The Minnesota Vikings were working out quarterback Jordan Ta’amu on Thursday, according to Jordan Schultz of the Score. Ta’amu is coming off a stellar season with the XFL’s D.C. Defenders where he was named the XFL Offensive Player of the Year.
In the 2023 XFL season, the Defenders were led by 25-year-old Ta’amu, a native of Hawaii, to a 9-1 record and a spot in the XFL championship game where they fell to the Arlington Renegades 35-26. He completed 62 percent of his passes for 1,894 yards, 14 touchdowns, three interceptions, and four fumbles in the ten games of the regular season. He also ran for 298 yards and three scores. With just one touchdown pass in the first five games of the season and multiple TD passes in each of the final seven games, including the playoffs, Ta’amu heated up as the season went on. Although Ta’amu only had three interceptions during the regular season, he did throw five during the Defenders’ two postseason games.
Ta’amu started his undergraduate career at the New Mexico Military Institute after graduating from high school in Pearl City, Hawaii, and spent two seasons there. He later changed schools and joined Ole Miss, where he started the season’s final five games of 2017 and all of 2018. For the Rebels, Ta’amu played in 19 games over the course of his career, completing 64.5 percent of his passes for 5,600 yards, 30 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and 507 running yards and 10 rushing TDs. In 12 of his 17 career starts, he had over 300 passing yards. He ran for 141 yards and a score in addition to throwing for 387 yards and two touchdowns in a victory over Arkansas in 2018.
Ta’amu, who is listed as 6’3″ and 214 pounds, finished the 2019 season with a 6.68 RAS and a 4.77 40-yard sprint. Since going undrafted he has been the epitome of a football journeyman, spending time in the XFL, the USFL, and on five separate NFL squads, although he hasn’t played in a single NFL regular-season game. With the Tampa Bay Bandits, Ta’amu led the USFL in throwing yards and touchdowns in 2022.
With the XFL Defenders, Ta’amu’s leading receiver was Western Kentucky product Lucky Jackson, a player who recently signed with the Vikings.
