Friday mailbag: The center of attention at camp

Vikings fans want to know what's next for positions of need and whether they'll do anything to make changes

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By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday, everyone! We’ve got padded practices, storylines and even a preseason game. Football is happening so let’s see what y’all have on your minds…

@jeffintokyo1 Which 2nd and 3rd year players are stepping up their game (not the KJ Osborn types who were clearly keepers based on last year)... Basically which guys look that they belong that it was not clear before (Patrick Jones or Twyman types)... In particular, who gotten you excited or at least intrigued?

Twyman and Jones are definitely getting chances. I’ll need a bigger sample size and some preseason action to say whether they are really making noise but Twyman has caught my eye a few times on pass rushes. He’s got some power to his game. Another second-year guy who seems to be getting a lot of second-team reps is defensive tackle TJ Smith. I know that because I’m often looking down at my roster going, “Who’s number 50?” Zach Davidson is the obvious other one. With Irv Smith Jr. out he’s getting a ton of work but it catches my ear when people are focusing on his natural talent and how he’s developing. That makes me think he has a ways to go.

@alstrain Let’s say Irv Smith has the same health as Byron Buxton, who is available as a pass catching threat the Vikings should consider? I’ve heard a lot of Ebron, but is there anyone else?

Jared Cook is also still a free agent. He’s 35 so I don’t know if he plans to play this year. Jesse James is out there. MyCole Pruitt. Ryan Izzo. It’s not exactly an inspiring group but if they aren’t thrilled by the current roster guys they should add someone soon. I don’t think Smith Jr. is like Buxton but tight end is a very physical position and guys get banged up. They need to be able to rely on TE2, which is why it was surprising that Johnny Mundt was the only guy they brought in (aside from a seventh-round pick and Shaun Beyer).

@tadfundermann With the Vikings having 10-15m in cap space (depending on who you ask), do you see them using any of that to bring in an outside veteran (who?) before the season starts, or will they just hold on to it for a rainy day/carry it over to next season?

OverTheCap.com is the most accurate and they have the Vikings at around $10 million, which means they can maybe bring in one or two veterans if needed. If I had to guess, I’d say they make one signing but I can’t say for sure what position that would be at this moment.

I know everyone wants JC Tretter but former Raven Matt Skura is another experienced center who doesn’t have a job. He was a horrendous guard last year but had some OK years in Baltimore at center. Some rushers like Jamie Collins and Alex Okafor are still free agents if the Vikings aren’t happy with the depth players on the edge. If they don’t like what they’ve seen from the receivers past the top three, Adam Humphries, Dede Westbrook, Emmanuel Sanders and John Ross are available. There’s a few guards like Quinton Spain and John Miller out there. It can’t be a terrible idea to bring back Sheldon Richardson to be a rotational guy if he wants to play.

I won’t copy and paste the whole free agent list but basically if there’s any positions that the team isn’t thrilled about after two weeks, veteran options exist to help and they should use a little cap space to fill those spots. At this moment, there’s a case for a few positions but there haven’t been any injuries aside from TE that would make an addition completely necessary.

@ramseykincannon After reading Robert Mays' excellent article on slot WRs, he mentions Ramsey at Slot CB. Packers putting Jaire there, too (similar def). Any thought in your mind that the Vikings should put PP in the slot to deal with St. Brown, Lazard, run game and leave AB/CD on the outside?

Peterson has rarely played in the slot over his entire career. I went back year by year and saw one season where he played over 100 snaps and it was barely over 100. Asking Peterson to completely change jobs at this point in the game can’t be better than Chandon Sullivan, who has been OK in two years of starting with the Packers. Booth Jr. starting would also be a tall task even though he’s looked good in camp. Rookie corners tend to get lambasted and the Vikings have to play AJ Brown, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tyreek Hill, DeAndre Hopkins, Terry McLaurin, Stefon Diggs, CeeDee Lamb etc. It would be a big ask for Peterson and Booth Jr. They’d be better off keeping Sullivan as is and mixing Booth Jr. into favorable situations to give Peterson a break than putting it all on his shoulders right away.

@alrmpls Are we going to get our fire-breathing dragon back, or did Tennessee permanently ruin that for us?

I think Tennessee did permanently ruin it. I was complaining about this at camp the other day. I don’t get it. One horrendous mistake by a franchise with a stadium barely better than most from the 1980s and everybody suffers, even the most modern stadiums? Bizarre. Write Roger Goodell letters.

