Predicting which Vikings players will make the 2020 practice squad

Brandon Dillon – TE

Brandon Dillon surprisingly made the team a season ago despite the Vikings being fairly stacked at the tight end position. He was also helped since Minnesota was thin at wide receiver and instead of keeping five, they opted to keep four, and use their extra spot for Dillon.

Dillon did earn his way onto the team by catching basically everything thrown his way in practice and exhibition games last summer though. His blocking needs work, but he is a player who provides good depth if Irv Smith Jr. or Kyle Rudolph were to get injured this season.

What could hurt Dillon this year is the added depth to the Vikings receiving corps. They will likely keep at least five receivers this year, which could cause them to only hold onto three tight ends. If Dillon can’t surpass Tyler Conklin on the depth chart, he could find himself on the practice squad in 2020.

Nate Stanley – QB

The Vikings usually only keep two quarterbacks on the active roster, with the third ending up on the practice squad.

Last year, Jake Browning was the third option and since he was an undrafted rookie, he was never really given a true shot to beat out Sean Mannion to be the top backup behind Kirk Cousins. Browning will be in a battle to stay on the practice squad this year with one of Minnesota’s 2020 seventh-round picks, Nate Stanley.

Stanley isn’t the athlete that Browning is, but has great size at 6-foot-4 and 235 pounds. He’s got a rocket arm and he was very productive at Iowa, throwing for over 8,000 yards with 68 touchdowns to 23 interceptions.

The fact he was taken with a draft pick does give him a slight advantage, but he’ll have to outplay Browning in camp to take his seat on the squad. However, with the extra slots on the practice squad this year, the Vikings could decide to keep two quarterbacks as added insurance.