The Minnesota Vikings have formally ended their working relationship with Jamarca Sanford, cutting the safety from IR with an injury settlement (per Darren Wolfson).
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A seventh round pick out of Ole Miss, Sanford spent five years with the Vikings, becoming a starter in 2011 after the release of free agent bust Madieu Williams.
Sanford was beaten out for the safety job by Mistral Raymond in 2012, but an injury to Raymond put Sanford back into a starting role. He started again in 2013 and played well, and was thought to be in the mix once again in 2014.
Injuries ruined any chance Sanford had of winning a job on Mike Zimmer’s D, and he was placed on short-term IR the weekend of final cuts. The short-term designation – different from IR-to-return, which allows a player to be re-instated from IR after 8 weeks – meant that Sanford’s termination was inevitable.
All-in-all, the Vikings got a pretty nice return for their 2009 seventh round pick. Sanford at his best was a more-than-serviceable NFL safety, a hard-hitting in-the-box defender who would make the occasional big play.
He was always somewhat of a liability in coverage and his tendency to drop interceptions did get annoying after awhile.
Sanford is now free to sign with another NFL team, but he can’t re-sign with the Vikings.