@swikarojha24 If there are questions about Irvs health, do you see the Vikings making a push to sign a free agent TE? Ebron, Pruitt, Cook all still available

If they did sign one of those guys I wouldn’t be shocked but those names read a lot like “Chris Herndon” to me. Cook is one that I could buy being an upgrade because he had a decent season with the Chargers last year but Ebron caught eight passes last year and Pruitt had 14 receptions. I haven’t seen anything from Mundt or Davidson that would suggest they are all set at TE though. I think it depends on how Irv recovers. If it looks like he’s going to miss regular season time, they should get on the phone.

Jonathan via email Might need a pie chart for this one. Who is the favorite to be the Vikings backup QB in 2022? Several reports are indicating both Mond and Mannion are struggling.

Right now I’d go 40% Mond, 30% Mannion, 30% Other. There is still time for somebody to have things click and there’s preseason games to be played but neither QB seems to be able to get the second/third team offenses going. Throws don’t seem to be on time very often. Mond is running a lot, Mannion is checking down on almost every play and both are fumbling snaps. They don’t have many options but maybe another team cuts a more proven backup QB on cutdown day. Or they could call Ryan Fitzpatrick and see if he wants another couple million.

@KAAAAAHN_tk421 Have you seen anything so far in camp that makes you more optimistic or pessimistic about the Vikings chances this season?

Two big things I’d would lean toward the good side: A lack of any serious drama and health on defense. Things don’t feel very tense at the moment and if everyone is healthy on D, it’s a talented group. It’s a long season and injuries will mostly come during the actual games but if they can at least enter the year at 100% they can start off at full strength against two huge opponents in Green Bay and Philly. As far as how practices look, I’m not seeing anything that would make me lean heavily one way or the other. Some good, some bad. The guys who are good like Jefferson/Thielen/Cook etc. are still good and the guys that you’d be concerned about are still concerning. But we’ve also only had two padded practices. I can’t really give a full “what’s the vibe coming out of camp” verdict until we’re deeper into it.

@cpthadp Hey Matthew, is there a chance teams are waiting to sign JC Tretter until after week one to avoid a guaranteed contract?

I’d be surprised if that’s what they were waiting for. If they signed him after Week 1, it would take at least several weeks before he could actually play and it’s hard to know what type of game shape he would be in at that point. If they’re going to do it, they need to do it soon. Plus this ownership hasn’t been one to nickel and dime.

@Aoki5Chuck The brief long snapper discussion the other day has me wondering-is there any position in the NFL in which there exists a surplus of people able to play the position successfully? I.e., obviously there are not 32 quality starting QBs, but are there 40 punters or something

There seems to be more wide receivers who can reasonably play football than there are roster spots. I saw a handful of good USFL receivers and several got signed. Linebacker comes to mind. Teams are only playing one or two LBs at a time, meaning they don’t have to keep very many on rosters. I bet there are a bunch of decent run stoppers who nobody wants. Heck, the Vikings got all their linebackers hurt in 2020 and Todd Davis and Blake Lynch were giving them decent* reps. In some defenses you might be able to hide a limited safety.

*relatively speaking

On the other side of the coin, if Storm Norton was playing huge snaps for the Chargers last year, it tells you there are not many good offensive tackles. There are only like five good TEs in the NFL. Nickel corner is another one where we’ve seen the limited number of people who can do that job at a high level. Running back is a hard one to pin down. The Vikings have four guys who might be good but RBs are only good for a short period of time, so if you haven’t drafted any recently, it’s hard to find a guy on the street.

@SKOLfromSeattle Is JC Tretter an option after hearing that Harrison Phillips is forklifting Bradbury? Do you expect Cam Bynum to outright win the S spot opposite Harrison? Kid made plays last year.

I can’t tell you for sure why Tretter isn’t in the league. Some people have suggested he’s getting blackballed because of the NFLPA thing but maybe it’s health related. Of course, he sure played a lot of snaps and put up great pass blocking numbers for a guy with health problems. It looks to me like they are going to give Chris Reed a legit chance to take Bradbury’s job.

I don’t expect Bynum to win the spot alongside Harrison but it wouldn’t be completely stunning if he did. Bynum is setting a fairly high bar for Lewis Cine to beat. I think safety is an IQ position and that plays in Bynum’s favor.

@Thetwostooges2 Which rookies have impressed this week? Which Viking seems the most improved from last year? Where are the biggest holes on our roster?

Booth Jr. and Asamoah have been the two most impressive rookies. As far as improvement from last year, Bynum had no idea how to play safety in least year’s camp and now he looks very comfortable. I haven’t seen the jump I expected from Smith-Marsette but maybe that’s coming soon as he gets comfortable in the offense. I don’t know yet how much Darrisaw has improved but he looks great so far. The biggest holes are every position’s depth except running back.

