With training camp noise still swirling around the Vikings’ quarterback battle, Minnesota used its day off in Eagan to take a closer look at a different part of the roster. According to Alec Lewis of The Athletic, the team ran tryouts Monday at TCO Performance Center for three running backs and three safeties.
The running back group included Jermar Jefferson, Dominic Richardson and Marcus Yarns.
Jefferson, 26, entered the league as a seventh-round pick by the Detroit Lions in 2021 after a productive run at Oregon State, where he piled up 2,923 rushing yards and 27 touchdowns from 2018 to 2020 and won Co-Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year in 2020. Most of his NFL time has come with Detroit, though he also spent last season with the Arizona Cardinals.
Across his pro stops, Jefferson has bounced between active rosters and practice squads, and he has 21 career carries for 96 yards and two touchdowns, both of them from his rookie year. He has also had offseason or practice-squad stints with Tennessee, Arizona and San Francisco.
Richardson, 25, is a 2025 UDFA who signed last offseason with the Dallas Cowboys. His college path covered three schools.
He began at Oklahoma State, where he played from 2020 to 2023 and totaled 1,139 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns on 272 carries. He then transferred to Baylor for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, finishing with 628 yards, one touchdown and 156 carries.
After another move through the transfer portal, he landed at Tulsa and posted his best statistical season there with 1,065 yards and five touchdowns on 212 carries.
Yarns, 24, came out of Delaware and signed with the New Orleans Saints as a UDFA in 2025. Speed is his calling card.
He ran a 4.45 40-yard dash at the 2025 combine, then this spring led the UFL in yards per carry with 5.7 while playing for the Houston Gamblers, although he only had 61 carries for 357 yards and one touchdown. Over four seasons at Delaware from 2021 through 2024, Yarns rushed for 2,344 yards and 23 touchdowns, and he broke runs of at least 66 yards in each of his last three seasons.
He is also a strong receiver out of the backfield.
Minnesota also took a look at three safeties: Glendon Miller, Wande Owens and DQ Smith.
Miller, 24, played all five of his college seasons at Maryland and made his biggest impact over his final two years, when he collected seven interceptions and accounted for 76 of his 100 total collegiate tackles. He entered the league last year as an undrafted free agent but did not appear in a regular-season game. This offseason, he played 10 games for the Houston Gamblers in the UFL, where he had 33 tackles and three pass breakups.
Owens, 25, moved from cornerback at Yale to a versatile safety role at New Hampshire in 2024. As a graduate senior there, he posted 111 tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack, one interception returned for a touchdown and one forced fumble.
After going undrafted in 2025, he signed with the Buffalo Bills, but his rookie regular season was spent on injured reserve. Owens also brings major athletic traits, including a 43-inch vertical.
Smith, 22, was a four-year starter at South Carolina after making the switch from high school quarterback to college safety. He recorded at least one interception in each of his four seasons with the Gamecocks, finishing with five for his career, including one pick-six as a freshman. By the time he left Columbia, he had 228 tackles in 48 games and earned an invitation to the 2026 Shrine Bowl.
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