Montigo Moss, working to make the Vikings roster, provides an update on famous father Randy

The son of Hall of Fame receiver and Vikings legend Randy Moss, former Maine receiver Montigo Moss, has some good news after his 48-year-old father revealed in December that he’d undergone surgery to remove cancer from his bile duct.

“He’s definitely doing better now,” the younger Moss said Friday. “He’s been working out, fishing every day almost for the past two, three months. That’s what he does. … He’s out there running some routes with me.”

Montigo Moss hopes to have more good news next week if he can earn a spot on the Vikings roster. He’s one of 20 players participating in a three-day tryout this weekend during rookie minicamp in Eagan.

The elder Moss has had a hands-on role preparing Montigo, the youngest of his two sons, after the 6-foot-1 receiver led Maine with a career-high 61 catches for 722 yards and seven touchdowns last fall. They’ve trained together over the past month with Randy throwing passes.

“He’s prepped me over the past couple years of having a professional mindset, studying plays, getting in with the coaches, details, really just every aspect of how to succeed,” Montigo Moss said. “Call him every day. … I‘ll tell him about today after we watch the film, tell him what I did wrong, what I could do better, and he’ll coach me up."

Over the course of three days in passing drills, Moss may have to play someone off the current Vikings roster. Minnesota has 13 receivers, including third-round rookie Tai Felton and four undrafted signees.

“Hopefully it’s an exciting thing for him,” coach Kevin O’Connell said, “and he feels like he can come here and compete and learn and be around one of the best receiver coaches in the NFL and see what happens.”

Moss said he doesn’t dwell on his lineage but that it struck him to see photos of his dad at Vikings headquarters.

“Honestly, I don’t think about it,” Moss said. “Seeing him in the hallway and knowing that he was somebody — and not just a somebody, a great person here, I don’t know — it’s a weird feeling, but it’s cool at the same time. It’s hard to explain.”

Moss said he feels like he’s “caught in a shadow” at times, and that he chose the Vikings because they were his only NFL opportunity after playing four seasons for the Maine Black Bears, an FCS program.

“I jumped right on it regardless my dad went here or not,” Moss said. “I was almost in tears, because I didn’t know what was left for me after this, so this was my only opportunity, my only option to prove myself, so I jumped on it.

“If I don’t give it my all these next three days, then football is done for me,” he added. “I just got to give it my all, because I can’t imagine football ending here.”

Moss reunited with one former FCS foe, former Gophers and new Vikings quarterback Max Brosmer, who said he was quick to remind Moss that he went 3-0 against his former conference rival when Brosmer played at New Hampshire.

“I had to make sure I gave him a couple jabs for playing at Maine,” Brosmer said. “I’m so glad there’s two [Coastal Athletic Association] guys here — we were rivals our entire lives, and for guys and people that don’t know about that rivalry, it’s a huge rivalry in the FCS. It’s one of the biggest.”

Moss hopes to stick around this summer as Brosmer’s Vikings teammate after putting on a purple No. 81 jersey and bright yellow gloves for the first time Friday.

“It was a great feeling,” Moss said. “A better feeling would be to come back, but it’s definitely one of the best feelings I’ve had in my life is to put a jersey and helmet on. Definitely appreciative of it, thankful. I want to keep putting a jersey on. I don’t want it to be for just two or three days.”

Others trying out for the Vikings at TCO Performance Center include quarterback Zach Zebrowski (Central Missouri via Woodbury); running backs Jarod Epperson (Augustana) and Hope Adebayo (St. Thomas via Inver Grove Heights); offensive lineman Elijah Ellis (Marshall); receiver Robert McMinn (Alabama State); kicker Mitch Jeter (Notre Dame); long snapper Austin Riggs (Rutgers); cornerbacks Tommi Hill (Nebraska), Javerius McGuinn (Missouri Western) and Robert Jones III (Howard); outside linebackers Matt Harmon (Kent State), Brody Grebe (Montana State) and Chico Bennett Jr. (Virginia); safeties Trashawn Adams (Stephen F. Austin) and Paul Lewis III (Akron); and defensive linemen Elijah Williams (Morgan State), Anthony Campbell (Miami), Nathan Kapongo (Akron) and Quantez Mansfield (North Carolina Central).