The Minnesota Vikings have waived wide receiver Moritz Böhringer, who is the first NFL player ever drafted straight out of Europe.
With the preseason over, the Minnesota Vikings have to get down to a 53-man roster. In efforts to get closer to that number they released their first wide receiver today. It was not one of their rookies either. The first one to go was Moritz Böhringer from Germany.
Böhringer was drafted by the Vikings in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL draft. He was the first player ever drafted from Europe without playing college football first.
To put it bluntly, it was a bad draft choice by the Vikings. The only positive to drafting him was the fact that he ran 4.4 40-yard dash and measured at 6-foot-4, 229 pounds. Outside of that he may have been the most raw player to ever be on an NFL roster.
"Meet 6’4 German WR Moritz Boehringer, the first NFL player drafted straight out of Europehttps://t.co/WqUOEkaLZz— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 30, 2016"
The level of competition he played against prior to the NFL was not a good indicator of how well he would stack up against NFL talent to say the least.
Last year, Böhringer was released by the Vikings following preseason as well. They gave him a chance to stick around by signing him to the practice squad. That eventually led to a 2017 training camp invite and brings us to his departure once again. This time, it should be a clean split that does not end in another practice squad invitation.
There were reports that Böhringer was looking better during camp this year. When really looking at what head coach Mike Zimmer said as reported by CBS it really isn’t that encouraging.
"“His routes are much better, Darrell Hazell is doing a good job with him. He’s catching the ball better and has a better understanding of the offense. He is still a ways away, but he has improved a lot.”"
The aspects of playing receiver that Zimmer said he was improving on are not things an NFL team should be focusing on when preparing for a season.
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Many believe that the later rounds are for developmental players. That is true but Boehringer is an experimental player, not a developmental player.
Stefon Diggs was drafted in the fifth round in 2015 as a developmental player. To be classified as developmental you need to already do some things well.
At the end of the day, this was a great publicity stunt to grow the Vikings fan base outside of the United States. It also keeps the NFL dream alive for people playing football at any level anywhere in the world.
Next: T.J. Clemmings among the first few cuts
Other than that, it was a waste of a draft pick by the Minnesota Vikings that ended exactly like we all knew it was going to end.