Vikes cut Lacey; doctor cuts Floyd

Published 10:43 am Tuesday, August 20, 2013

EDEN PRAIRIE — The Minnesota Vikings have released cornerback Jacob Lacey a week after his arthroscopic knee surgery.

After three seasons with Indianapolis and one with Detroit, Lacey signed with the Vikings. He had a chance to make the squad with veteran Antoine Winfield no longer on the team. But he was injured early in training camp and didn’t play in any preseason games.

Chris Cook and Josh Robinson are the first-team cornerbacks, with Robinson moving inside to the slot position in the nickel defense and rookie Xavier Rhodes entering as the third cornerback.

Email newsletter signup

Others competing for backup spots are A.J. Jefferson, Bobby Felder, Marcus Sherels and Brandon Burton.

Lacey was bothered by a thumb injury before he hurt his knee.

“We’ll see how he does in his rehab,” coach Leslie Frazier said after practice on Monday. “In this business you could always end up back here. You never know.”

Also, rookie defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd had a “minor procedure” done to ease some pain in his left knee, which he hurt in the team’s first preseason game on Aug. 9 against Houston.

Frazier said the first-round draft pick probably won’t play in either of the two remaining exhibitions but “shouldn’t miss any time” in the regular season.

The starters are expected to play into the third quarter this Sunday at San Francisco, and the plan is to put weak side linebacker Desmond Bishop with the first team.

Marvin Mitchell was playing there while Bishop sat out with a groin injury, but the Vikings need to see more action from Bishop, who sat out all of last year because of a torn hamstring and was cut this summer by Green Bay.

“Just want to get a good view of him in some competitive situations against their top line guys,” Frazier said.