And then last Friday Nick Taylor suffered a shoulder injury. With the team already kind of thin at defensive back after Josh Robinson’s hamstring pull, the Vikings worked out a couple of cornerbacks. Come Monday, Nick Taylor got the news that he was being released. The Vikings replaced him with Chris Stroud, a defensive back out of Webber International. The Vikes will likely reach an injury settlement with Mr. Taylor and it will be back to the basketball court for him.

Like I said, it’s a pretty unforgiving business. Especially if you’re a warm body brought in for camp depth.

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Nick Taylor is a really fast guy who last year played arena football and once upon a time played point guard for FIU. The Vikings saw Nick run at FIU’s pro day and were impressed by his quicks. So the team invited Nick for a workout last Friday and they loved what they saw. They immediately signed Taylor to a three-year reserve/futures contract.

Needless to say, Taylor will have to prove that he’s more than just really fast if he wants to play pro football. The Vikings have reportedly told him that he’ll be in the training camp mix at cornerback, punt returner and maybe receiver. Taylor’s speed – he ran a 4.27 40 at FIU pro day – makes him very intriguing as a punt return guy. If he can actually catch.

The story here is Rick Spielman’s willingness to search far and wide for talent. The Vikings earlier this  year signed CFL linebacker Solomon Elimimian to a reserve contract and now they’ve added Taylor. Last year they picked up Manny Arceneaux who ended up not contributing. It’s highly unlikely that either Elimimian or Taylor will contribute either but you never know. You sign them to these contracts because maybe you’ll get lucky and find a solid player.

At the very least, the Vikings found themselves a solid point guard for pick-up games.

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