The Vikings waived offensive lineman Coy Cronk with a non-football injury designation, the team announced Thursday.
Cronk’s injury was undisclosed.
Cronk, 26, signed with the Vikings’ practice squad Nov. 4 but did not play a game for Minnesota last season.
He entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Iowa in 2021, signing with the Jaguars. He bounced between the practice squad and the active roster for two seasons plus part of 2023.
His only game action came in three games with the Jaguars in 2022 when he played six offensive snaps and 15 on special teams.
On Wednesday, the Commanders hosted four top quarterback prospects on the same day. Whatever the reason (the best explanation we’ve come up with is that the owner was available for one day to meet with them), the presumptive second overall pick — LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels — might not have been happy about that.
His agent, Ron Butler, reposted the PFT Live clip regarding the quarterback square dance with the guy-thinking-about-something emoji.
So what is the agent thinking? And what is Daniels thinking?
Coincidentally, or not, Butler made it known on Thursday morning that the Vikings were conducting a private workout with Daniels in Baton Rouge, one day after the visit to Washington.
The situation is prompting speculation in league circles that Daniels might not want to play for the Commanders. If that’s the case, would the Commanders still take him at No. 2?
Even before this morning, some were thinking that Commanders ultimately won’t take Daniels.
The team’s options would be to trade out of the spot or just take someone else. As the Commanders consider their options, and as they compare and contrast the four who visited on Wednesday, what if the powers-that-be detected anything from Daniels other than an unequivocal desire to be the team’s next quarterback?
It’s difficult for a player to make a public power play. It’s safer to be discreet. To seem not interested. To decline a request for a private workout.
Have the Commanders conducted a private workout with Daniels? There has been no report of one. Why would his agent disclose the workout with the Vikings and not with the Commanders, if there was one?
This is all food for thought. While it might trigger some Commanders fans, it’s a byproduct of the decision to bring four top quarterbacks in for a visit on the same day.
And, please, this is not the same as Bill Belichick bringing in a bunch of offensive linemen at the same time. This is one of the most important decisions the Washington franchise has made in decades. They clearly will emerge from round one with a quarterback. Will it be Daniels at No. 2? Someone else at No. 2? Or someone else at a lower spot?
We’ll all find out in a week. Before then, we’ll be trying to figure out the direction in which the quarterback draft winds are blowing.
Wednesday was the final day that NFL teams could host draft prospects for visits to their facilities, but meetings can still take place elsewhere and the Vikings will take advantage of that on Thursday.
Quarterback Jayden Daniels’ agent Ron Butler told Tom Pelissero of NFL Media that his client will be having dinner with members of the Vikings organization in Baton Rouge on Thursday night. Daniels spent Wednesday with the Commanders, who have the second overall pick next week.
Should the Commanders settle on Daniels, the Vikings won’t have more time with Daniels than Thursday’s dinner but another choice by Washington could put Daniels in play via a trade up by Minnesota. They own the 11th and 23rd picks in the first round and have long been seen as a candidate to move up in order to nab a quarterback.
Whether that happens or not is one of many storylines that will unfold between now and the end of the first round next Thursday night.
Where will quarterback Drake Maye be drafted? It’s one of the biggest questions for round one of the draft.
It also has prompted a major sportsbook to stop accepting one type of wager.
DraftKings has taken Maye off the board for any team-specific picks. He’s still an option for wagers tied to draft position — No. 2, No. 3, and No. 5, most notably.
Maye is currently +220 to go second overall. (Jayden Daniels is the favorite at -290.) Maye is the favorite to go third, at -145. He’s also the favorite to go fifth, at -2000. (The last one suggests that bettors see a team like the Vikings trading up to No. 5 to get Maye.)
Wagers aren’t currently being taken by DraftKings as to the specific team that will draft Maye. Apparently, that move flows from concerns that the volatility of the market coupled with the possibility of inside information could make DraftKings vulnerable to big losses.
Inside information is and should be a major concern regarding wagers of this nature. Really, any bet that has nothing to do with what happens on the field opens the door to the dissemination and utilization of inside information. (That happened at the Super Bowl, with the color of the Gatorade dumped on Chiefs coach Andy Reid.)
It’s one of the biggest potential problems when it comes to legalized gambling, and it’s one of the ways that the NFL can stumble into a major betting scandal.
DraftKings sees the potential for it; otherwise, it would have no reason to not take bets on where Maye might go.
Will six quarterbacks be taken in round one for the first time since 1983? Well, seven teams picking in the top 13 could be hoping to draft one.
The Bears at No. 1 (Caleb Williams is a given), the Commanders at No. 2 (Jayden Daniels presumably, but they might have too many cooks in the kitchen to do the obvious thing), the Patriots at No. 3, the Giants at No. 6, the Vikings at No. 11, the Broncos at No. 12, and the Raiders at No. 13 are all believed to be thinking about taking a quarterback.
For the Bears and Commanders, it’s a no-brainer because they don’t have clear alternatives to start. The Patriots have Jacoby Brissett, who could in theory handle the job. The Vikings have Sam Darnold, the Broncos have Jarrett Stidham, and the Raiders have Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell.
The one team that stands out is the Giants. They have Daniel Jones, a top-10 pick in 2019 who is on his second contract. The Giants also have no impact players at any of the offensive skill positions. It would be odd, to say the least, for them to take a quarterback now.
In past years, taking a quarterback high in the draft could provide insurance of sorts for the head coach and/or G.M. They won’t be fired until the new quarterback gets a chance to show what he can do.
But that didn’t save former Giants coach Pat Shurmur, who was fired a year after Jones was drafted. It also didn’t help the likes of Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace in Chicago, who were fired one year after trading up to pick quarterback Justin Fields.
That’s the balance the five teams other than the Bears and Commanders need to consider. Can they make it work with who they have, and how much better will the team be if the first-round pick is used on a different player? It’s a particularly important question for teams that might have to trade up to get the guy they want.
Regardless, there are currently seven teams that are considering quarterbacks. And six first-rounders. Someone won’t be getting one. How many will affirmatively choose not to try?
We’ll find out in nine days.