Remembering the Vikings Signing John Randle as an Undrafted Free Agent and Laughing All the Way to the Bank

In recent days, we've seen the Washington Redskins and Carolina Panthers use their first-round picks on Chase Young and Derrick Brown respectively, with hopes of them becoming star pass rushers in the NFL. That's nice and all, but the Minnesota Vikings managed to find a future Hall of Famer on the open market as an undrafted free agent back in 1990.

Of course, we're talking about John Randle.

Randle declared for the NFL Draft, but teams weren't sold on him due to his 6-1, 244-pound build as a defensive tackle. But, unsurprisingly, Randle did what he had to do to get into the league. The Vikings were interested in him, but he was told they'd only sign him if he weighed in at 250 pounds. He did just that, albeit by wearing a lock and chain under his sweatsuit for additional bulk!

Loophole or not, Randle turned out to be a tremendous signing for Minnesota. He spent 11 seasons with the Vikings, where he posted 486 tackles, 114 sacks, 25 forced fumbles, and nine fumble recoveries. Another indicator of how great Randle was? He absolutely terrorized Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre. In 18 games against the Packers, Randle sacked Favre 12.5 times!

Throughout his 14 seasons in the NFL, Randle earned seven Pro Bowl nods and six First-Team All-Pro honors. More importantly, Randle was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and was named to the NFL 100 All-Time Team this year.

Sometimes, you don't need to use high draft capital to secure a stud pass rusher. John Randle is proof of that.