Vikings cut starter Armon Watts, trade with Texans for former second-rounder Ross Blacklock

The Vikings have been wheeling and dealing within the trenches forward of the 2022 season. Along with buying and selling backup offensive lineman Jesse Davis to the Steelers, Minnesota on Tuesday launched beginning defensive lineman Armon Watts and bought former second-round draft choose Ross Blacklock from the Texans, as the team announced.

Watts, 26, was a shock casualty of ultimate cuts after beginning 9 video games in 2021 and exiting the preseason as one of many Vikings’ anticipated first-teamers alongside the line of defense. A 12 months after logging a career-best 46 tackles, 5 sacks and 10 quarterback hits, his launch — which comes three years after Minnesota made him a sixth-round choose — saves the workforce nearly $2.6 million.

Blacklock enters as Watts’ presumptive substitute alongside the workforce’s new 3-4 entrance, simply two years after the Texans drafted him fortieth total out of TCU. The 24-year-old primarily performed defensive sort out in Houston, the place he served as a backup to Maliek Collins. After a quiet rookie season, he noticed elevated snaps in 2021, ending with 22 tackles, two sacks and 6 QB hits. Most not too long ago, he sat out the Texans’ preseason finale whereas recovering from a foot harm.

The Vikings despatched a 2023 sixth-round choose to the Texans in change for Blacklock and a 2023 seventh-rounder, whereas netting a 2025 conditional seventh-rounder by dealing Davis, the reserve offensive guard, to Pittsburgh.