Vikings sign TE James O’Shaughnessy to practice squad

Another swing at a veteran TE

The Minnesota Vikings are still having some issues with their depth chart at tight end, so they’ve taken a swing at another veteran in the hopes of fixing some of them.

The team has announced that they have signed tight end James O’Shaughnessy to the practice squad.

O’Shaughnessy has been in the league for a while, having been drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft out of Illinois State. He played for the Chiefs for two seasons, and was then traded to the New England Patriots. His time in New England never got off the ground, however, as he was cut after Training Camp.

From there, O’Shaughnessy went on to the Jacksonville Jaguars, with whom he spent five seasons from 2017 to 2021. He had a pretty solid run with the Jags, catching 104 passes for 1,022 yards and three touchdowns. After his contract in Jacksonville was up, he signed with the Chicago Bears in August but was there for just two weeks before the Bears released him.

As it stands now, T.J. Hockenson and Johnny Mundt have established themselves as the team’s top two tight ends with Irv Smith Jr. on the shelf, but the team has had issues with the TE3 spot. They hope to get Ben Ellefson back soon after he’s spent time on IR and have also used practice squad elevations on rookie Nick Muse and veteran Jacob Hollister, the latter of whom signed with the Las Vegas Raiders this past week.

We’ll see if O’Shaughnessy has an opportunity to make an impact with the Vikings or not.