Nolan Teasley - General Manager, vikings Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-05 | Full transcript (primary source).
On September 5, 2026, Nolan Teasley, General Manager of the Minnesota Vikings, addressed the media in a press conference focused on the team's roster evolution as they prepare for the upcoming NFL season. Teasley discussed the challenges and processes involved in shaping the team's roster, emphasizing the importance of building a competitive squad while navigating difficult conversations with players.
Transcript
Teasley: All right. You hear me okay? Yeah, roster evolution. You'll hear me reference. There's no finish line. It never stops. And this is another example of that. So this is just really us trying to establish a landscape, an initial iteration of the Minnesota Vikings for this season. And then we're going to continue to build as often as possible to try to combine the league talent to build a deep, talented roster as much as we can. We really view this as 70 over 53. And so we use some roster mechanisms and some tools in our toolbox to build that holistic roster that we believed can be competitive in this league, and that's always the goal. There are some hard conversations that come through that process. When you first reduce from 90 to 53, we try to handle those with care, KO, and I sat with each and every player during that process. You try to handle those conversations again with care, with empathy, with appreciation and encouragement. But then there's some positives, too, because you get to see the energy, and you get to see people's dreams come true, and that really resonates with you. So it's a little bit of a rollercoaster of a day, but we got through it. Just grateful and appreciative to everybody who was involved. Scouting, football administration, FQM, which is our research and analytics department, TeamOps. Shout out to KZ. I gave her a shout out yesterday, too. She's been amazing since I got here. Medical, player performance, player development, and everybody else that's involved is truly a collective and a collaborative effort. If I could just kind of take a moment to tell you guys about the process of acquiring a player and where it really starts. So when we acquire a player at this waiver wire, it really actually started when that player was in college, right? And we had an area scout that went into the school. We went through the draft process. We collected all that information, and we maintained that information to make those decisions. And then the pro department evaluates them through the previous season, even into the previous regular season into this preseason, and recommends that player of, oh, this is somebody who we might be interested in acquiring and bringing on to our roster. And then you bring them to the coaching staff, and then you get the coach's vision for that player. And you talk to FQM, and you try to find that alignment with the data. And we're really hitting those pillars. And then the player comes in the building, and you have a physical. And the onboarding process with our player engagement. And all that is to say, everybody has a role that allows us to build this football team. And it started a long time ago, and it's never going to stop. So with that, I'm really excited about where we are, excited about where we're headed, and I'll open it up to questions.
Reporter: Nolan, throughout the process of the quarterback competition, what did you learn about Kyler that maybe you didn't know when you were competing against him in Seattle?
Teasley: That's a good question. I think Kyler has really grown in his ability to manage the line of scrimmage. I think we've seen constant improvement throughout the preseason, throughout training camp. And again, I've said this from the beginning, I'm really bullish on where he's headed in playing in this system with this level of coaching, you know, from K.O. to Josh McCown and everybody else on that side of the ball.
Reporter: What do you do as J.G. McCarthy's role right now on the roster?
Teasley: J.G. McCarthy's role is to continue to develop, to improve, and to support his teammates. And he's done an excellent job of that from the moment that I've been here, and from my understanding, since he walked through the door.
Reporter: Do you expect him to be on the roster for week one?
Teasley: I do.
Reporter: Is he the backup quarterback?
Teasley: I wouldn't really necessarily comment on depth immediately, but yeah, I'm just, I'm pleased that he's part of our present version of the Minnesota Vikings and excited about his future.
Reporter: Nolan, just the process of bringing in Kyle Van Noy. What did that look like, and how do you kind of see him fitting in?
Teasley: Yeah, veteran presence at a premium position fits well into the system because of the way that he rushes and the way that we rush. It's really a team component to that, you know, from that standpoint. Then he brings, again, experience and leadership. So really, really lucky to have a player of his caliber join us.
Reporter: How much did his experience with Brian Flores play into the decision?
Teasley: I mean, that's always a component of it, but really, the foundation is just, he's a good player.
Reporter: Well, Kevin has talked a lot about just his communication. I think last week he mentioned talking to Harrison Smith. Do you want Harrison back for the 2016?
Teasley: Yeah, I know that K.O. and him have a unique relationship and they keep in touch and I've always had a high, high level of respect for the player. Heard great things about the person. Never met him formally, but yeah, high level of respect of what he's done in this league.
Reporter: Do you want him back?
Teasley: Do I want him back? I mean, that's really up to Harrison ultimately, but we're always open to adding good football players.
Reporter: How do you feel about the depth that safety independent of whether he decides to return or not?
Teasley: I think it's one of our deeper positions. You're really excited. We all saw Jacob Thomas play. It was good to see Jacob Thomas come back into the Denver game. You know, Theo, I can go on and on and then Joshua tell us it's a good room, but we're always going to look to add good football players.
