Vikings Re-Sign Tony Brooks-James, Waive Brady Aiello

The Vikings re-signed running back Tony Brooks-James and waived rookie offensive lineman Brady Aiello on Saturday.

Brooks-James, the team's No. 5 running back, was just waived on August 8th to make room on the roster for linebacker Quentin Poling. Now the Vikings are bringing him back, less than a week later. Roster moves during training camp don't always make complete sense.

In order to bring back Brooks-James, the Vikings waived Aiello. It's a slightly surprising move, considering the former Oregon offensive lineman received the fourth-most guaranteed money ($45,000) of the Vikings' 12 undrafted free agents.

Aiello wasn't even a full-time starter during his career at Oregon, but that's because the Ducks had one of the nation's best offensive lines. He made 25 career starts and had experience at multiple positions, and even caught a touchdown pass last fall. At 6'7", he was tied for the tallest player on the Vikings' roster. Clearly, the Vikings feel decently enough about their offensive line depth to move on from UDFAs Tyler Higby and Aiello early in camp.

Brooks-James was a teammate of Aiello's at Oregon for three years. He was never the Ducks' feature back, but still showed enough upside to garner interest from NFL teams after going undrafted in 2019. Brooks-James spent time with the Falcons, Buccaneers, and Steelers before being signed by the Vikings last December. He appeared in three regular season games with Pittsburgh last year, rushing eight times for seven yards and returning two kickoffs.

Brooks-James is behind Dalvin Cook, Alexander Mattison, Mike Boone, and Ameer Abdullah on the depth chart at running back.

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