We've been monitoring the return from injury of Minnesota Vikings G/C Pat Elflein for the past few weeks now. Coming up on the deadline to make a decision to bring him back to roster or keep him in the injured reserve for the rest of the season, the Vikings made a surprise move.
According to Ian Rapoport and multiple sources, the Vikings skipped both of those choices and have released Pat Elflein outright, opting to roll with second year guard Ezra Cleveland the rest of the way.
Elflein was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 2017 and spent his first two seasons as the teams center before shifting to guard for the past two years. That experiment clearly wasn't going well, so bad in fact that the Vikings just cut ties rather than keep the depth even.
It's just the latest move in the Vikings semi-rebuild as they look to refill the cupboards while reassessing the salary cap along the way. Elflein was set to become a free agent after this season, the Vikings opted to move on early