Shaking off the cynicism of Vikings preseasons past
The preseason hasn’t exactly been happy times and football roses in recent seasons.
Last year in the Minnesota Vikings’ third preseason game, wide receiver Bisi Johnson tore his ACL and was lost for the season. In their second preseason game, TY McGill throttled the 49ers to the tune of three sacks and was released on cutdown day anyway. In that same game, Kellen Mond flung passes over his receivers’ heads, making it clear that all hope was lost that he would make progress after a rough rookie year. Before that in the opener in Las Vegas, Kirk Cousins didn’t have a chance to lead a drive because he was out with COVID. Albert Wilson caught a pretty neat touchdown that didn’t help his cause for making the squad either.
In 2021, Mike Zimmer played the starters in the final preseason game because he wasn’t thrilled with the offense’s effectiveness in practice. Irv Smith Jr. suffered a knee injury that kept him out for the year. He had been dominant during that camp and never got a chance to make good on it.
How about 2019? The combination of Kyle Sloter mania and the Kaare Vedvick trade hype almost made preseason games interesting until Sloter actually played against decent competition and ended any discussion about him becoming an NFL quarterback and Vedvick out-punted his coverage and sucked a fifth-round pick right down the drain with it.
That doesn’t mean it was all bad through the years. Case Keenum flashed his ability to make some scrambling plays in 2017 preseason. Dalvin Cook came back from his ACL tear with an 85-yard touchdown run in 2018. Stefon Diggs had 15 catches in the 2015 preseason.
On the whole, the preseason has been a time to hold your breath and hope there’s no injuries. At best, games were a snooze fest, especially in Kevin O’Connell’s first year as head coach when the significance of preseason was less than zero. The more a player was on the field, the more obvious it was that he was getting cut. Anyone who mattered stood on the sideline and hummed along with the stadium music.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s the right approach. There is absolutely no reason to risk anyone’s health for games where the results do not count. Any player who has been in the NFL for more than a year or two is completely fine playing their first real ball in Week 1. If that wasn’t already obvious, the NFL made it more clear when they chopped a preseason game and nobody raised a stink. In 2020 there was no preseason. Did anyone even notice?
These are big old promotional events where future insurance salesmen get to dress up in team pajamas and have announcers talk about how 17-0 is realistic for the actual squad.
Is that too harsh?
There is a pretty strong case for being cynical about the NFL preseason, especially as teams deemphasize it more and more. However, this year’s Vikings preseason might just be interesting enough to shake off the sad shackles of preseason’s past.
It feels like the NFL world at large isn’t talking enough about how bold the Vikings’ offseason approach really was. Has there ever been a team that won 13 games and then sent a bunch of Pro Bowlers packing? Their No. 1 running back, second most targeted receiver, second best sack artist, top corner and second leading tackler all gone. Usually teams that win 13 games make a big offseason signing and talk about how they have a dream team now. Instead the Vikings have question marks all over the field going into Thursday night’s preseason opener in Seattle.
That starts with a wide receiver. During the first few weeks of training camp first-rounder Jordan Addison has put together a highlight reel long enough that you’d have to pay for Twitter in order to show it. He’s made toe-tapping grabs in the back of the end zone and shaken cornerbacks out of their shoes at the top of his routes.
O’Connell said he’s going to play in the preseason, which is certainly a debatable decision, even if it’s just for a few series. What harm could it do? Ask Irv. Aside from assuming the worst because Vikings, fans get to see Addison in action for the first time and he will have his first opportunity to play against people that are actually allowed to whoop him. His 170-pound frame doesn’t matter much when he’s practicing against guys who can’t bring him to the ground but the Seattle Seahawks will be allowed to body slam him on Thursday night.
Maybe we won’t be able to truly tell how Addison is going to play in the regular season by a handful of snaps vs. the Seahawks but we’re only looking for hints here.
Two places where hints aren’t enough is in the offensive and defensive backfield. We’re looking for production. There is no reason for Alexander Mattison to play but his two backups Ty Chandler and DeWayne McBride (Kene Nwangwu is unlikely to play) are both vying for any sort of relevancy in the 2023 offense. Last year Chandler crushed the preseason but there has been some hesitancy for the coaches to declare him RB2 so far. McBride was tough to knock down in college but the competition in going up a notch, even if it’s preseason. Can either one of them make their case? Or are we going to walk away from Thursday projecting 300 carries for Mattison?
In the secondary, the present starters are Byron Murphy Jr., Mekhi Blackmon and Akayleb Evans. Two of the three have either never touched an NFL field or just barely, yet they are going to be carrying the weight of Brian Flores’s blitzes on their shoulders. Blackmon was a craftsman with an edge in college and Evans has earned exclusive first-team status in camp with his athleticism and length. Whether either one of them can turn their potential into competent play is very much yet to be determined.
In fact, whether they are even the starters isn’t entirely clear. Joejuan Williams worked with the first team at the outset of camp and 2022 second-rounder Andrew Booth Jr. shouldn’t entirely be counted out of the race yet. It’s only the first preseason game, after all. Heck, maybe there is somebody else that we don’t expect who makes their case. Tay Gowan, anyone?
Having seen an entire year of Cam Bynum in the secondary, the safety position isn’t all that eye-catching from the starters’ perspective but the two players behind them are worth watching. Josh Metellus has emerged as a hybrid type who could be a legitimate weapon for Flores and Lewis Cine is looking to make any noise whatsoever in the race. Coaches are saying that Cine is taking a more professional approach this year and it’s translated to a couple of splashy plays in practice but he needs more than that to argue for a role.
And then there’s a rookie quarterback. Jaren Hall would tell you himself that it’s not an easy life being a rookie in O’Connell’s offense and the first two weeks have been rocky. But he will have a chance to show command over the offense and some of the accuracy that got him picked in the fifth round. It’s almost a lock that he’s going to play the entire second half. Will there at least be hints that he can be a future backup?
How about the guys who will be catching Hall’s passes. With Jalen Nailor and Trishton Jackson out, the door is open for somebody to step up and for the team’s hand. Punt returner Brandon Powell has been making plays in camp and suddenly former first-rounder N’Keal Harry is here and catching passes like he wants to stay. Thayer Thomas has consistently done his best Chad Beebe impression over the first few weeks. Opportunities abound.
That’s not even the extent of it. Ivan Pace Jr. has made waves as a UDFA who is taking first-team reps. Oh, and there’s kind of a kicking competition — we think. Greg Joseph is supposed to do the majority of kicking on Thursday. With rookie Jack Podlesny in camp, there’s reason to perk up at every Joseph boot.
So there’s a bunch of stuff to watch that might actually matter. If we’re being honest, there has been a lot of wasted keystrokes about preseasons past because the Vikings had veteran teams who needed the preseason like the Twins need to play the Yankees in the playoffs. This year, many of these players need preseason action to ramp up for the regular season and compete for spots. That’s different and harder to brush off as pretend football.
So off we go….
