Camp rundown: DTs, knocks on wood and 'I didn't know we were supposed to be bad'

Andre Patterson, Kirk Cousins and Harrison Smith talked to the media about the start of camp on Friday

*Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

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The Minnesota Vikings held three more Zoom calls on Friday and a myriad of topics were discussed. Here are the most interesting parts…

What’s the deal with DT

After the Vikings’ attempt to acquire another defensive tackle blew up, it’s up in the air whether they will bring someone else in or not. The way co-defensive coordinator/D-line coach Andre Patterson sees it, they can handle their business with the current group that’s on the roster.

“I always go back to last year when we played the Dallas Cowboys,” Patterson said. “They have the number one offensive line in the league and one of the top running backs in the league and we played that game with Shamar Stephen and Armon Watts and Jaleel Johnson and they played great that night. We have great competition in that room at that position and I think we're going to be just fine.”

In that game against Dallas, Watts made his debut and had three run stops and a QB pressure in just four snaps and it was the only game in which Shamar Stephen had multiple QB pressures. Patterson was defensive about suggestions that Stephen is a weak link on the defense and went into great detail about the difference between a defensive tackle who is asked to penetrate the offensive line and one whose job is sticking the guard in his place.

“People write stuff about Shamar Stephen, and I get it because everybody just looks at stats, but if you watch film and you ask Eric Kendricks if he had to pick anybody to go to the game with that he'd make sure that guy was there, I guarantee he'd tell you it's 93 because 93 is not going to let anybody get to the second level and block Eric,” Patterson explained. “They're doing what we coach them to do. Some people take that three technique role, and that guy's a penetrating guy. He's trying to get in the backfield and get tackles for losses and is better on his pass rush because he's moving forward, but we don't ask our guy to do that. We ask our guy to keep Eric Kendricks free. We want to flatten out the line of scrimmage. Don't let any linemen leave the line of scrimmage, the inside guys, and let Eric free.”

That’s an outstanding explanation and a good reason why PFF graders wouldn’t give Stephen positive scores for something like holding an offensive lineman in place. However, Stephen was on the field for 350 pass snaps and only managed six QB pressures. That can’t be the plan. He was more effective per PFF in 2017 when playing a role more tailored to stuffing the run by playing largely on first down or second/third-and-short.

The Vikings could very well be content with using each player situationally. Patterson said that they are all cross trained to be able to handle nose tackle or three-technique responsibilities because sometimes offenses make changes at the line of scrimmage that require them to be the nose or three-tech on a given play.

“As we go through practice they all have to learn how to play nose and how to play three. I'm going to put the best combination out there that gives us the best opportunity to succeed,” Patterson said. “Shamar is going to take reps at nose, Jaleel [Johnson] is going to take reps at nose, Armon Watts is going to take reps at nose, James [Lynch] so is Hercules [Mata'afa] and the same with three-technique.”

Danielle Hunter staying put

With the (very likely) exit of Everson Griffen, the Vikings could have considered having Danielle Hunter switch to Griffen’s position as the right defensive end. Patterson emphatically shot down that idea.

“Why would you move somebody that’s doing something great? I don’t understand that,” he said. “He’s the fastest to 50 sacks in NFL history. You guys would be all over me if I moved him to the right and all of a sudden he wasn’t very good. I’m smarter than that.”

The one area where Patterson is wrong is that his track record is so good with developing players and putting them in positions to succeed that he probably wouldn’t have been questioned for moving Hunter.

Teams don’t seem to think there is a big difference in value between the left and right edges based on who gets paid and where top players line up. One area where right defensive end has a better chance to impact the game is with strip sacks but Hunter has more QB pressures than anyone in the NFL over the last two years and it makes sense that they wouldn’t want to mess with that.

Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson

Last year Irv Smith Jr. was “swimming” while trying to learn the Vikings’ system — and that was with a full training camp and coming from one of the elite programs. Imagine how tough life will be on Justin Jefferson early on, especially since he missed time on the COVID/reserve list.

Kirk Cousins said they were able to get together to throw at one point this offseason but it’s going to be a group effort to get him up to speed.

“Every day he’s learning something new and getting experience,” Cousins said. “Just yesterday, there was a unique route we’re asking him to run that he was still trying to figure out, how do you want me to do this? What steps do you want me to take? Whether it’s the receivers coach, myself, coach Koobs, we’re just trying to help him understand what we want, and every day you have another step that you take.” 

Mike Zimmer has mentioned having rookies possibly start off slow and get going as the season goes along. That could very well be the case for Jefferson. Last year they only worked in Smith Jr. in plays/packages that they were confident he could handle early on in the season and it appears we’re likely to see that again.

O-line changes

We might feel like we have somewhat of an idea where the starting point for the Vikings’ offensive line is but where it ends up is harder to say. The guard positions are likely not locked in, even if Gary Kubiak mentioned earlier this week that the four players returning from last year have first crack.

Kirk Cousins thinks that having Garrett Bradbury in his second year rather than being another “swimming” rookie will help with setting protections.

“It’s a tremendous help that we don’t have a rookie center this year,” Cousins said. “I think with Garrett being in his second year, he has a real command of the protections and the run game and identifying fronts and blitzes. He really makes that thing go up front and is doing a tremendous job with that communication. It falls a lot on him and then it’s really my role just to be a back-up and a bit of a back-stop to say ‘hey, I understand you’re going there but I want you to go over here.’ And those are few and far between but occasionally you do have to step in and redirect a point in protection or whatever it may be.”

