Friday mailbag: Vikings camp begins

Vikings fans have questions about who's emerging in the earliest days of camp

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By Matthew Coller

@surlycooper What’s the vibe like without Courtney Cronin around to keep all you beat writers in line?

I know you’re joking around here but CC was the leader in the room. She was our Pro Football Writers Association chapter president and she organized all of our transcriptions and sent out the group chat updates about when/where press conferences were happening. When we needed to celebrate in the media room with a cake, she went to Hyvee to order it. She’s also so good at talking about the team in a passionate way, which was great to have on the podcast during the dog days of camp. She’ll be back on the pod soon but it won’t be quite as good as her reacting to Zimmer press conferences.

@DarrickMoren Who are the standouts/surprises in camp so far? Of the players you mention, which ones are you most excited to see more of in camp?

Until the pads come on, it’s hard to have too many standouts/surprises. Even when we raised eyebrows with Troy Dye filling in for Jordan Hicks, Ed Donatell basically told us to cut it out because it didn’t mean anything at the moment. I would say I’m surprised to see Chris Reed playing left guard with the second team and Jesse Davis taking all the reps at first team right guard. It looked from minicamp like there was going to be a legitimate RG competition but now it seems like it’s set with Davis as the starter.

As far as players that I’ll be watching closely, Ihmir Smith-Marsette is going to get a lot of reps and chances to prove that he belongs in the rotation. I’m very interested in what happens with Cam Bynum. Right now he’s taking the first-team reps but does that last? I also want to see if Andrew Booth Jr. vs. Cam Dantzler becomes a thing.

@kyleshaner Of the 90 players on the roster at the start of training camp, approximately how many of them legitimately have a chance to make the 53-man roster and how many of them legitimately have a chance to make the practice squad?

If everyone were to stay healthy, I’d say 57 or 58 players. This year it’s probably a few more than that because the coaching staff is looking at these guys with fresh eyes and considering scheme fits. There’s players they brought in who might unexpectedly compete for jobs and players who were drafted by the previous regime who they might not feel fit schematically or have a future there. This is especially true with the edge rushers. The old group was looking for more traditional DEs and this staff might be leaning toward OLB types. The practice squad is wide open. Draft picks who get cut are locks but aside from them, there’s another 15 or 20 who could win a job.

@jeffintokyo1 So far, how is this camp different from a typical Zimmer training camp?

The timing of things is different. Usually they would do walk-through earlier in the day and then have a break in between, presumably for meetings, and go back out for practice in the afternoon. O’Connell is doing walk through until about 1 and then practice starts around 2:15. The press conferences with the coach are definitely different. O’Connell gives far less blunt answers than Zimmer. Figuring out who was shining in camp used to be pretty easy because Zimmer would just say it. If I remember, the early practices had a little more 11-on-11 and last-minute drive stuff but I’m sure that’s on the way. Other than that, a football practice is a football practice.

@chubbyfrogfan Is Jaylen Twyman really lining up as the starter in base 3-4 or is ESPN just wrong with their depth chart?

I don’t think they update that very often. He was not lining up with the starters.

@Adam60381733 What group has Twyman been playing with? And what are you seeing from him?

It wasn’t 100% clear at some positions whether it was the 2s or 3s but it looks like he’ll get a chance to show he can be a backup or rotational player in the best case scenario. The interior D-line competition isn’t particularly stiff.

@_kevvbot What has been the most significant, or eye opening, quotation you had heard thus far from players, coaches, etc?

Hm. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah acknowledging that he has to be more careful with the way he talks in the media because there will be lots of between-the-lines reading (though he was pretty straight forward in his comments in the USA Today article). It was a sign of the learning curve with a first time GM.

I’m not sure there’s been another quote so far that took me aback. Justin Jefferson saying he isn’t “fond of money,” was a little odd in its phrasing but I know what he meant. Kirk Cousins talking about how Kevin O’Connell asked him to read certain plays differently is an example of the level of detail that has to be mastered by the time they kick off Week 1.

Here’s that quote: “I remember a concept we had in OTAs in practice, I said no to a route over here and threw a route over here. And afterwards he said, 'Hey I want you to take that with that look. Don't progress.' And prior to him saying that I would've progressed every time. I said, OK, and we probably ran that play a half dozen times again in the spring and when we got that look I was going to take that option. It's important to understand what he wants and not just play to, 'Well I've done this before so I'll just do this again.' It's more of a, 'How do you want it to look? Let me execute that way.' But that takes time to learn.”

@KAAAAAHN_tk421 Are there any players that look a lot different physically from what they looked like last year?

Not that I’ve noticed. Back in the day major changes to players’ bodies probably happened from year to year but these guys are ready to go 24/7. When Zimmer said Wyatt Davis was out of shape last year it was pretty surprising because that doesn’t happen much with pros.

@cmaek09 How much of a reaction is TOO much of a reaction to the Booth Jr. int?

Any? I mean, it was a nice play. I’m not going to tell you not to get excited about stuff because it’s a dark world and getting excited about football is fun. He’s looked good. He had really good college tape too and we’ll be watching him closely… but one interception on the first day isn’t worth discussing much more than saying, “nice play.” It’s a long camp.

@pdefor What qualities of a QB do you look at when ranking one against another?

Ranking QBs is an entertaining exercise but it doesn’t really tell us anything. If our goal is to figure out who’s going to win, it’s very hard to separate the QB from his contract, coaching and supporting cast. If we’re talking about which players you would draft first based on their pure talent and nothing else matters — which isn’t reality — you’d start with arm talent, athleticism and toughness/leadership. There’s a lot of details in between those things but if you use those as the guide, you end up covering all the best… Mahomes, Rodgers, Burrow, Allen, Wilson etc. The QBs who are a notch below are usually lacking some element of those and that has to be covered by scheme or supporting cast. There’s always exceptions like Brees or Brady, who weren’t mobile but had different types of athleticism with footwork and pocket presence and didn’t have the strongest arms but had the GOAT accuracy.