@Scotty_Wuebbels Since Mannion is Kirk's clipboard-toting sidekick, do you think his conservative mindset (constant checkdowns during practice) negatively impacts Kirk? With the recent quote about KOC pushing him to attack certain looks certain ways, I wonder if Sean has been giving bad advice

Nah. Coaches have been pushing Cousins to attack forever. Jay Gruden famously said that he couldn’t scheme receivers wide open for Kirk on every play. Mike Zimmer pleaded with him to throw downfield to Jefferson last year. Diggs once threw his helmet in a camp practice after a checkdown. It’s definitely not Sean Mannion’s influence.

@headcoach21 If Aaron Donald was on the Vikings this year they win _ games

I’ll go with 11. He’s the GOAT but I don’t think he completely covers all other ills on a defense. During his time with the Rams with McVay as the coach they have ranked 12th, 20th, 1st and 15th in points allowed. With depth concerns factored into the equation, I’d guess they would finish around 10th-12th on defense and somewhere similar on offense and be a good team that had some chance to make a playoff run but they wouldn’t be the NFC favorite.

@smccullough5 In your opinion, based on what you’ve seen from Cam Bynum, Chandon Sullivan and Lewis Cine so far, do you think we'll see more dime or nickel this year?

I’ve mostly liked what I’ve seen from Bynum. I don’t know his assignments watching from the sideline but he looks like he’s in control and in the right places. I haven’t watched much of Sullivan, to tell you the truth. And Cine hasn’t made me look in his direction that often, in part because the second-team quarterbacks simply aren’t getting the ball to receivers. I’ve spent a lot of the first few days of padded practices looking at receivers and tight ends to get a feel for where they stand. I’ll make a point to focus on Cine next week.

@SteveThomsonMN Do you get the sense covering the team that most of players actually despise Kirk Cousins?

Despise? No. There’s an ocean in between “despise him” and “completely believe he can win them a Super Bowl” and he falls somewhere in the middle. He’s not Joe Montana but he’s not Scott Mitchell or Jay Cutler either. The other players know how good he can be at times and they want him to throw caution to the wind and go out blazing.

@BIG_dannn If Mond and Mannion keep this up and down camp..is KOC going to have suit up to be a back up or what? Haha But seriously is one of these two our back up or do you see a move made here..cause I don’t see a QB that can win you that one or two games in an absence of Kirk

I agree that in its current state, the backup situation isn’t yielding any wins if Cousins were to go out. Here’s the problem: Who is? AJ McCarron? Blake Bortles? I wouldn’t get worked up about the backup QB situation. Eighty percent of teams are completely screwed if the starter gets hurt and the Vikings are no different. The only good backups are Minshew, Brissett, Teddy, Case, Colt McCoy, Dalton and Geno Smith. And I’m stretching on a few of those.

@rinkygolf Who does the uncertainty regarding Irv Smith’s readiness for week one open the door for making the club the most at TE?

I guess it does for Zach Davidson, Nick Muse and Ben Ellefson but I’m not sure it will change the 53-man roster. If they wanted to make a new roster spot for someone they would have to put Irv on IR. More likely outcome is that it’ll be Irv, Johnny Mundt and either Davidson, Ellefson or Muse and then one other guy will make the practice squad. For Week 1 they would call the PS TE up to the active roster if Irv isn’t ready. In my opinion, changing the rules to allow PS guys to be called up and sent back to the PS has been a major positive for guys getting opportunities and teams not having to sign and drop players constantly.

@SkolGeek Does it look like the Vikings are happy with Bradbury at starting center? Are we giving Chris Reed any more snaps with the 1’s at center?

I think Reed is going to have a chance to show them he can be an upgrade but he hasn’t taken any first-team reps yet. There’s no way the Vikings’ brass completely overlooked the issues with Bradbury in pass protection from the previous years so it feels like Reed is their contingency plan. I understand if wanted to get a look for themselves to see if he can improve in their system or get better with more experience etc. before moving on but the early returns don’t look like the stripes of the tiger have been changed. Put this one under the “DEVELOPING STORY” category.

@AstroGardener Looks like Patrick Jones is in. J Robinson is physically more imposing & completely recovered, why We hear nothing about him? Sorry for UDFA question but what do you hear on Mints/Villain/ Z Mac?

