Vikings add old friend to quarterback room before rematch with Packers

On Tuesday, the Minnesota Vikings announced the re-signing of quarterback Kyle Sloter as the team deals with Sean Mannion on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.

After spending the 2017 and 2018 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, quarterback Kyle Sloter was expected by some to compete for the No. 2 job behind Kirk Cousins in 2019. For various reasons, however, that didn’t end up happening for Sloter, and the Vikings actually released him as part of their final cuts before the 2019 regular season.

Since then, Sloter has bounced around with a few teams around the NFL, including the Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, and Las Vegas Raiders.

On Tuesday, Minnesota decided to give their old friend a call as the team is in need of additional quarterback depth with Sean Mannion currently on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Sloter agreed to a deal, and for the first time since the 2019 preseason, he’s back on the Vikings’ roster.

What does the return of Kyle Sloter say about how the Minnesota Vikings feel about Kellen Mond?

With Mannion currently out of action, most have assumed rookie Kellen Mond would continue to be Minnesota’s No. 2 quarterback behind Cousins, just as he was last Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams.

However, the addition of Sloter on Tuesday might indicate that the Vikings don’t have much confidence in Mond if he has to fill in for Cousins at all during the next two weeks.

Re-signing could also just be as simple as Minnesota adding more depth to the quarterback position with Mannion being out and the chances of other players missing time due to the COVID-19 virus currently being much higher than they were earlier this season.

In two preseasons with the Vikings, Sloter completed 74.7 percent of his passes, averaged 7.6 yards per pass attempt, threw eight touchdowns, only tossed one interception, posted a passer rating of 116.9, and rushed for one touchdown.