Give me your 53rd guy

The NFL’s roster cutdown day is often the most anxiety inducing for bubble players, and there are none on the bubble like undrafted rookies with no experience or front-office resources behind them.

That’s why Vikings coaches and players made such a big deal about two rookie defenders — cornerback Dwight McGlothern and defensive tackle Taki Taimani — making the team’s initial 53-man roster last week. While General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and coach Kevin O’Connell spent their day meeting with each player released, those who made the team found out by not getting the call into the offices upstairs at TCO Performance Center.

In team meeting rooms, players celebrated the longest of longshot stories like McGlothern, a former Arkansas standout who was guaranteed just $30,000 and one training camp to prove himself after the NFL Draft.

“We kind of seen who was around and all the vets was telling me, ‘Congrats, be proud,’” McGlothern said this week. “You really don’t realize the moment until later in life, but I was just thankful I was still here.”

McGlothern made a strong impression this summer with interception after interception, including a pick six during joint practices with the Browns, carrying over a ball-hawking reputation he established in the SEC. He had seven interceptions in 22 games over the last two seasons for the Razorbacks.

McGlothern goes by the nickname “Nudie,” which defensive coordinator Brian Flores called him while singing the rookie’s praises. McGlothern said an uncle gave him the nickname because he’d take his diaper off as a toddler while running around with a football.

“I belong here, I know that deep down,” McGlothern said. “I had already told my family and them that I had it on my mind to make [the roster] a long time ago.”

The Vikings need a better supporting cast at cornerback, where veterans Byron Murphy Jr., Stephon Gilmore and Shaq Griffin will start. McGlothern will have a role in games as a special teamer, coordinator Matt Daniels said.

“Well deserved,” Flores said. “He certainly stepped up and made a lot of plays over the course of training camp. To me it’s a big deal when an undrafted player makes the team, kind of beating the odds.”

Taimani, who signed for $100,000 guaranteed as an undrafted rookie out of Washington and Oregon, is one of the team’s older rookies. He turns 25 years old in October after playing six years at two college programs.

But Taimani said his experience and maturity helped him approach his first NFL training camp. The 6-1, 309-pound Taimani often held up like a fire hydrant in the middle of the Vikings’ second- and third-team defenses. Only fellow undrafted rookie Dallas Gant, an inside linebacker, had more tackles against the run than Taimani’s nine tackles in three exhibitions.

Taimani didn’t know he made the team until he walked out for the Aug. 27 practice around 3 p.m., which was the NFL’s deadline to trim all active rosters to 53 players.

“It was a little nerve-racking,” Taimani said. “But whenever you can get a chance, or someone takes a chance on you, you gotta run with it. That’s what I’m grateful for is the Vikings, they gave me that chance and I ran with it and never looked back.”

The Vikings had three young defensive linemen come from obscurity to make the roster: Taimani, seventh-round draft pick Levi Drake Rodriguez, and second-year defensive tackle Jalen Redmond, who signed with the Vikings on June 18 after playing for the UFL’s Arlington Renegades this spring. Redmond went undrafted in 2023 out of Oklahoma.

“It means a lot to all of us,” Taimani said. “We kind of feed off each other in practice. If we’re kind of down, it’s like, ‘Come on, we got to go.’”

Center Garrett Bradbury, the sixth-year starter, pinpointed Taimani as the most improved player this summer.
Bradbury liked what he saw from Taimani on and off the field.

“He’d be asking me football questions,” Bradbury said, “like, ‘Hey, I see you kind of attack Harrison [Phillips] a little bit differently than me, what are you seeing from me versus him? Who are guys in the league that you respect highly and why? I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ I don’t get asked those questions much, especially from a rookie.”