After making a big splash in the opening 24 hours of free agency this spring, the Vikings made a shrewd move that flew under the radar in real time.

It might sneakily go down as the best signing of the bunch.

Though he doesn’t have the same name recognition as some of his peers, linebacker Eric Wilson has been as instrumental as anybody for the Vikings.  His most recent performance, a starring role in the Vikings’ 27-24 upset win over the Detroit Lions, was his most impactful so far.

Wilson recorded a pair of sacks to go along with another tackle for a loss as the Vikings pulled back to even (4-4) and improved to 2-0 in the NFC North. Not bad considering Wilson wasn’t supposed to play much defense at all.

After signing to be more or less a special teams ace, Wilson has emerged as an important piece on defense, forced into action a couple of months ago when linebacker Blake Cashman suffered a hamstring injury. He was so effective, he ultimately supplanted linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. in the starting lineup.

“He’s been phenomenal,” Cashman said. “A game changer.”

Asked if he could’ve foreseen Wilson carving out the niche he has for himself, defensive coordinator Brian Flores replied, “The short answer? No.” He went on to praise the veteran journeyman for his production and forcing his way onto the field.

“That’s my message to everybody who steps into the building,” Flores said. “We don’t care by what means a guy got here.”

The fact that Wilson is currently garnering a lot of playing time is almost poetic considering they signed him as an undrafted free agent once upon a time.

After making a name for himself early in his career, he went on to spend time with the Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans, New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers before signing back on with the Vikings on a modest one-year, $2.6 million contract.

“You want to play with great players on a great team,” Wilson said. “I’m really glad to be a part of it.”

It’s safe to say the Vikings feel similar given the impact Wilson has made regardless of where he’s been asked to play in the formation. He’s recorded 57 tackles and 3½ sacks while making everybody around him better.

“He’s playing dang near every snap of the game,” edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel said. “It’s good to see him playing so well.”

Wilson’s versatility has been on display in the way Flores has deployed him. After spending a bulk of his time running sideline to sideline while Cashman was out, Wilson has also been used as more of a pass rusher as of late. That was especially true in Detroit, where a lot of stunts designed to challenge the interior of the offensive line allowed Wilson to fly in like a missile on occasion.

A particular rep that stood out featured Wilson vaporizing running back Jahmyr Gibbs at the point of attack before hauling down quarterback Jared Goff.

“I’m trying to win every rep,” Wilson said. “That’s got to be the mentality no matter what position I’m playing.”

As much as he’s contributed on defense, Wilson has continued to take an immense amount of pride of his play on special teams, even if it’s much less frequently than he originally thought it would be.

“That’s how this guy is built,” special teams coordinator Matt Daniels said. “He comes to me always asking, ‘Am I on this? Am I on this? Am I on this?’ I’m like, ‘Nah.’ He’s like, ‘I need to be on this.’ ”

Though he’s gotten his wish and seen an uptick in his playing time on special teams over the past few weeks, Wilson is going to continue to be somebody that makes his mark on defense above everything else.

“He’s done a great job,” Flores said. “He’ll continue to be out there.”

Briefly

It appears that running back Aaron Jones (shoulder/toe) is trending in the right direction. After not participating in practice on Wednesday afternoon, hw was a limited participant in practice on Thursday afternoon.

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Cody Laweryson, a right-hander who made five relief appearances for the Twins in September, was claimed off waivers Thursday by the Los Angeles Angels.

Laweryson, 27, pitched a total of 7⅔ innings. He gave up one earned run, didn’t walk a batter and struck out seven. He was a 14th round pick by Minnesota in the 2019 amateur draft.

In 34 combined relief appearances for Class AA Wichita and AAA St. Paul last season, he was 2-4 with a 2.86 earned-run average with 35 strikeouts and 42 hits in 43 innings.

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By STEPHEN GROVES, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate was voting Thursday on legislation that would check President Donald Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela, as Democrats pressed Congress to take a stronger role in Trump’s high-stakes campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Lawmakers, including top Republicans, have demanded that the Trump administration provide them with more information on the U.S. military strikes against alleged drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. But Thursday’s vote, which would essentially forestall an attack on Venezuelan soil by first requiring congressional authorization, was a significant test of GOP senators’ willingness to allow the Trump administration to continue its buildup of naval forces in the region.

“We’re tired of Congress abdicating this most solemn power to a president,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who introduced the resolution.

While the legislation has virtually no chance of being enacted, in part because it would need to be signed by Trump himself, it still allowed senators to go on the record with their concerns about the president’s public threats against Venezuela. U.S. naval forces are building an unusually large force, including its most advanced aircraft carrier, in the Caribbean Sea, leading many to the conclusion that Trump’s intentions go beyond just intercepting cocaine-running boats.

“It’s really an open secret that this is much more about potential regime change,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who also pushed the resolution. “If that’s where the administration is headed, if that’s what we’re risking — involvement in a war — then Congress needs to be heard on this.”

