The Vikings have signed undrafted rookie wide receiver Garett Maag, the team announced on Friday. The local product takes the spot of retired TE Ben Ellefson on the 90-man roster.
Maag is from Inver Grove Heights in the Twin Cities metro area. He attended St. Croix Lutheran High School and played his college football at North Dakota. Across a five-year career, the 6'4", 210-pound Maag caught 162 passes for 2,152 yards and 18 touchdowns. He had over 500 yards in three of those seasons, including a 2020 campaign in which he caught 25 passes for 523 yards (20.9 yards per catch) in just seven games.
This spring, Maag worked out at the University of Minnesota's Pro Day and caught the eye of a few NFL teams. He ran a 4.5 40 and posted a 40-inch vertical leap, earning an impressive 8.53 Relative Athletic Score. That was enough to get him an invitation to the Giants' rookie minicamp, but Maag wasn't signed to a contract.
Now he'll get an opportunity to compete for a job with his hometown NFL team.
The Vikings have a deep wide receiver group, which should lead to plenty of strong competition. The big names at the top of the depth chart are Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, K.J. Osborn, and Jalen Nailor. Then there are players like Brandon Powell, Jalen Reagor, and Trishton Jackson. At the bottom of the roster, Maag joins a group that includes Malik Knowles, Cephus Johnson III, Thayer Thomas, Lucky Jackson, and Blake Proehl. That's 13 total receivers fighting for maybe 6 roster spots and two or three practice squad spots.
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