Vikings sign former Rams DL Jonah Williams

The Minnesota Vikings have made a move to fortify the defensive line on Monday afternoon. The team announced they signed defensive lineman Jonah Williams to a one-year contract.

According to SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson, the deal is for one year and up to $1.5 million. That would prevent the Vikings from losing out on a potential compensatory selection since Williams is a free agent.

Williams is an undrafted free agent from Weber State who played for the Los Angeles Rams the last two seasons and is about to enter his age 29 season. He played in 41 games for the Rams and started 22 of them In those games, Williams had 77 tackles, 45 solo, 4.0 tackles for loss, eight quarterback hits and 2.5 sacks.

He will join a defensive line unit that needs improvement after a disappointing season in 2023.

The Vikings are signing former Rams defensive lineman Jonah Williams (not to be confused with the Cardinals offensive tackle of the same name), per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. Williams visited Minnesota on Monday. He was scheduled to visit Arizona on Tuesday, but that won’t be happening. It’s a one-year deal worth up to $1.5 million, according to KSTP’s Darren Wolfson.

In November 2021, the Vikings’ previous regime claimed Williams off waivers from the Rams, but he failed his physical and was waived the next day. He wound up returning to the Rams’ practice squad less than a week later. There should be no issues with Williams joining the Vikings this time around.

Williams, who turns 29 this summer, signed with LA as an undrafted free agent out of FCS Weber State in 2020 (the Idaho native was 25 as an NFL rookie because he served a two-year LDS mission in Brazil before starting college). He made his NFL debut in 2021 and earned increased playing time in each of the last two seasons. After jumping from 97 defensive snaps in ’21 to 342 in ’22, Williams started 17 games for the Rams last season (including playoffs) and saw 636 snaps.

A 6’5″, 275-pound defensive lineman, Williams is a 3-4 DE who can also line up at DT. He had 49 tackles, four TFL, two sacks, 17 pressures, and a 53.7 PFF grade last year. He gives the Vikings another solid rotational player for Brian Flores’ defensive line. Williams played under new Vikings DL coach Marcus Dixon in 2021.