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The push for congressional oversight

As the Trump administration has reconfigured U.S. priorities overseas, there has been a growing sense of frustration among lawmakers, including some Republicans, who are concerned about recent moves made by the Pentagon.

At a hearing in the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier Thursday, Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair, said that many senators have “serious concerns about the Pentagon’s policy office” and that Congress was not being consulted on recent actions like putting a pause on Ukraine security assistance, reducing the number of U.S. troops in Romania and the formulation of the National Defense Strategy.

GOP senators have directed their ire at the Department of Defense’s policy office, which is led by Elbridge Colby, an official who has advocated for the U.S. to step down its involvement in international alliances.

“It just seems like there’s this pigpen-like mess coming out of the policy shop,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, during another armed services hearing earlier this week.

As pushback has mounted on Capitol Hill, the Trump administration has stepped up its briefings on the campaign in the Caribbean, including sending both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to a classified briefing Wednesday for congressional leaders on the strikes against vessels. The officials gave details on the intelligence that is used to target the boats and allowed senators to review the legal rationale for the attacks, but did not discuss whether they would launch an attack directly against Venezuela, according to lawmakers in the meeting.

Still, Democrats, joined by Republican Sen. Rand Paul, have pushed into the unease among Republicans by forcing a vote on the potential for an attack on Venezuela under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which was intended to reassert congressional power over the declaration of war.

A previous war powers vote pertaining to the strikes against boats in international waters failed last month on a 48-51 vote, but Kaine said he was hoping to peel off more Republicans with a resolution that only pertains to attacks on Venezuela.

Some Republicans are uneasy with Caribbean campaign

Republican leadership was pressing Thursday to make sure the legislation failed, and many GOP senators have expressed support for Trump’s campaign, which has killed at least 66 people in 16 known strikes.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is a Trump ally, argued in a floor speech that the War Powers Act gave lawmakers too much power over military decisions and that Congress has other means to check the president’s decisions.

“I like the idea that our commander-in-chief is telling narco-terrorist organizations you’re not only a foreign terrorist organization, but when you engage in threats to our country — a boat headed to America full of drugs — we’re going to take you out,” Graham said.

But there were still several senators carefully considering their vote. Just hours before the vote, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she had carefully read over the Trump administration’s secret legal opinion on the strikes, but had not reached a decision.

“It remains a difficult decision,” she said.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said he would vote against the resolution, but added that he has had his doubts about the campaign. He pointed out that it was expensive to change the deployment location for an aircraft carrier and questioned whether those funds could be better used at the U.S.-Mexico border to stop fentanyl trafficking.

Tillis said that if the campaign continues for several months more, “then we have to have a real discussion about whether or not we’re engaging in some sort of hybrid war.”

Still, Kaine acknowledged that there was also some risk in forcing the vote because it could give a tacit greenlight to Trump to launch an outright attack.

“Congress has got to just stand up and be counted — or not,” he said.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to enforce a policy blocking transgender and nonbinary people from choosing passport sex markers that align with their gender identity.

The decision by the conservative-majority court is Trump’s latest win on the high court’s emergency docket, and it means his administration can enforce the policy while a lawsuit over it plays out. It halts a lower-court order requiring the government to keep letting people choose male, female or X on their passport to line up with their gender identity on new or renewed passports. The court’s three liberal-leaning justices dissented from the unsigned order.

The State Department changed its passport rules after Trump, a Republican, handed down an executive order in January declaring the United States would “recognize two sexes, male and female,” based on birth certificates and “biological classification.”

Transgender actor Hunter Schafer, for example, said in February that her new passport had been issued with a male gender marker, even though she’s marked female on her driver’s license and passport for years.

The plaintiffs argue that passports limited to the sex listed on a birth certificate can spark harassment or even violence for transgender people.

“By classifying people based on sex assigned at birth and exclusively issuing sex markers on passports based on that sex classification, the State Department deprives plaintiffs of a usable identification document and the ability to travel safely,” attorneys wrote in court documents.

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Sex markers began appearing on passports in the mid-1970s and the federal government started allowing them to be changed with medical documentation in the early 1990s, the plaintiffs said in court documents. A 2021 change under President Joe Biden, a Democrat, removed documentation requirements and allowed nonbinary people to choose an X gender marker after years of litigation.

A judge blocked the Trump administration policy in June after a lawsuit from nonbinary and transgender people, some of whom said they were afraid to submit applications. An appeals court left the judge’s order in place.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer then turned to the Supreme Court, pointing to its recent ruling upholding a ban on transition-related health care for transgender minors. He also argued Congress gave the president control over passports, which overlap with his authority over foreign affairs.

“It is hard to imagine a system less conducive to accurate identification than one in which anyone can refuse to identify his or her sex and withhold relevant identifying information for any reason, or can rely on a mutable sense of self-identification,” Sauer wrote in court documents.