On Wednesday, the Minnesota Vikings announced that they signed Indianapolis Colts free agent defensive tackle Eric Johnson II, who was an unrestricted free agent, and will not count toward compensatory draft pick consideration:
Originally a 2022 5th round pick of the Colts, the 27-year-old defensive tackle appeared in 51 career games for Indianapolis, recording 41 tackles (13 solo), 2 tackles for loss, a sack, and a fumble recovery.
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He appeared in 12 games last year for the Colts, recording 6 tackles (4 solo).
Johnson did spend one season with the New England Patriots back in 2024, when he was claimed off waivers from the Colts. He would appear in 11 games for New England that season before being then claimed off waivers by Indianapolis in mid-May of the following offseason for his second stint with the Colts.
Johnson appeared in 16% of the Colts defense’s total snaps, as well as 5% of their special teams snaps last year.
The 6,’4”, 320 pound defensive lineman showed good energy and effort with Indianapolis as a backup rotational defensive lineman, but was never able to break out and make much of a consistent impact. We’ll have to see if that changes with the Vikings, but it didn’t happen with either the Colts or Patriots for that matter previously.
