The Minnesota Vikings have a history of bringing in players from the Canadian Football League, more specifically quarterbacks.
Bud Grant did so with Joe Kapp and they brought it Bo Levi Mitchell in 2018 but ended up parting ways when he came in with the intention of winning the starting job.
The Vikings are looking to potentially do the same thing. 3 Down Nation’s Justin Dunk is reporting that the Vikings brought in CFL star quarterback Nathan Rourke for a workout and a visit.
Here is what Dunk had to say about Rourke.
“The 24-year-old is coming off a sensational season in the CFL during which he completed 78.7 percent of his pass attempts for 3,349 yards with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also ran the football 39 times for 304 yards and seven scores, becoming the first quarterback to win the league’s Most Outstanding Canadian award since 1980.
The six-foot-two, 209-pound passer was a three-year starter at Ohio University from 2017-2019 where he threw for 7,457 yards with 60 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. He also recorded 425 carries for 2,634 yards and 49 scores along the ground but received a small amount of NFL interest coming out of the NCAA.”
A native of British Columbia, Rourke is a dual-threat quarterback that has a bright future ahead of him and is looking to make the jump to the NFL. Multiple teams have already brought him in for a visit, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts. The last quarterback to make the jump successfully from the CFL to the NFL and have sustained success was Jeff Garcia, who started for multiple teams over a long NFL career.
The Vikings do need a backup quarterback for next season and Rourke could end up being the future if they think he has that kind of future, which if his CFL performance has told us anything, it’s that he does.
