Vikings make a surprising roster move before final preseason game

One position battle for the Minnesota Vikings ended with a surprising cut ahead of the team’s third preseason game of the year.

In the preseason, cuts can come at any time. The only thing for sure is that teams like the Minnesota Vikings have until a specific date and time to trim their rosters down to 53 players for the regular season.

One of those surprising cuts came on Thursday when the decision was made to release punter and holder Jordan Berry, a 6’5 Australian who was an undrafted free agent in 2014 out of Eastern Kentucky University.

Berry spent six seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers before joining the Vikings in 2021. He seemed to have a consistent rapport with long snapper Andrew DePaola and kicker Greg Joseph but struggled to find uniformity as a punter.

Here is the announcement of the transaction as shared by the Minnesota Vikings on their official Twitter account:

What does this mean for the Minnesota Vikings at punter?

With the release of Jordan Berry, the path is cleared for Ryan Wright to be the team’s punter for the 2022 NFL season. Wright came to Minnesota as an undrafted free agent out of Tulane to compete for the job.

In the first two preseason games for the purple and gold, both Berry and Wright had five punts each. The two punters interestingly had the same average yards per punt with 48.6 yards and one punt landing inside the 20, making the competition even.

Considering how close the competition was, it’s surprising a decision was made before final cuts were due. However, they must be confident in Wright’s abilities to make this call in this moment.

This will be something to watch when the Minnesota Vikings take the field for their final preseason game on Saturday against the Denver Broncos. Seeing how Ryan Wright handles the punting and holding with no competition breathing down his neck.