It looks like Jones has gotten a little more action with the 2s and the occasional first-team rep so that’s probably why he’s been talked about more than Robinson. Jones was also drafted higher so presumably he’s the most skilled player and Mike Smith said he thought Jones was the quickest off the snap. The way I approach all of these backups or project players is that we have to see some evidence of them making noise. We can’t just look at somebody like Brick from Anchorman and say he’s looking great because he exists and was drafted by the team recently. That’s not to say Robinson can’t earn a rotational role or beat Jones on the depth chart, it’s just that we don’t get a chance to review the tape of every rep, so there has to be something noticeable in terms of reps or pass rush wins or quotes at the podium to put the spotlight on someone.

Don’t apologize for UDFA questions haha. It can just be hard sometimes when people say, “How’s this guy look?” and I haven’t had reason to focus on the guy. McCloud has definitely had the most reps where I’ve taken notice but those players need to shine in preseason to have any shot.

@kylewilkentdb Friday mailbag ? I hear a lot of talk about cj ham from the coaches, but not much about his play on the field. It seems surprising the team would keep what the 3rd most highest paid fbs and not really use him

They’ll use him. The thing with Ham is that he can play like 15 snaps per game and be effective as a blocker or make a play with the ball in his hands and it’s totally worth it. Opposing defenses truly do not know what to do with him. If they keep nickel personnel out there he will run over a cornerback or if they put out an extra linebacker the chances are that player rarely sees the field. Defenses also never know where he’s going to be. Per PFF, he lined up last year 242 times in the backfield, 106 at tight end, 18 in the slot and 9 as a wide receiver. He had a 30-yard run vs. the Panthers and a 24-yard catch against the Ravens. Kevin O’Connell is smart not to throw out everything the previous coaching regime did.

@LfcMay We all know Mond has underwhelmed. My question though is if it would make sense to carve out a sort of taysom hill role for him? They are of similar size and athleticism. Not sure on Monds receiving ability but if we can’t find a role for him then how do we not cut him?

Remember last year when I said that if you’re talking about Oli Udoh as a starting guard option it’s like considering drinking the ocean water when you’re lost at sea? That’s where people are at with Mond, it seems. He’s fast but he’s not close to Taysom Hill in athleticism. Hill ran a 4.46 40-yard dash at 230 pounds and scored 32 rushing touchdowns in college. He’s a once-a-decade weird player who can effectively play QB and receiver, tight end, running back and special teams. Mond is a backup QB or he’s coaching a high school team in Texas. Those are the options.

@BuckWallert so if Bradbury loses the center job, what would be so wrong with putting him as fullback or TE, he's undersized as a lineman, but a big haus otherwise

What is with you guys today? This isn’t Madden. No first-round center is moving to fullback.

@GriffRobMike How has Chandon Sullivan looked and whose the backup nickel if he goes down? Slot CB was a mess last year

Nickel can be tricky to figure out in camp practices because there aren’t as many one-on-ones. It’s a lot of reading and reacting, which is why the job is so difficult. Sullivan looks like he knows what he’s doing and we haven’t seen anyone else take nickel reps so the job appears to be his. It would be almost impossible for him not to be an upgrade over Alexander.

@PalpatinesRobes Do you think the Vikings are going to bring in someone to fill in for Smith (injury) or Bradbury (incompetence)?

Tight end seems more possible as they figure out how Smith Jr. is going to heal. If they feel like it isn’t tracking well for him to come back, they need to get someone else soon. It seems like Reed is already the next option at center.

@bulldogs13tv Any Wyatt Davis news? I had hope this was a Zim didn’t like rookies situation but it appears the new staff aren’t big fans either. Assuming he is getting cut at this point.

He’s been with the third team and only the third team. Also worth noting that O’Connell isn’t giving the rookies first-team reps either, so Zim isn’t the only football coach who makes the rookies earn it.

@tuffytime74 2part Diet Dr Pepper question for your Friday Mailbag MC:1)I literally just saw D Carlson nail a 55 yarder in the Hall of Fame Game. Isn’t a GM there 2 talk the HC off the ledge on making a rash decision? 2) what % of the Vikes post 2017 decline do you put on Zim v Spielman

They cut Daniel Carlson because they panicked. That ties into question No. 2 as well. When there’s pressure on a coach/GM to win it all or else, everything becomes the apocalypse. That’s why they signed everyone who was on the 2017 team to deals at top price or traded for Yannick Ngakoue or traded a fifth for Kaare Vedvik or traded a fourth for Chris Herndon. Zimmer and Spielman deserve a lot of criticism for that but maybe it came from upstairs and bad luck in the draft played a part. The post-2017 decline is really a 10,000-word article but in short, they needed to thread a very small needle to work around Cousins’ enormous cap hits and they weren’t particularly shrewd in attempting to do so. The QB they paid elite money also let them down too often. Thus, mediocrity.