New Vikings running back Abram Smith is an incredible story
Abram Smith has some juice and he'll certainly be one of the players worth watching during Minnesota Vikings training camp in the coming days and weeks.
The Vikings signed Smith on Thursday after he apparently impressed the team enough during a private workout. That should come as no surprise for anyone familiar with his game since he was the first overall pick in last year's XFL rookie draft and wound up leading the XFL in rushing with 791 yards and seven touchdowns.
Smith played at Baylor in college from 2017 to 2021 but barely got on the field his first three seasons due to a torn ACL followed by redshirt years. But in 2021 he exploded with 1,601 yards and 12 touchdowns, averaging an eye-popping 6.2 yards per carry.
That's not the craziest part of Smith's college journey. He actually switched from running back to linebacker in 2020 and was a giant success. He played in just five games but racked up 48 tackles, including five tackles for loss and one sack.
During that 2020 season Smith earned the starting job for the final four games and he led the team in tackles in each of those games, including a monster performance against Oklahoma when he finished with 12 tackles, four tackles for loss and a sack.
Smith wasn't drafted out of college but he quickly signed with the New Orleans Saints and was one of the final training camp cuts in 2022. That led to him being drafted first overall by the DC Defenders in the XFL, which led him to his newest chance with the Vikings.
If there was ever a team where he had a chance to make an impression, Minnesota is it because top running back Alexander Mattison is dealing with a minor ankle injury and all of the backups – Ty Chandler, Kene Nwangwu and DeWayne McBride – are all unproven at the NFL level.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.