Source: Vikings never gave Kyle Sloter a chance to win the No. 2 QB job

Well before the Minnesota Vikings waived him last month, the team seemed to already know that the young quarterback wasn’t going to be a part of their 2019 roster.

Back in 2017, the Minnesota Vikings paid a premium to add rookie quarterback Kyle Sloter to their practice squad. Sloter became available after the Denver Broncos waived him prior to the regular season and the Vikings offered to pay him three times the rate that is normally offered to guys on the practice squad (around $20,000 per week).

Sloter went on to spend the 2017 and 2018 seasons with Minnesota and heading into the 2019 offseason, it was believed by some that he would have a good opportunity to win the job as Kirk Cousins’ backup.

However, it sounds like the Vikings already had their mind made up about Sloter’s future with the team before they even hit the practice field this spring.

A source close to Sloter has told The Viking Age that Sean Mannion was given all the second-team reps during Minnesota’s OTA’s this year and Sloter was left having to split eight third-team reps with undrafted rookie Jake Browning.

According to this source, Sloter was also informed before training camp even began this year that he wouldn’t be competing for the Vikings’ No. 2 job behind Cousins. Instead, he was told he would spend camp just splitting third-team reps with Browning.

So basically, it sounds like Minnesota only kept Sloter around this year in case Mannion went down with an injury.

Despite knowing his chances of making the Vikings’ final 2019 roster were pretty slim, Sloter still went and played lights out during his opportunities this preseason.

In Minnesota’s four exhibition games this summer, the young quarterback completed 76.5 percent of his passes for 443 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. Apparently it didn’t matter what Sloter did during the preseason though, as the Vikings were already planning to let him go.

Why didn’t Minnesota give him a fair shot for the No. 2 job this year? Who knows, but for a team that threw extra money on the table to sign him in 2017, it’s pretty odd that the Vikings basically had zero interest in keeping him around this season.