Reporter: All of this group is younger probably than it's been last few years in part because of that draft class bringing so many players out of this roster. As you looked at that draft class that came in this year, what did you see in terms of the roles that those guys can have and how they could contribute?
Teasley: Yeah, I think we're really lucky in this building that we have a coaching staff that has the ability to develop and the mindset to develop and we've seen that throughout training camp in the preseason. So we've seen all of our players improve on a daily basis and so really excited about the trajectory of the draft class and again that's an opportunity to highlight the work done by Rob Brzezinski and the rest of the staff that was here that navigated in a unique offseason and they did a great job and there's no better example of that in the draft class.
Reporter: On JJ, where are you guys at with him?
Teasley: From a health perspective? He's practiced fully the last two days.
Reporter: So the issue of the ankle is on the other side of that?
Teasley: Yeah, he's practiced fully the last two days.
Reporter: What has the expansion to 16 to 17 practice squad players been like as you do try to backfill parts of the roster?
Teasley: Yeah, it's a constant assessment you're looking at because there's an element of like yet you want the best players available you know and it's another way of acquiring talent but you have to balance your numbers too and insulate your roster. So it's just constant conversation with the staff and how do we go about that and then there's there's constant change too because there's multiple waivers through the last couple days and assessing who's available but it's just it's just I'm really proud about the of the process that we have. I told this to the to the staff the other night and that kind of extends to what I was telling you guys in the opener like I'm sitting there Sunday night looking at all the the ability and the talent and the perspective that we have in that room and just felt really grateful that we just got here on June 1st and we have this process and the skill sets in this room that allows us to you know to constantly acquire and improve.
Reporter: You talk about having those difficult conversations and knowing that sometimes the line between someone who makes a team goes to a practice squad. We've seen players elevate from a practice squad to have great careers in the NFL. How important is it for you to kind of orchestrate that conversation so that perhaps a person that is on the edge can elevate themselves?
Teasley: Well that's why we we don't talk about 53 we talk about 70 because it really is that you're gonna need and in all honesty it's more than 70 because the NFL season is a war of attrition so that's why you handle them with care. It's encouragement, it's appreciation and helping them to understand you know maybe it's not it's not really how you envision to begin but it's it's you know there's gonna be a lot of opportunity moving forward.
Reporter: What have you learned about K.O. working with him? I know you guys had a relationship prior to but just once you've gotten the same building with them and work day to day, minute to minute with them what have you learned about him?
Teasley: I mean kind of what his reputation was you know highly intelligent, great football mind, big picture thinker as a head coach which I think is really important and it's just been really seamless and really easy for us to stay on the same page and communicate daily about every aspect of our football operation and I'm really happy with you know with where that relationship is and excited to continue to work with them.
Reporter: As you guys went through the cuts last weekend did you guys get calls about JJ McCarthy or how many trade talks that got serious with anybody about him?
Teasley: Yeah that's something I would probably keep internal you know we get calls all the time but it's not something I would directly comment on regards to any player.
Reporter: And Nolan what else in training camp did you see from Kyler that indicates he could win here at a pretty high level?
Teasley: Yeah we started to see the legs as we got into more realistic football situations we always knew that that was that was there but then the anticipatory throwing ability, the ability to fit the football into tight windows and be a spot thrower and that's continued to grow and then we commented on or commented on his ability at the line of scrimmage so yeah really excited about where he is.
Reporter: What's been your evaluation during camp?
Teasley: Yeah that is a talented young man whose best football is ahead of him and he's in a room with Ryan Nielsen who's a developer of young men and he's the right man for the job and we're excited about the direction that Caleb's headed.
Reporter: What did you I guess kind of see or appreciate about Brett Thorson's obviously summer and preseason and then how much does it help to have kind of a consistency at the other those other two positions with him?
Teasley: Yeah I mean he's again he's he's a talented young man too so we're we're really excited about you know the direction that he's headed and but he also fit right into the operation and the field goal operation was seamless with him in the game and so looking forward to you know to him adding to to the specialist group.
Reporter: How did you feel like watching it throughout training camp?
Teasley: Yeah really pleased with with the progress that we made throughout training camp into the preseason games the joint practices and again the the commitment to running the football is probably why you saw us acquire you know two additional offensive linemen at the at the roster reduction just to make sure that that we have that depth and regardless of what happens in the future we can continue to do that.
Reporter: Just from a big picture standpoint with with JJ McCarthy what do you see his future with the organization?
Teasley: He's really talented I think I said that from from the jump right he was he was picked in in the first round for a reason a really good arm strength underrated athlete and looking forward to how he continues to to develop in this system I think that the thing you need to keep in mind with JJ is that he plays he has the hardest job in sport okay he's only started 10 games and his story is not written.