The Minnesota Vikings don’t have much hope of a return trip to the playoffs this season, but the franchise continues exploring ways to develop the roster for the stretch run and into next year.
Minnesota hosted several players on Tuesday, December 9, mostly on the defensive side of the football. However, the team also gave a look to a wildly successful FCS running back out of South Dakota.
NFL reporter Aaron Wilson noted on X that the Vikings worked out safety Tysheem Johnson, linebacker Jacob Roberts, cornerback Trey Vaval, linebacker Josh Ross and running back Travis Theis.
Theis rushed for 3,668 yards and 40 TDs as a member of the Coyotes, boasting a career clip of 5.0 yards per carry. He rushed for 365 yards on 70 carries (5.21 yards per attempt) across 12 games, including four starts, for the Montreal Alouettes in 2025
Currently a member of the Canadian Football League, the 24-year-old Theis is a player of particular note given the potential that the Vikings could part ways with Aaron Jones next offseason in the interest of salary cap savings. Minnesota is facing a $36 million cap deficit in 2026 and cutting Jones would save the team $7.2 million against the cap, which is 20 percent of the debt the Vikings must make up.
Jones, 31, has seen his production plummet compared to his first season with Minnesota in 2024, largely because of injury issues.
Josh Ross Has Been Regular Special Teams Contributor Over 3-Year NFL Career
GettyFormer Baltimore Ravens linebacker Josh Ross has joined the Minnesota Vikings.
But it wasn’t Theis the Vikings signed Tuesday, but rather Ross as an addition to the linebacking corps. He inked a deal with the Baltimore Ravens in 2022 as an undrafted rookie before joining the Seattle Seahawks via the waiver wire in October 2024.
Now 26 years old, Ross has appeared in 22 games across three NFL seasons. He has played solely as a special teams player to this point in his career, registering 1,047 snaps in the game’s third phase during his time as a pro.
Presumably the Vikings inked Ross to perform a similar role for their special teams unit over the last four games of the season.
Vikings Still Have Incentive to Play to Win Down Stretch of Season
GettyQuarterback JJ McCarthy of the Minnesota Vikings.
While Minnesota’s most recent win was essentially too little, too late — moving the team to 5-8 on the year and three games out of third place in the NFC North Division — there is still reason for the Vikings to play to win down the stretch.
Namely, the team must decide precisely what it has in second-year quarterback JJ McCarthy. McCarthy is 3-4 as a starter with 1,092 passing yards, nine TDs and 10 INTs and has completed just 56 percent of his passes. The 22-year-old has also rushed for 139 yards and two scores.
McCarthy, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2024 draft, missed his entire rookie campaign with a knee injury and sat out five games this season with a high-ankle sprain. He also missed an outing two weeks ago with a concussion.
But McCarthy produced the best performance of his career last Sunday, putting up 163 yards and three TDs on 16-of-23 passing in a blowout win over the Washington Commanders. His other two victories came on the road against division opponents in the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, both of which could be in the playoffs at the end of this season.
The Vikings are going to add a veteran QB to the mix next spring, but how well McCarthy finishes may determine whether they look for a solid backup on a short-term deal or a legitimate challenger for the starting job.
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