GOOD NEWS FOR VIKINGS as new manager adds top class players to help him win......

The new faces continue to find their way to the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center, as the Minnesota Vikings have added two more defensive players on this Wednesday.

The team has agreed to terms with both edge defender Jihad Ward and linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill. The financial terms of the deals were not immediately made available, but I would suspect they’re probably one-year deals.

Grugier-Hill has been in the league since 2016 when he was a sixth-round pick of the New England Patriots out of Eastern Illinois. He was waived by the Patriots as part of their final cuts and claimed by the Philadelphia Eagles, where he spent four seasons, including winning a Super Bowl that we don’t talk about around here.

Following his time with Philadelphia, he signed with the Miami Dolphins for the 2020 season, where he was coached by current Vikings’ defensive coordinator Brian Flores. He then spent about a season and a half with the Houston Texans, being granted his release by them midway through the 2022 season. He finished the 2022 season with the Arizona Cardinals and played for the Carolina Panthers this past season.

Ward was also a part of the 2016 NFL Draft, but he went much earlier than Grugier-Hill did, being selected by the Oakland Raiders with their second-round pick. He played for the Raiders for two seasons before being traded to the Dallas Cowboys during the 2018 offseason. The Cowboys then cut Ward, and he signed on with the Indianapolis Colts’ practice squad.

Ward spent 2018 with the Colts and made their squad in 2019, only to be released a few weeks into the season. He was then signed by the Baltimore Ravens, and played there through the end of the 2020 season. He then spent a year with the Jacksonville Jaguars and followed that up by playing the past two seasons with the New York Giants.

Both Ward and Grugier-Hill could end up serving as primary backups at their positions, with Grugier-Hill providing depth behind Blake Cashman and Ivan Pace Jr. at inside linebacker and Ward backing up the team’s new edge tandem of Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel. They could probably start in a pinch as well, but they’re solid depth pieces for Brian Flores to have around in any case.