The Vikings Shouldn't Buy The Hype Of UDFA WR Silas Bolden

AtoZ Sports

Tyler Forness discusses how undrafted free agent Silas Bolden is currently getting a lot of attention and hype from Vikings beat writers, and why Minnesota should think twice before adding him to the roster

Transcript

00:00One undrafted free agent is getting a lot of buzz from the Vikings beat, and we need to pump the brakes.

00:08Minnesota Vikings have done a really good job throughout the entirety of the Kwesi Dopa Mensa area,

00:12bringing in undrafted free agents and having them make an impact on a game-to-game basis during the regular season.

00:19So far, Minnesota Vikings have kept eight undrafted free agents on the initial 53-man roster,

00:25and those players have stayed on the roster, including Ivan Pace Jr., who's currently a starter at linebacker.

00:32There's one UDFA that's been getting a lot of buzz, and it's for reasons not necessarily linked to playing offense or defense.

00:39That is wide receiver Silas Bolden out of the University of Texas.

00:42Now, if you had followed his career, he started at Oregon State and was a really dynamic weapon for them,

00:47goes to Texas, kind of takes a little bit of a backseat as a wide receiver, but thrives as a punt returner.

00:53And one of the ways he did so was returning a punt against Arizona State in the national quarterfinal.

00:59And that was a big deal and a momentum-swinging play.

01:02And that's kind of why the Vikings ended up bringing him in.

01:06They wanted a guy who could be a really good punt returner.

01:09But there's a little bit of a problem.

01:11Is that punt returnability going to translate to the NFL?

01:14I have my serious doubts.

01:16When you look at his relative athletic score, 2.69 out of a possible 10.

01:2026.9th percentile athlete, and when you look at it, it's not pretty.

01:26At the Combine, 5'7.5 and 162 pounds, 3.8th percentile height, 2.6th percentile weight.

01:34Those are brutal.

01:35Plus, the agility scores are bad.

01:3728.5th percentile in the short short-term, 20.7th percentile in the three-cone.

01:42When you go to the 10-yard split, it's only 39.5th percentile.

01:4540-yard dash is okay, 4.53.

01:48That's 67.4th percentile.

01:50But the explosion metrics are 68.6 percentile.

01:53The broad jump at 10 foot 2 inches.

01:55And the vertical is 50.4th percentile, 34 inches.

01:58We're not talking about this dynamic athlete.

02:01And when you are that small, you better be a dynamic athlete.

02:06This is where Darren Sproles was able to thrive.

02:08Because not only was he small, but he was built.

02:11He was a brick house, nearly 200 pounds, and he had the quickness and speed to be able

02:17to do things in the open field.

02:18I have real concerns that Silas Bolden's not going to be able to do that in the National

02:22Football League.

02:23Now, the Vikings have never shied away from taking a guy who is very small.

02:28Jordan Addison, McGuy Blackman, Ivan Pace Jr., Dwight McGlothern, Samaya Vaughn, and Bolden

02:34is the next one.

02:35But we're talking about a punt returner.

02:37Are you going to want to keep this guy in just to be a punt returner?

02:39Because he's probably never going to be able to contribute on offense.

02:42He is too small.

02:43And with that size does not come elite athleticism.

02:47Even though the beat seems to be really excited about him from what they've seen during mini

02:51camp and training camp practices, I have my doubts that those mini camp and not training

02:56camp, but rookie camp practices are not going to translate the same once you get the real

03:01big boys on the field.

03:02And he's got to do it in game situations.

03:04It's a different world.

03:05Better pump the brakes on Bolden.

03:06The profile is just not there.

03:08I'm Tyler Farnes with A to Z Sports.

03:10Skull Vikings.

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