoah. Troy Dye is a very good player. William Kwenkeu showed some really good things on special teams. So we’re going to take a look at that like we do with every position, but we have decisions to make just like everybody else does there.”
Across six games, Kwenkeu played almost exclusively on special teams and amassed two tackles.
In order to make room for Tanner Vallejo, the Minnesota Vikings waived linebacker William Kwenkeu with an injury designation.
The Minnesota Vikings officially announced the signing of linebacker Tanner Vallejo and in a corresponding move, waived linebacker William Kwenkeu with an injury designation.
The #Vikings have signed LB Tanner Vallejo and waived (injured) LB William Kwenkeu.
Waiving Kwenkeu seemingly confirms the reason for signing Vallejo days after the preseason opener. While Vallejo’s signing likely offered some concern around Brian Asamoah II’s status, it seems Vallejo is extra linebacker depth following Kwenkeu’s injury.
Kwenkeu appeared in the Vikings’ preseason opener but left the game injured. Kwenkeu totaled two tackles before departing.
Waiving Kwenkeu with an injury designation means the Vikings could revert him to injured reserve if he goes unclaimed on waivers. However, since Kwenkeu would be placed on injured reserve before the start of the season, he’ll have to spend the entire season on IR. As a result, this move ends Kwenkeu’s season.
The Vikings signed Kwenkeu as an undrafted free agent in 2022. Kwenkeu started last season on the team’s practice squad but was elevated to the active roster later in the year. He appeared in a total of six games but did not garner a lot of snaps.
After playing in six games last season, William Kwenkeu will attempt to make a wide open linebacker room.
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.
Typically, NFL combine pressers are just a bunch of surface-level information, as teams don’t want to reveal too much about their plans for the upcoming offseason. On Tuesday, Adofo-Mensah may have unintentionally revealed one part of his plan.
On Tuesday, Adofo-Mensah was asked linebacker group at the NFL combine, and whether it was intentional or not, he left out Kendricks and Hicks in his response.
“It’s a position, just like every position we look at. We have a lot of confidence in Brian Asamoah, who is also in that room. Troy Dye is a very good player. William Kwenkeu has shown some really good things on special teams. We’re going to take a look, just like we do at every position. But we have decisions to make, just like every other team.”
The statement from Adofo-Mensah is nothing that fans don’t already know, but leaving out Kendricks and Hicks when talking about the linebacker group is noteworthy.
It’s no secret that the Vikings are in dire need of cap space. With many aging veterans taking large cap hits, there are bound to be restructures or cap casualties. A couple of those players could include linebackers Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks.
According to Over The Cap, Kendricks is due $11.4 million this season and can be cut for $9.5 million in cap savings with only $1.93 million in dead cap. Meanwhile, Hicks is due $6.5 million, and cutting him would result in $5 million in cap savings with only $1.5 million in dead cap.
We know that the Vikings are going to need to make some of these tough decisions sooner rather than later. With Adofo-Mensah’s comments, or lack thereof. It seems as if the writing is on the wall for Kendricks and Hicks and that the Vikings might be moving in a different direction.
This is the second-consecutive week that Kwenkeu was elevated
The Minnesota Vikings have activated someone from the practice squad each week. For week 13, they activated linebacker William Kwenkeu for both the second consecutive and second overall week.
The move will provide the Vikings with extra linebacker depth as they face the stout rushing attack of the New York Jets.
The move, however, is more likely tied to playing special teams. During Thursday night’s game against the New England Patriots, Kwenkeu only played 16 total snaps: seven on kick coverage, seven on kick return and two on punt return.
Kwenkeu has two total elevations, meaning that he has one more available before he needs to be signed to the active roster.
The Vikings elevated two players from the practice squad, including a surprise
The Minnesota Vikings were destined to elevate a cornerback with both Akayleb Evans and Andrew Booth Jr. out for Thursday night’s game against the New England Patriots and they did just that with Tay Gowan.
The second-year pro Gowan wasn’t the only one that the Vikings elevated, as they chose to elevate linebacker William Kwenkeu as well.
The #Vikings have elevated CB Tay Gowan and LB William Kwenkeu to the active roster for tonight's game.
The addition of Kwenkeu feels more special teams related than anything. One thing to keep tabs on when the inactives come out is if linebacker Troy Dye will be inactive in favor of Kwenkeu.
This is Gowan’s second-consecutive game active, as he was last week as well. Gowan was a sixth-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals in the 2021 NFL draft.
The Minnesota Vikings are shaking things up a bit at linebacker with Monday’s announced signing of undrafted rookie free agent William Kwenkeu.
It’s quite the remarkable story for Kwenkeu, who followed his mother to the United States from Cameroon back in 2012. He officially became an American citizen and racked up six tackles and two sacks in Temple’s Gasparilla Bowl victory over Florida International on back-to-back days in 2017.
Last season, he finished off his collegiate career with the Owls by snagging 51 tackles, 11 tackles for a loss, three sacks and one forced fumble recovered for a touchdown.
If that version of Kwenkeu shows up, he could be a player worth keeping an eye on as a future contributor.
Regardless of what happens, no one encompasses the American dream more than Kwenkeu, who has now forged a path to the NFL with the Vikings.
In a corresponding move to the signing, the team also announced the release of linebacker Tuf Borland.
