The Minnesota Vikings signed free-agent wide receiver Tajae Sharpe on Wednesday to one-year contract.
Sharpe will compete to start alongside Adam Thielen, but he does not seem to be a viable replacement for Stefon Diggs’ production.
Last year in Tennesse, he caught 25 passes for 329 yards last season with Titans, then disappeared in their three playoff games — one catch for six yards. He had six targets and played 54 total snaps at New England, Baltimore and Kansas City.
A fifth-round pick out of Massachusetts in 2016, Sharpe has 92 receptions for 1,167 yards and 8 touchdowns in his three NFL season. He missed all of 2017 after surgery for a stress fracture in his right foot during offseason workouts, but had returned to play in the final two preseason games before re-injuring his foot and being placed on injured reserve the entire season.
By far, Sharpe’s best season was his rookie campaign in 2016, when he caught 41 passes for 525 yards and two touchdowns.
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The Vikings also signed defensive end Anthony Zettel on Wednesday, according to ESPN. Zettel appeared in four games with the Bengals and one game with the 49ers last season, across which he notched six tackles (three solo). The 27-year-old now stands to spend the summer competing for a depth role along the Vikings’ defensive line.
Zettel started all 16 games for Detroit in 2017 and had 6 1/2 sacks. He’s played in only 25 games since then without any sacks.
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On Tuesday, the Vikings signed XFL linebacker DeMarquis Gates to a nonguaranteed one-year, $610,000 contract. Also interested in him were the Cleveland Browns and Washington Redskins.
Minnesota had interest in signing Gates last spring after he had played for Memphis in the AAF. However, he elected to sign then with Washington, according to the Pioneer Press. But he was cut before Redskins training camp.
