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Promising Vikings Rookie Fumbles Designated Non-Roster Spot
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- Promising Vikings Rookie Fumbles Designated Non-Roster Spot
Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings cut their roster down to 53 players on Tuesday, but the look of Kevin O'Connell's 2025 squad has already seen changes since yesterday's 3 p.m. deadline.
And without a doubt, the 53-man will continue to evolve over the next 12 days, leading up to the Vikings' Monday Night Football opener in Chicago on September 8. On Wednesday, many of the cuts made one day earlier cleared waivers and landed on the 16-man practice squad .
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Some of the recent cut victims from Tuesday who will be back at TCO Performance Center reporting for practice squad duty later this week include camp darlings like (OLB) Gabe Murphy, (CB) Zemaiah Vaughn, (TE) Nick Vannett, (WR) Lucky Jackson and (DL) Taki Taimani.
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Oscar Chapman fumbles MN Vikings International designation
Veteran cornerback Fabian Moreau — who the Vikings brought in midseason last year — was also added, along with late preseason signee, (RB) Xazavian Valladay. Outside of those two making the list, there wasn't much in terms of shock value… except for the one player below with an asterisk next to his name.
The #Vikings have signed 16 players to the practice squad.
📰: https://t.co/jDVDetsQFb pic.twitter.com/0vADW7McWc— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) August 27, 2025
Related: MN Vikings Were Sniffing Around Another WR
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That asterisk indicates the player Minnesota selected to occupy its lone international practice squad designation. As you may have noticed, that is not Australian UDFA punter, Oscar Chapman , written in for the Vikings. Instead, they selected Italian offensive lineman, Max Pircher to hold down their International Player Pathway designation.
For those who have been paying attention, Chapman was previously thought to be a lock for Minnesota's international designation. In fact, this time last week it was widely believed Oscar had a better chance of beating out incumbent Ryan Wright, and making the Vikings' 53-man outright, than not being on the team at all.
The botched hold that cost Chapman his practice squad spot
That was until the MN Vikings final preseason game, in which Chapman fumbled this hold attempt for Will Reichard, resulting in the second-year placekicker's first and only miss of the preseason. On Monday, the rookie punter out of Auburn was waived… and now it appears he may not be back.
The hold by Oscar Chapman 😬 pic.twitter.com/lr0TZSXZlD
— Sean Borman (@SeanBormanNFL) August 23, 2025
Related: MN Vikings Wide Receiver Went Under the Knife
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The questions surrounding Oscar Chapman during training camp and the preseason never revolved around his punting ability. It was always about the trust, or lack thereof, that the Minnesota Vikings had in his holding abilities.
It goes mostly unnoticed during the course of an NFL season, but a holding job in football has to be one of the most thankless, pressure-packed position in all of sports. If they do their job properly, nobody notices they exist.
On the other hand, if they bobble a snap and it causes a botched field goal attempt, the holder will immediately become the fanbase's easiest punching bag. Even worse, as Oscar Chapman found out the hard way, it can cost someone their professional football career. Hopefully, that is not the case for this Aussie punter.
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