Two weeks after releasing veteran slot receiver Jarius Wright, the Minnesota Vikings have signed Kendall Wright as his likely replacement.
At 28 years old, Wright is entering his seventh year in the league. He is a former first-round pick, taken 20th overall by the Tennessee Titans, where he played for five years. He spent last season with the Chicago Bears, where he made 59 catches for 614 yards and one touchdown.
Chicago signed Taylor Gabriel and Allen Robinson in free agency, leaving little room for Wright in their receiving corps. Meanwhile, the Vikings were looking for help after cutting the reliable Jarius Wright, who made 13 first-down receptions in a limited role a season ago.
Kendall Wright will likely battle for snaps with Laquon Treadwell, Stacy Coley and perhaps a Vikings draft pick, but he may have the inside edge considering his track record.
The former Baylor Bears wideout had a 1,000-yard season in 2013 with the Titans but saw his production fall off toward the end of his tenure in Tennessee with a pair of seasons under 500 yards in 2015 and 2016.
After signing a one-year, $2 million deal with the Bears, Wright became the team’s leading receiver, albeit with little talent around him and a rookie quarterback at the helm in Mitch Trubisky.
Nonetheless, Wright was one of the league’s top slot receivers, possessing the highest catch rate (80.4 percent) on targets out of the slot position, according to Pro Football Focus. Seventy-one percent of his routes run last year came out of the slot.
Overall, PFF graded Wright as the 40th-best receiver in the NFL in 2017.
In two career meetings with the Vikings, Wright combined for 14 catches and 95 yards.
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