@KyeBaxter Any [eyeball emoji] plays so far?

Adam Thielen roasted some corners. Johnny Mundt had a great catch. Irv Smith Jr. had a diving touchdown and popped right back up — that was worth eyeball emoji’ing because of the injury. We’ll get a lot more once pads come on.

@TigerTige Teams of smart people keep signing Dakota Dozier so there has to be something there, right? Can you please make the case for Dakota Dozier as an NFL-caliber player?

Dozier is a very smart guy who is extremely coachable. He’s going to do what he’s asked to do and that’s not always easy to find. It’s astonishingly hard to play offensive line. Has to be one of the hardest thing in sports when you consider how many linemen there are and how few are good. When you look at the way he played as a backup, it wasn’t that bad. But a player like him gets exposed if he’s playing week after week and opponents can gameplan against him. There’s a lot of players who have had good careers as pure backups.

@sgibbles You are the king of exasperation but what regarding football actually makes you angry?

There aren’t too many things I’d say make me real-life angry about football. When Mike Zimmer slammed Sharrif Floyd for being unavailable when Floyd was the victim of a botched surgery, that probably sent me past exasperated and into legitimately upset. That was wrong. Dirty hits where players get hurt. It’s a violent game and injuries happen but when someone goes out of their way to put another player in danger, they are messing with somebody’s long-term health and life. Other than that, punts at the opponent’s 38 don’t actually ruin my day.

@BIG_dannn Alright I’m back! Just got married and now back into Vikings football mode haha.. I know it’s only been two days of practice but what are you looking forward to the most to see come Monday when the pads come on?

Congratulations! I wondered where your Friday Mailbag questions had gone for the summer haha. When the pads come on there’s two places where it stands out: The trenches and the WR vs. CB battles. Let’s see how Darrisaw is looking to start camp. Let’s see how Jesse Davis fits. Za’Darius Smith is going to go hard. How about the interior, will anyone emerge? And how will these corners look once Thielen and Jefferson are turning it up with real routes where they can be physical? FOOTBALL.

@HalbrookChris Does Jaylen Twyman looked as yoked in person as the photos? Chances he sees the field this year?

He really does, yes. I’ll tell you after pads come on if he’s going to see the field but there’s an opportunity for him to make noise.

@headcoach21 Early impressions on Andrew Booth Jr??

He just moves really well and plays confidently. You can see the footwork even without pads. It’s smooth and he doesn’t seem to get shaken very easily by receivers.

@roberttseaman Which d-back not nicknamed “Hitman” do you expect to impress most at camp?

If I’m not going with Booth Jr., I’ll go with Cam Bynum. I think he’s smart and we’ve learned that safety is an IQ position. Say what you will about Zimmer but he spotted it quickly with Bynum and it seems like he’ll have a chance to show everyone he can play too.

@jtlaurie Is Wyatt Davis really that bad? I have yet to hear one thing about him. Do you have any insight into why he is failing to get any opportunities?

He might be. I suspect that O’Connell and Kwesi leaned on scouts’ opinions of players to decide how they were going to set up the roster to start camp and those opinions were not very high so they went out and got other guys instead. He’s a third round pick. It’s possible he’s just not good. It happens all the time. If he is good, he’ll show it and give himself a chance to be on the roster but based on the fact that Davis and Ingram are ahead of him to start, it seems like he has a long way to go.

@PatThePingu Training camp question, which under the radar player would make the biggest impact on this team should they have a great surprise year. Would it be ISM bolstering the wr room? Or would Chris Reed emerging help the team more? In short, if you had a genie that can make 1 overlooked player become good/great, who would you pick?

Certainly any receiver. They rolled the dice by not getting anybody else and I suspect Smith-Marsette might have had something to do with that. Ingram becoming the starting guard would mean a lot because he’s a pass blocking specialist and he’ll need to beat out a proven NFL right guard to get the job. The other answer would be anyone along the defensive line. If it’s Armon Watts, Patrick Jones or Janarius Robinson or whoever, they badly need some depth because there’s no chance that every player on the D-line stays healthy all year.

@NsportsfanM Camp just started I know but what’s the most recognizable difference from last year?

Since 2018 the Vikings’ head coach has been on the hot seat. In most years, they were coming off a season that ended in disappointment or camp started with some catastrophe (i.e. Hunter injury or Kirk’s COVID close contact). Right now, everything is rather chill. That usually doesn’t last in the NFL but that shortage of tension and pressure that comes along with a staff that had come short of expectations can be felt.

@usnrjacobs Defensive line looking like a top 5 defensive line?

It can be good but if you look around the league, they don’t have a case for top five. Not without a dominating interior rusher. I’d say they are more fringe top 10 if everything goes according to plan.

@kimballhal Any Wyatt Davis steam? Great at tOSU. It’s easy to assign blame, seemed out of sorts with Zim last year.

I’m not sure how we can blame Zim when the next group went out and signed two guards and drafted another one. Davis is playing on the third team and that kinda looks like where it’s going to stay. Sometimes players get drafted with a bunch of steam and never show anything that made them (somewhat) high draft picks. If Davis does break out of that, it’ll be because he took big steps forward, not because Zim was out to get him last year.

@herzog_mike What are the 3 biggest upsets you could see happening in positions battles?

Bynum starting Week 1 at safety would be a huge surprise but is possible. Booth Jr. beating out Cam Dantzler — or even more shocking would be Booth Jr. and Dantzler beating out Patrick Peterson. If Smith-Marsette or another receiver took snaps away from KJ Osborn that would be unforeseen but not completely impossible.