The Most Overlooked Players on the Vikings Right Now

Minnesota Vikings training camp is less than 10 weeks away, and during that event, the coaching staff will shave the roster from 90 men to 53. Accordingly, it’s time to start defining some of the overlooked players entering the summer.

Minnesota’s roster has several quieter names who could become useful pieces before the regular season.

Minnesota’s roster is more than capable of returning to the postseason in 2026. The following players will quietly assist in that endeavor.

Depth Players Will Affect Key Summer Battles

The annual underrated pecking order of Vikings, ranked in ascending order (No. 1 = most underrated).

5. Gavin Bartholomew | TE

Minnesota drafted Bartholomew in 2025 from Round 6 — and then he didn’t do a damn thing as a rookie because of injury. Undrafted tight end Ben Yurosek swiped his job.

Now, though, Bartholomew is presumably healthy, so he’s basically another rookie for the Vikings this season. He and Yurosek will duke it out for the TE3 job this summer, and there’s a chance that Bartholomew prevails, building on the plan from the 2025 NFL Draft.

Who knows? Perhaps Bartholomew is just plain good. There’s no way to tell until he steps foot on a regular season field. The Vikings drafted him for a reason 13 months ago.

4. Ryan Van Demark | OT

The 2025 numbers for Van Demark, a newcomer in free agency, are quite phenomenal, especially for a guy who projects as a backup tackle on the Vikings’ 2026 depth chart.

Here are the Pro Football Focus grades with snap counts

• 2025: 74.4 (312 snaps)
• 2024: 53.3 (199 snaps)
• 2023: 60.2 (47 snaps)

The pass-blocking:

• 2025: 65.6
• 2024: 51.8
• 2023: 27.2

And the run-blocking:

• 2025: 74.9
• 2024: 51.4
• 2023: 64.4

Fans hope that Christian Darrisaw’s ACL has finally healed. If Darrisaw encounters more troubles, inserting Van Demark into the lineup shouldn’t spell doomsday, based on his performance in Buffalo last year.

3. Jay Ward | S

Ward’s path to increased playing time is now clear. With Harrison Smith’s departure, ample safety snaps are available. The Vikings further emphasized this by passing on Dillon Thieneman and Emmanuel McNeil-Warren in the draft, despite Thieneman frequently appearing in mock drafts as a Minnesota-bound player. This leaves Ward, Theo Jackson, and 3rd-Round rookie Jakobe Thomas as the primary contenders for those roles.

Ward already demonstrated his potential late in 2025. He quietly began taking snaps from Jackson, bringing a grittier, more aggressive style to the secondary as Brian Flores relied on him down the stretch.

With only one year left on his contract, this upcoming season is crucial for Ward to prove he can be more than a rotational defensive back. Ward played 250 defensive snaps last year and banked a 70.4 PFF grade. His aggression and playmaking were noteworthy.

2. Blake Brandel | OL

Brandel consistently elevates the importance of a backup role, so much so that he usually wiggles his way into a starting job.

Last season, Brandel played in all 17 games, starting nine and logging 64% of Minnesota’s offensive snaps. The vast playing time was largely due to the Vikings’ injury-plagued offensive line, for which Brandel provided crucial stability.

His greatest asset is his versatility; Brandel can play guard, tackle, and center. It made him one of the Vikings’ most valuable depth players in 2025, stepping in to steady an offensive line frequently disrupted by injuries.

It’s his work at center, however, that truly sparks interest for the 2026 season.

Brandel played 383 snaps at center, showing steady improvement throughout the season. What began as a longshot opportunity to start at the position evolved into a genuine discussion. While his 61.4 PFF grade indicates solid rather than superstar-level play, it represents valuable consistency for an offensive line that often lacked it.

Brandel is on deck to start at center in Week 1, too. Whoodathunkit?

1. James Pierre | CB

Pierre logged a magnificent 86.8 PFF grade in 2025. If that mark translates to 2026, well, Pierre should actually start over Byron Murphy Jr. or Isaiah Rodgers. That won’t happen because the coaching staff loves Murphy Jr. and Rodgers, but Pierre has the spine to start.

That’ll be vital to remember if injuries beset either starter — Murphy Jr. and Rodgers somehow played 17 games apiece in 2025, which is rare for two starting corners.

Pierre is the real deal, and at CB3, he has a chance to be the Vikings’ best third corner since the Mike Zimmer era.

His 41.5 passer rating allowed in Pittsburgh last year was just to die for.

Dustin Baker is a novelist and political scientist. His second novel, The Invaders , is out now. So is … More about Dustin Baker