Vikings officially sign defensive end Stephen Weatherly

A familiar face is returning to U.S. Bank Stadium next season.

Stephen Weatherly is officially rejoining the Minnesota Vikings, the team announced Monday.

Weatherly, who played for the Vikings from 2016-19, signed a one-year deal with the team for the 2021 campaign.

A seventh-round pick by Minnesota in 2016, Weatherly played sparingly from 2016-17 but played all 16 games in 2018 and ’19. He logged 67 tackles, six sacks and two forced fumbles in 49 games (seven starts) over his four-year Vikings career.

Weatherly spent last year with Carolina and tallied 17 tackles and three quarterback hits in nine contests.

Playing the entire season without star pass rusher Danielle Hunter, Minnesota ranked 28th in the NFL last season with 23 sacks. Yannick Ngakoue, who appeared in just six games with the Vikings before being traded midseason to Baltimore, ended the season as the team’s sack leader with 5.0. Ifeadi Odenigbo (3.5 sacks), Eric Wilson (3), D.J. Wonnum (3) and Hercules Mata’afa (2.5) were the only other Vikings players with multiple sacks in 2020.

According to Over the Cap, the Vikings currently sit at $3.5 million above the salary cap, but the team doesn’t need to be under the cap until March 17 when the new league year begins.