New Vikings quarterback John Wolford is a devil with the details

Things you should know about John Wolford, the Vikings’ new No. 3 quarterback …

Scrappy little overachiever. Smart. Works hard. And …

He’s a psycho?

Let offensive coordinator Wes Phillips lovingly explain that last compliment.

Phillips spent two years with Wolford with the Los Angeles Rams. Wolford started a regular-season game and the playoff opener in 2021, the year the Rams won the Super Bowl with Phillips as tight ends coach/passing game coordinator and current Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell as offensive coordinator.

“John’s an extremely intelligent person; and he’s always been a grinder,” Phillips said. “Him and Brian Allen, our center, they were roommates in L.A.

“They were in a small townhouse and they had this tiny, little backyard. They would go in the backyard with their helmets on and go through the gameplan. John would call the plays and they would have this little mock game on this little strip of grass. So, he’s kind of a psycho.”

Well, John, what say you?

“I think he’s right,” said Wolford, smiling.

Wolford’s bio says he’s 6-foot-1. He must have been standing on a New York City phone book the day the NFL measured him.

So it’s not a big arm or physical prowess that has kept this 30-year-old bouncing around the NFL since coming out of Wake Forest as an undrafted free agent in 2018. It’s his impassioned work ethic and tendency to do things like grab his helmet and a center and head to the backyard for a pretend game as neighbors looked on with raised eyebrows in L.A.’s Woodland Hills neighborhood.

“I think where I excel is I can process a lot of information,” Wolford said. “The more complicated we make the offense, the better things are for me.”

“Obviously, Liam’s terminology has kind of branched off a little bit, as these things do,” Phillips said. “But John’s going to pick things up really quickly.”

Wolford was in Miami staying in shape. He figured it was only a matter of time before the NFL injury bug had bitten enough quarterbacks to make room for the next chapter in this unlikely journey.

It’s a winding road that began on the Jets practice squad in 2018 and was boosted a year later when he led the Alliance of American Football in touchdown passes as leader of the Arizona Hotshots. Next came the Rams from 2019 to ’22, the Buccaneers in 2023 and the Jaguars last season. Wolford has started five NFL games, all with the Rams, going 2-2 in the regular season and 1-0 in the postseason, although he was injured early on in that 2021 playoff-opening victory at Seattle.

“The system they have from L.A. is great,” Wolford said. “The coaching was great, too. And I have a really close relationship with Kevin, so I have a lot of good reasons to be here.”

Wolford laughed when asked if his new neighbors in Minnesota will find him calling plays while running through a pretend game in his backyard.