Willekes’ agency, Priority Sports, has revealed in a tweet that he’s going back to the Minnesota Vikings after spending a long time on the injured list. He was officially placed on injured reserve after passing through waivers unclaimed.

This happened during the second year of his four-year rookie contract. The Vikings waived him as he was coming out of the preseason. He was later reassigned to the practice squad although he was on and off of the active roster.

Fortunately, the new regime at the Vikings wants to give him another chance. This is good news for anyone looking for NFL picks and predictions.

After signing with other new players during the first day of the NFL’s tampering period, they signed Willekes. The team re-signed other players including Andrew DePaola and Garrett Bradury.

DePaola will offer veteran leadership to the Vikings’ locker room full of some other free agents. Bradbury is back after starting all 57 games where he played for the Vikings during his first four seasons. A back injury made him miss five games in 2022 although he played in the team’s card game.

This team drafted Willekes back in 2020 during the seventh round. His agency announced the new contract on Twitter on Tuesday night. Willekes agreed to return to the Vikings as a restricted free agent after missing the first two of his three NFL seasons.

Willekes became a three-year starter, a two-time on the All-American second team, and in 2018 became the Big Ten’s lineman of the year. This was for leading the conference with 20.5 TFL as a junior.

He had been battling a knee injury despite an impressive performance in 2020. Unfortunately, he spent the whole 2022 season with an injury again. The Vikings had to sign veteran defensive end Jonathan Bullard from Atlanta to fill the vacant roster position as they shifted from 4-3 to a 3-4 scheme with Ed Donatell as the new defensive coordinator.

Several years ago, 25-year-old Willekes was the 225th overall pick from Michigan State University during the 2020 overall draft. He was part of the 15-member draft class which is the biggest in the history of the Vikings.

An injury made him miss his whole rookie campaign although he appeared in six games in 2021.

The former walk-on from Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian, didn’t have any Division 1 scholarship offers. Willekes won the Burlsworth Trophy in 2019 for being the most outstanding player.

He kept looking around MSU for positions until he landed a defensive role in 2017 and eventually a scholarship.

Amazingly, he recorded some positives, including 2.5 sacks, 18 tackles, and seven quarterback hits, across 202 defensive snaps. Willekes was waived with an undisclosed injury before the start of the 2022 season. He had suffered a torn ACL that made him end up on IR during pre-season.

The official signing of the contract is to happen before the beginning of the league year. However, details of the contract haven’t yet been revealed.

His move to the Minnesota Vikings is low-risk that could pay off for the team in the future. There’s great anticipation that Willekes will progress and become more productive.

Having Willekes back at the Vikings gives them more depth at the defensive end. This area has been giving the team a lot of sleepless nights into the offseason.

Willekes will get a chance to hone his craft with the possibility of making significant contributions to the team in the future.

He’s one of the three former Spartans playing with the Vikings. The other two are Kirk Cousins, a veteran starting quarterback, and Jalen Nailor, a wide receiver who was a rookie last season.