The Vikings understand they have to pass protect better than last year — Zimmer said as much at the Combine — but whether they pick a combination of O-linemen that actually makes that the main goal rather than run success is yet to be seen.

While Cousins has been pressured a great deal since arriving in Minnesota, he’s played every game (outside of Week 17 in 2019). He explained his mentality about staying healthy and how it takes luck sometimes.

“Knock on wood about what I have had and haven’t had happen,” he said while knocking on his head. “It’s something I do take seriously. I spend a lot of time in season, offseason, doing a lot of different work to try to feel good and stay healthy. And some of it is also good fortune. You’re just sometimes fortunate to go for a stretch without having that freak incident. And then some of it is you just kind of have to know your limitations and play smart, throw the ball away when you need to, step out of bounds when you need to, try to slide when you need to and avoid those hits that could end your season.” 

Depth receivers

Alexander Hollins has a chance to make the Vikings’ team after getting an opportunity on the active roster last year. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

How many receivers the Vikings keep and which receivers they keep will be very interesting. There is room on the practice squad to have everyone that’s even slightly intriguing stick around but which guys end up as the starting four/five/six is undetermined.

Kubiak dropped a Tajae Sharpe nugget the other day about him getting the offense. Cousins said the same of Dillon Mitchell and Alexander Hollins.

“I have a lot of confidence in what they can do,” Cousins said. “I think having Dillon Mitchell and Alex Hollins on the practice squad all last season and then bringing Alex up at the end only adds more depth and experience to some of those roster spots. I feel we have a good quality group at the receiver position.”

Mitchell has to work his way into the conversation but Cousins touched on something important about receivers that may pertain to him: Having the athletic ability to beat someone in man coverage. Mitchell could be the best athlete of the entire group.

“(There’s) really two things you want: You want that athleticism where you know your receivers can create separation and win versus man coverage, which I think we have, and then you also want someone you know you can count on, who’s going to get lined up and know where to go in the pass game, in the run game and handle all the terminology and all the different rules,” Cousins said.

But Hollins found ways to get open when he had a chance to play in a real Week 17 game so he presumably starts a little higher on the depth chart.

Expanding Mattison

Even with Dalvin Cook in camp there are still questions about whether Cook will actually participate in padded practices. GM Rick Spielman said he “can’t predict the future” when asked if Cook would be a full-go if he doesn’t have a contract extension.

That situation prompted Cousins to be asked whether Mattison could take on all the responsibilities of a three-down back like Cook. The Vikings’ QB hinted at using Mattison even more no matter if Cook is in the lineup or not.

“I think if anything we’re going to only ask more out of Alex this year when it comes to the other parts of playing running back other than just running the ball: pass protection and running routes,” Cousins said. “He can do it all. Mentally, he can do it all. Physically, he has great hands. He can catch the football. So I think Alex is a very versatile running back, and hopefully you and I will be able to see more of that, because we’ll give him those opportunities. I remember against the Chiefs last year, he caught a ‘go’ ball that ended up being out of bounds. It was incomplete, but it was a very impressive catch that he was able to go get it. So it said something about his ability and what he can do, and I’m excited to kind of grow what he’s going to do for us this year.”

Going back to 2017, we have often wondered whether the Vikings would use two running backs on the field at the same time. With Stefon Diggs gone and both Cook and Mattison being two of the better playmakers on the roster, this might be the time to do it. We don’t always connect Kubiak with being at the forefront of innovation — rather having a long-proven system that can be coached to perfection — but he might need to add some wrinkles that opponents didn’t see last year in order to stay ahead of the game. Throwing more passes to Mattison and using both players on the field at once might be a way to do so.

Breaking: Harrison Smith is motivated

One of the storylines heading into 2020 is whether the Vikings can sustain a high level of defensive play despite having new starters on the defensive line and at cornerback. Harrison Smith had the best answer of the day to any question when he was asked about the expectation that they will fall off.

“I guess I’ve kind of been out of the loop – I didn’t know we were supposed to be bad,” Smith said. “So yeah, I guess that motivates me. Everybody takes things differently. People are going to say things no matter way, so I just try to play well. If you want to talk about it, that’s cool.”

Cool, indeed.

Smith had more insight into how the process is going to work of acclimating young cornerbacks into the defensive back group and what challenges they might face:

“It depends on a few things: where they’re coming from, are they playing a little nickel as well, or just corner?” Smith said. “Since Zim’ has gotten here and we’ve played Zim’s style of defense, the league has changed as well. The offenses have changed. People attack us differently every year, and it’s a new type of flavor that we have to get used to, and the corners have to play something different because [opponents] are always looking to attack what we do, but I would say a lot is on the corners.”

He pointed out that the change in rules from college to the NFL can be a huge issue for rookie corners.

“ They’re also coming from college to the pros, and the rules are very much not in their favor,” Smith said. “That adjustment is normally, I think when we play preseason — we won’t this year, but that’s normally the most glaring thing, the grabbing and illegal contact type of penalties, so that’s something that we’ll probably have to focus on a lot in practice, but the trajectory is tough.”

You won’t be surprised that Smith said he’s happy to have Anthony Harris back on the franchise tag. Losing Harris might have lowered the expectations for the defense. But I’m with Smith, I was unaware that anyone thought the defense was going to be bad.

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