Stock Up, Stock Down Players from Vikings Training Camp
The Minnesota Vikings’ first preseason game is just one week away — a home contest versus the Las Vegas Raiders.
Stock Up, Stock Down Players from Vikings Training Camp
Until then, training camp will continue as the team marches toward the NFL’s August 27th roster trimdown date. And with that deadline about three weeks away, these are stock-up and stock-down players through a couple of weeks of training camp.
Stock Up
Will Reichard | K
Minnesota released kicker Parker Romo on Monday, the man who, once upon a time in March, felt like the 2024 kicking solution. Romo’s departure from the club paved the way for Reichard’s uncontested emergence to the kicking job, which makes sense because he was the first kicker drafted during in April.
Reichard has no more competition. He won the battle before the preseason, and his stock was incredibly high heading into the preseason. Now, he must avoid the usual Vikings kicker curses.
Stock Down
Dalton Risner | OG
Risner has played with second-teamers at training camp and at right guard. Risner has played on the left side throughout his career, so a RG2 arrangement feels rather weird.
All things considered, for a man who usually starts, Risner’s stock is down at training camp. There are also tweets like this:
Stock Up
Jalen Nailor | WR
Arguably the top head-turner at training camp through a week and a half, Nailor feels like a lock to win the WR3 job — after some prominent Vikings voices wondered if he’d make the team at all.
Nailor has dazzled bystanders every step of the way in Eagan, and if the regular season started tomorrow, he’d play WR3. And perhaps even WR2 if Jordan Addison were suspended.
Stock Down
Andrew Booth | CB
It’s Year No. 3 for Booth, and because he was a 2nd-Round draft choice in 2022, the 2024 season is for the marbles regarding his long-term trajectory.
So far at training camp, Minnesota has signed defensive backs left and right, and if Booth were dominating camp, for example, would it really need to do that? On paper, Booth should be enough that general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah doesn’t have to add Duke Shelley, Jacobi Francis, and Fabian Moreau.
Stock Up
J.J. McCarthy | QB
McCarthy has not taken the Drake Maye path this summer — struggling and looking rawer than eggs. In fact, McCarthy’s performance, words in front of a microphone, and general leadership have aced the test. The guy hasn’t done much wrong at camp and might even be outperforming his teammate, Sam Darnold.
Above all else, McCarthy’s stock stands off the page, especially because of his draft stock and high-profile QB1 job title. He’s the great hope for Minnesota’s future. Almost singularly.
Stock Down
Lewis Cine | S
Cine is battling a leg injury that head coach Kevin O’Connell described as day-to-day. But before the injury occurred, he hadn’t made much of a dent in the depth chart.
“This is huge for me on a personal note. I think I’ve really got to show out and really ball out and prove why I should be here and why I deserve to be playing in the NFL,” Cine told reporters on July 24th, the first day of Vikings live activities at training camp.
Cine continued, “Just because you got drafted in the first round, that doesn’t mean you’re just handed anything. You’ve got to understand that these are jobs. It’s unfortunate that I broke my leg [in 2022], but that’s long behind me.”
He knows it’s all on the line, and he hasn’t turned many heads at camp.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His MIN obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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