Vikings Add Jihad Ward To Practice Squad

The well-traveled Ward has played for seven teams since the Raiders took him in the second round of the 2016 draft. During his first stop in Minnesota, he played all 17 of the team’s games, recorded a 41% defensive snap share and made a pair of starts. Although Ward only totaled 10 tackles and one sack, he finished third to Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel in quarterback hits (14).

Ward spent 2025 in Tennessee, where he played a fifth straight 17-game season and tallied a dozen starts. While taking the field for over 68% of defensive snaps, the 32-year-old posted 31 tackles and career highs in QB hits (a team-leading 22), sacks (five) and pass breakups (four). Despite his decent counting stats, Pro Football Focus gave Ward poor grades as both a pass rusher and run defender. He ended the year as PFF’s 110th-ranked edge defender out of 119 qualifiers.

Ward is now joining Kyle Van Noy as the second veteran outside linebacker on the Vikings’ practice squad. Both players have previous experience with defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who will rely on Van Ginkel and Dallas Turner as his primary edge defenders this year. The Vikings no longer have Greenard, whom they traded to the Eagles.

Aside from Van Ginkel and Turner, 2024 undrafted free agent Bo Richter and 2025 UDFA Chaz Chambliss are the only OLBs on the Vikings’ 53-man roster. Richter and Chambliss have not gotten much defensive action at the NFL level, but Van Noy and Ward are battle-tested options who could factor in this season.