Inside The Vikings

Vikings Training Camp Notes, Day 10: Situational Football Takes Center Stage

The Vikings had their tenth practice of training camp on Tuesday at TCO Performance Center.

Will Ragatz

The Vikings are into the double-digits in full-squad practices, with their tenth of the summer taking place in 90-degree heat at TCO Performance Center on Tuesday.

It was a fairly low-intensity session for much of the afternoon, but the competition levels ramped up for the final 15 minutes or so as the Vikings turned things loose and played some football. 

Here are three takeaways and an assortment of other notes from the session.

11-on-11 situational period provides excitement

To close out Tuesday's practice, the Vikings put together a simulated game scenario that allowed the offense and defense to face off for several complete drives, with penalties and the game clock as important factors.

They've done that before, but this was the longest such session we had seen during camp. It makes sense that the Vikings are trying to increase the amount of game-like action they run, considering the regular season is less than three weeks away. After an off day Wednesday and a normal practice Thursday, they'll take the field at U.S. Bank Stadium and run an entire half of a simulated game.

On Tuesday, the scoreboard read 28-28 in the fourth quarter. The first-team offense took the ball and marched down the field against the first-team defense, aided by some short completions and a pass interference penalty against Holton Hill. To cap off the drive, Alexander Mattison burst through a hole and found the end zone for a nice touchdown run.

After an unsuccessful drive from the second-team offense, the starters got the ball back and once again went to work. Mike Hughes made a nice diving breakup on a pass intended for Justin Jefferson, but the offense bounced back. Cousins found Irv Smith Jr. for a big gain; the play looked like a touchdown at first, but he was ruled down at the five yard-line (there's still no live tackling, so it's more of a judgment call from the refs and coaches). A couple nice stands from the defense forced a Dan Bailey field goal to make it 38-28.

To end the day, Jake Browning led the third-team offense on a long, methodical drive down the field. It was capped off by the highlight of the day, a leaping touchdown catch from Tyler Conklin over Troy Dye on a nice throw from Browning.

Overall, the intensity was high and both starting units looked sharp. It was a fun way for the players to head into a mid-week off day.

Hunter continues to sit

It seems like I write this every day, but it continues to be worth mentioning: Danielle Hunter was out against on Tuesday, missing his ninth consecutive practice. What Mike Zimmer once described as a "little tweak" is clearly something more than just that. 

Zimmer also said recently that Hunter is getting better every day, and that it'll be up to Eric Sugarman as to when he returns to action. That's all we've heard on the matter. Hunter continues to be out there in a visor, without pads, helping coach up his teammates, but it has now been almost two full weeks since we last saw him participating in practice.

It's not time to panic just yet, but I think it's valid to starting having some mild concern over his availability for Week 1. I'll continue to look for him every day and will report as soon as he returns.

Stars do their thing

Even with no Hunter, the Vikings got standout performances from a number of star players on Tuesday. Most notably, the Kirk Cousins to Adam Thielen connection was in mid-season form. That duo connected numerous times, including this highlight play on a deep ball:

Throughout all of camp, Cousins and Thielen have visibly been on a different level than anyone else at quarterback or wide receiver, respectively. That continued on Tuesday – Cousins was sharp and Thielen got open pretty much at will.

Defensively, the player that stood out most to me was Anthony Harris. He was all over the place making plays, including a great breakup where he demonstrated remarkable closing speed to swat the ball away from Dan Chisena.

Other notes

  • Britton Colquitt returned to action after missing Monday's practice, getting some live punting reps in. From what I could tell, he looked good.
  • Here's another thing I feel like I say every day: Alexander Hollins is impressive. He beat Jeff Gladney on a nice out-breaking route during a drill and secured the ball before reaching the sideline. Hollins' stock just keeps on rising. He also got some reps at kick returner on Tuesday, interestingly.
  • It looked like Josh Metellus and Myles Dorn got most of the second-team reps at safety. Metellus seems like a safe bet to grab one of the backup safety jobs, which could leave Dorn, Nate Meadors, Brian Cole II, and Steven Parker battling for one spot on the 53-man roster.
  • Nate Stanley didn't have a great day, and appears to be firmly behind Browning for the No. 3 QB role. He throws a great-looking ball and has had his moments, but overthrows and other accuracy issues are simply occurring too often.
  • Nevelle Clarke made a nice breakup on a deep 50-50 ball intended for Dillon Mitchell.
  • It was a tough day to evaluate O-line/D-line play, given that there were no 1-on-1s. Ifeadi Odenigbo stood out with a nice run stop in the situational period.
  • The Vikings seemed to be experimenting with a bunch of different blitz looks, with Anthony Barr and various defensive backs heavily involved. It'll be interesting to see what kind of effect Dom Capers has on the looks they present to opposing offenses in that area this season. "We’re very multiple on defense here," Capers said on Tuesday. "We base out of a 4-3 but we have a lot of different looks and multiple sets. The thing that enables you to do that is your personnel and their ability to rush and drop and do different things, handle things mentally."

I'll be back in Eagan on Thursday after an off day tomorrow, and I'll be in attendance at U.S. Bank Stadium for what should be a fun practice on Friday.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

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