Vikings finally sign a running back
One day after Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepted the nomination for Vice President of the United States, the Minnesota professional football team signed a former star player from Minnesota’s premier college football team. Minnesota is everything.
Vikings finally sign a running back
After signing just one running back – Aaron Jones – all offseason, Minnesota signed former Minnesota Golden Gophers standout running back Mohamed Ibrahim.
Kevin Seifert of ESPN tweeted: “Vikings sign former Minnesota running back Mo Ibrahim, per LAA’s Matt Leist.”
The Vikings will trim the 91-man roster down to 53 in five days, so Ibrahim hopes to enter as RB3 or RB4 — or move to the practice squad in 2024. And he’s the sixth running back on the current roster, with one preseason game left:
- Aaron Jones
- Ty Chandler
- Kene Nwangwu
- Michael Gaskin
- DeWayne McBride
- Mohammed Ibrahim
A month ago, Darren Wolfson of KSTP accurately predicted Thursday’s transaction. He said on SKOR North in July: “Damn, maybe they’ll end up signing Mohamed Ibrahim, who they obviously already have a lot in common with.”
Ibrahim went undrafted in April 2023 and made the Lions’ 90-man roster via the UDFA list last offseason. However, he was quite productive at the University of Minnesota, amassing 4,668 rushing yards on 867 attempts (an average of 5.4 yards per carry) with 53 touchdowns. Ibrahim appeared in 41 career games as a Gopher. But Ibrahim left the Lions at the end of training camp and the preseason. However, he returned to Detroit in October for a practice squad assignment.
The 26-year-old was twice named First-Team All-Big Ten in 2020 and 2022 and likely would have received that honor in 2021 had he not been injured. Ibrahim was also a Third-Team All-American in 2020 and the 2020 Ameche–Dayne Running Back of the Year.
Ibrahim is 5’8″, 200 lbs. and has 4.5-40 speed. The Vikings’ only downside is his experience. He played just one game for the 2023 Lions, had no offensive snaps and thus no running attempts in the NFL. Ibrahim has returned one kick for 22 yards in his short NFL career.
The Vikings have a former Gopher on the current roster – new linebacker Blake Cashman, a teammate of Ibrahim in 2018.
Minnesota ranked 27th in 2023 according to Rushing DVOA. The club also finished 27th in 2022 according to the same metric and promised to improve in 2023. However, they didn’t. A few weeks ago, head coach Kevin O’Connell spoke to KFAN’s Dan Barreiro and said of his 2024 offense, “We’re going to run the football and we want to establish that.”
Minnesota gave Ibrahim a top-30 visit ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft. He has been on their radar for some time.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube channel. VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis and opinions on all things purple team related, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Viking obsession dates back to 1996. Listed secret passions: Peanut butter ice cream, “The Sopranos,” Basset Hounds and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information from OverTheCap.com.
