The Vikings have signed defensive end Nick Reed. Reed, drafted by Seattle in the seventh round in 2009, was invited to the Vikings' rookie mini-camp earlier this month. He played 16 games for the Seahawks as a rookie in 2009. He was out of the league in 2010 and spent parts of last season with Chicago and Tampa Bay.

Reed is 6-foot-1 and 248 pounds and played his college ball at Oregon.

The Vikings also released offensive tackle Jose Valdez today and claimed tackle Kevin Murphy off waivers. Murphy, a 6-foot-7, 303-pound tackle out of Harvard, went undrafted last month. He signed a free agent deal with San Francisco shortly after the draft but was quickly waived by the 49ers. That allowed the Vikings to swoop in with Houston and Detroit also putting in waiver claims.

Valdez was a practice squad player for Atlanta last season who the Vikings signed in January. Apparently, General Manager Rick Spielman and the coaching staff didn't see enough from Valdez to keep him around for long.

Defensive end Kevin Cyrille, a rookie from Florida Atlantic, also was waived.