Vikings waive Jaylen Twyman to make room for Dede Westbrook

It’s a procedural move

On Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings made the signing of wide receiver Dede Westbrook official. In order to make room for him on the 90-man roster, the team had to make a move. The move they’ve made may look a little surprising on the surface, but is a procedural move to set up something else.

The team has waived rookie defensive tackle Jaylen Twyman in order to clear a spot for Westbrook. This is a move that the Vikings have to make in order to move Twyman to their reserve/non-football injury (NFI) list. When Twyman clears waivers, he will revert to the Vikings’ NFI list. The team has released a statement to that effect that you can see in the embedded tweet above.

It is possible for another team to claim Twyman off of waivers before the Vikings can get him to NFI, but given that Twyman lasted until the sixth round of the draft and hasn’t been active for an NFL game yet, that seems unlikely. Also, it would be a really jerk move for a team to do that. . .then again, this is the NFL, so you never know, I guess.

Should Twyman go on the NFI list and stay there until the start of the regular season, he would be forced to miss the Vikings’ first six games. He would also not be able to practice with the team but could still do conditioning and rehab work. Twyman is a month removed from an incident in Washington, D.C. where he was shot four times but is making a recovery from his injuries.

So, that’s the move the Vikings have made to add Dede Westbrook to the roster. It looks like a strange move on the surface, but when you realize the Vikings needed to do this to get Twyman to NFI it makes sense.