5 Vikings who deserve to be cut before the 2023 season

Player No. 1

DeWayne McBride - RB

DeWayne McBride was the Vikings' seventh-round choice this April. He was also the one who most draft analysts deemed to be the team's biggest steal and was a lauded choice overall. So expectations were pretty high that the late-round pick might actually carve out a role for himself on this team.

Many assumed he would dominate the competition in the preseason and even have a shot to become the primary backup to Alexander Mattison. Instead of that happening, McBride looks like he's out of his league.

He runs scared, turns his body on contact, and is a shell of the runner who displayed a great combination of vision, power and burst in college.

What really hurts McBride's chances of making the team is that Minnesota brought in two running backs off the street this preseason and both of them have looked better.

Abram Smith ran with more confidence and better production in Week 1 of the preseason, and Aaron Dykes proved to be a capable back and receiver out of the backfield and looked much better than McBride in Week 2.

The sad thing is that both of those players had hardly been here a week, yet they looked more confident and comfortable in this offense.

At this point, there's no doubt that McBride will be cut, and that is the right move. There's also no reason to keep him on the practice squad either because it looks like both Dykes and Smith would be better options with more upside.