The Minnesota Vikings spent the 2026 NFL Draft looking for help along the offensive line, but their late-round swing at center Gavin Gerhardt is starting to look like a pick that may never pay off on the 53-man roster.
After Ryan Kelly retired from the NFL following the 2025 season, Minnesota was expected to target interior line help earlier in the draft and bring in real competition for Blake Brandel. Instead, the Vikings waited until No. 235 overall in the seventh round to take Gerhardt, the Cincinnati center CBS Sports had ranked No. 482 and a player many projected to go undrafted.
On paper, the selection addressed a need. Gerhardt also came from a Cincinnati line that was named Big 12 Offensive Line of the Week three times in 2025. But the early returns in Minnesota have been thin, and with one preseason game left, his path to a roster spot is looking slimmer by the day.
So far, Gerhardt has barely been seen. He played 13 snaps in the second preseason game and didn’t appear at all in the opener. That kind of usage doesn’t suggest a team eager to learn more about him.
The bigger issue is what’s happening - or not happening - behind him on the depth chart. Brandel has had his own issues with snaps out of the shotgun, and nobody beneath him has clearly seized the job. Even so, head coach Kevin O'Connell has not seemed to press Gerhardt into a bigger role in practice or preseason action to see whether he can handle it.
That leaves a strange question hanging over Minnesota’s approach: why spend a draft pick on a position of need, then not give that player every chance to prove he belongs? And if the Vikings have already decided Gerhardt isn’t in their immediate plans, why keep him around through the final preseason game?
At this point, it would be a major surprise if Gerhardt made the Vikings’ 53-man roster. He has been close to invisible throughout training camp and practices, and the roster cutdown deadline is Sunday, Aug. 30.
A practice squad return still makes sense if Minnesota wants to keep developing him, especially since the team liked him enough to draft him in the first place. But as far as helping the Vikings right away, that door looks closed. The most likely outcome now is that Gerhardt doesn’t survive the final cuts and Minnesota moves on without him on the Week 1 roster.
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