First wave of roster cuts announced by Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings announced their first wave of roster cuts for the 2016 NFL season and they included Austin Shepherd, Sean Hickey, and Claudell Louis.

This is a sad time of year for many young men hoping to achieve their dreams of becoming a professional football player. Getting an invite to a team’s training camp is hard. Sticking with a team through the preseason is even more difficult. But with the first wave of cuts coming through for the Minnesota Vikings, many players will take a step back in their life goals.

The official Minnesota Vikings website released their list of the first wave of cuts following the team’s third preseason game today, and there aren’t many surprises, but one of the moves was very interesting.

Here is the list of players released as stated on the official team website:

• DE Theiren Cockran
• G Sean Hickey
• TE Brian Leonhardt
• DE Claudell Louis
• WR Marken Michel
• LB Terrance Plummer
• G Austin Shepherd
• WR Terrell Sinkfield
• QB Brad Sorensen

Among those players are several who are easy to root for. The tough road that several of these guys took to get to this point were great stories, including Claudell Louis, but they have their time with the Minnesota Vikings come to a close.

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The one name on this list that is the most surprising is Austin Shepherd. He was a part of the team for several years and it appeared as though the team was hoping to continue to grow and develop him into a solid backup or swing tackle. This becomes even more interesting when he was listed as a guard during the release statement, wondering how much of his time at offense tackle was an experiment and if that was something that just plain didn’t work out.

Guys like Terrell Sinkfield or Sean Hickey may get another shot in the NFL. They will likely be brought in for at least one more training camp next year to improve their resumes and impress their teams and others around the league with hopes of getting picked up somewhere.

Next: Vikings game-by-game 2016 season preview

Best of luck to these 9 players going forward. Hopefully, this is just a minor setback when it comes to the hopes and dreams of these players to become professional football players. Many of these guys will work hard to get another look in the NFL, and hopefully they can make their mark with that opportunity.