Image Courtesy of @salspice on Twitter.
The Minnesota Vikings held a scrimmage with fans in attendance at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, the first event of its kind in the edifice’s five-year history. One week prior, the Vikings held a similar event at TCO Performance Center in Eagan. It was the night that three Vikings quarterbacks were held out due to vaccine-related fallout.
The team plays its first game five weeks from now, traveling to Cincinnati for a Week 1 game with the Bengals.
Here are the four notable takeaways from Day 10 of the Vikings 2021 training camp, this time in their glass palace.
The panic settled.
On Friday, Jefferson caught a pass and hit the turf in Eagan with force on a tackle by new cornerback Bashaud Breeland. The Vikings wide receiver immediately bolted to the locker room, unable to move his arm. Shockwaves reverberated through the nervous systems of Vikings fans — was Jefferson going to miss regular-season time?
No.
He’s fine, and his teammates affirmed it at U.S. Bank Stadium during the scrimmage:
If the Vikings have Super Bowl aspirations — hint: they do — Jefferson is close to mandatory for the offense. The rookie from 2020 deconstructed the NFL record for receiving yards (1,400), seizing it as his own. The baton was taken from Anquan Boldin, who tallied 1,377 receiving yards during his maiden voyage in 2003.
Minnesota will probably bubble-wrap Jefferson for several weeks, and that is ok. He sprained the AC joint in his shoulder, a malady that takes a couple of weeks for a full recovery.
Moral of the story: Jefferson will be ready for the regular season. Breathe.
Here’s the video:
Interestingly, the Vikings are experimenting with Wonnum in a 3-4 capacity. He’s a defensive end by trade now dropping into linebacker duty. If Wonnum is making plays like this, sign VikingsLand up for the arrangement.
Of course, this was just a practice touchdown, but head coach Mike Zimmer has assayed Wonnum in this hybrid role for about one week. There might be something to it, potentially foreshadowing the duty for Wonnum while the Vikings use a front three of Danielle Hunter, Michael Pierce, and Sheldon Richardson in spots. Otherwise, the schemes are an example of Zimmer showing off at training camp for no good reason. And that’s unlikely.
Consider a Wonnum a shoo-in for increased playing time in 2021 no matter his official roster title.
Rookie kicker Riley Patterson finally arrived training camp to possibly boot his way to kicking duties in 2021.
He’s off to a good start:
Patterson challenges Greg Joseph, who manned the kicking duties in Eagan for the first 9 days of camp. Joseph was quite good at times but missed some kicks, too. He does not have a stranglehold on the job, so a strong showing from Patterson in the preseason could nominate the Vikings for the rookie kicker adventure once again.
The change of pace for this battle? Both men are unsung candidates for the gig. During the Vikings notorious kicker odyssey since Blair Walsh’s demise, the corrective plan of action entails “big names” like Daniel Carlson and Dan Bailey.
Now, it’s just Greg and Riley, seemingly ordinary dudes. Perhaps the low expectations will change the chronic kicking doldrums.
Jot them down. These WR names have a reasonable shot to make the 2021 Vikings:
The first three are locks. Osborn, Smith-Marsette, and Beebe are trending in the right direction. The mystery begins with Dan Chisena, Blake Proehl, and Whop Philyor. The Vikings carried seven wide receivers into September last year. It could happen again.
The takeaway now is that it seems foreign that Osborn, Smith-Marsette, and Beebe would miss the cut. Therefore, at least six WRs should occupy the WR section of the Vikings 2021 depth chart.
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Can we please look up the definition of alas? It's starting to get to me...
Otherwise, love your stuff....
I hear ya', the English language should sue this guy for assault and battery.
We carried seven wide receivers on the 53-man active roster for most of the 2020 season ONLY if you count the Dan Chisena of 2020 as a wide receiver. He didn't play a single offensive or defensive snap, and the first couple of weeks, when we only carried three safeties on the active roster (Metellus spent Game 1 on the practice squad, and then traded places with Nate Meadors with Game 2), he basically took up the fourth safety's roster spot. After that, with all of the injuries taking place, they always found a spot for Chisena, the special teamer, and kept six true wideouts on the 53-man roster, though Osborn and Sharpe spent a combined 13 weeks inactive on game day, and Sharpe was cut with three games to go in the season.
In 2019, in contrast, the Vikings carried only the equivalent of five wideouts on the 53-man active roster for most of the season: Diggs, Thielen, Johnson, the duo of Beebe (three games) and Treadwell (13 games), and then the trio of Josh Doctson (two games), Davion Davis (five games squeezed in between three stints on the PS) and Alexander Hollins (five games). The best I can tell, we only had four wideouts on both the 53-man active roster and the 47- or 48-man game-day roster for four games in 2019, while Doctson was on IR and Davis and Hollins both on the PS.
Jefferson, Thielen and Westbrook are locks for 2021, and Osborn and Smith-Marsette (largely due to the danger of his being poached off of the PS), are probable locks. That leaves Beebe competing for a roster spot with Ameer Abdullah, and I think Abdullah's greater versatility (RB4, Cook's back-up as the third-and-long RB, ST gunner, KO returner, and now apparently punt returner, too), wins him the 25th spot on the offense, especially since the recent COVID scare has probably locked in the necessity of carrying three QB's on the active roster, and I don't think we'll be carrying only eight O linemen. Proehl seems to be earning a place on the PS, and I wouldn't be altogether shocked if the team offers Beebe a place on it after he's cut, too (Dozier might be in the same position). Not sure he'll take it though.
@cka2nd (and others) ...I doubt seriously Beebe gets cut. You point out the advantages of guys like Abdullah over Beebe very nicely regarding other roles he can play. ISM and Osborn also have the weight and/or speed to play gunner and return kickoffs. I think the Chisena experiment takes away from other good WRs development. He is supposed to be a special team's Ace but he wasn't that last year in spite of what people might want us to think. He needs to be on the practice squad. We know that there will be 1 possibly 2 wide receivers inactive on game day if they keep 7 and it would suck if someone with potential like Osborne or ISM are the guys because they feel that a special team's only guy needs to be playing.
Regarding Dozier, he never should have been resigned in the 1st place. Looking back getting back at the recent pick 6DJ wannam return and practice it was because of Dozier and his ineptitude yet again. Mind you, that was 2nd and 3rd string guys Mixed in on that play but he needs to be happy being thrown on the practice squad or being cut early hopefully getting a phone call favor from Denison to one of his other buddies in the league to sign his friend.
Chad will be on the team. There have been plenty of illustrations and articles especially this year that point out the affinity the coaches have for him. He was outplayed last year by Hollins and this year by Osborn. We have 2 or 3 other guys now now who have more speed and run routes just as well or better who can make more of a difference.
Gary Kubiak was supposedly the guy in Beebe's corner the last two years, and he's gone, so I don't think Chad has the lock on a roster spot he had last year. Chisena has supposedly made a few good plays on offense in camp, but is also said to have dropped more than a few catchable balls, so he may still end up on the PS if Proehl remains the only UDFA wideout to really make a good impression.
I was surprised when they re-signed Dozier LAST year! But positional coverage on the bench matters, and while Dozier can play OT, having Darrisaw and Dozier as your only back-up OT's on the 53-man roster could be a no-no if they've had few if any actual practice snaps in camp or the pre-season at OT. Dozier might still make the final 53, but I could see them keeping Brandel for the bench since he's an OT, first and foremost.
I like the experiment with Wonnum in a 3-4 look if he can cover a RB in space. If he can, then Zimmer can bring that 4th rusher from anywhere or drop eight in coverage