Friday Mailbag: Week 1 of camp

The Vikings have started training camp and fans have questions

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By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday, everyone! We finally have real practices to talk about so let’s dive right into it….

Ben B…Any initial impressions on the WR depth?

Honestly, the first few days have made that pretty tough because Sam Howell completions to receivers and tight ends have been hard to come by. We got a bit of a look at it when Jefferson was sidelined on Thursday. The two biggest observations are that Rondale Moore is 100% and looks fast, quick. He ran a little 7-yard speed out the other day and snapped it off fast and made the catch. Also Tai Felton is getting a real shot. He’s running with the 2s and getting the ball thrown his way. He had a good catch along the sideline in a contested situation. We saw him track the ball downfield in minicamp too.

Otherwise, it’s Lucky Jackson and Tim Jones getting work. The other guys are going to have to prove themselves.

Bradley P… Not a question but can we get some love for the finance people on the Vikings for not getting themselves into the situations that Dallas is constantly in and that Pittsburgh was in paying a 30 year old like he’s 25?

The thing about Dallas that makes them unique is that it seems Jerry Jones is still trying to use contract battles to drum up interest in the media. I guess he missed the part where it’s 2025 and nobody needs marketing ploys in football anymore. I can’t imagine being their cap guy and coming up with ideas to get stars under reasonable contracts and then having Jerry refusing to do it so he can talk to the media 14 more times about the deal.

Owner aside, everything that’s happening in Dallas happened in Minnesota a few years ago. The Cowboys missed their best chance to win the Super Bowl in 2023 (they were 12-5 and had the No. 1 offense in the NFL) and then they had to pay everybody, especially their quarterback. That’s just like having Diggs/Hunter/Kendricks/Barr all get paid and then adding Kirk Cousins’ contract to the mix. They had two years to win with Kirk, didn’t do it and then had to do a bunch of cap gymnastics to stay competitive.

No matter how much people try to argue that the cap isn’t real, it eventually comes for every winning team. That’s why we talk about windows. The Vikings’ window is opening now.

I don’t think Pittsburgh has managed their roster poorly. I just think if you ranked every team’s QB play since 2020, they’d probably be 29th.

Eldon…. Two questions, first is which of the teams that haven't one a Super Bowl will be the first to win one and two do you have a favorite neck roll?

Aside from saying the Vikings here, I would have to pick the Buffalo Bills. I think Josh Allen falls into the same category as someone like Peyton Manning early in his career. Clearly a Hall of Fame quarterback who had a bunch of bad things happen in the playoffs and just needs everything to come together in one year. I am concerned about their front office’s lack of attention to the wide receiver position when it comes to getting over the hump. I don’t get it. I’d be loading up on receivers around Allen. It’s hard to get through the playoffs throwing to Dalton Kincaid.

If not the Bills, the Bengals should be on the list because of Burrow. He reminds me a lot of Drew Brees but their organization is suspect. After that, I’d go Detroit, Chargers, Houston, Carolina as the next teams up where you could see a path in the next few years.

Sam Gash was the reason I fell in love with the neck roll. That thing was absolutely enormous and nobody played tougher than he did. Mike Alstott was probably the coolest player to ever wear it at the fullback position. Bryan Cox had this huge board sticking out of his pads — I think that counts as a neck roll. Howie Long and Jack Lambert are probably the best historic ones.

Bekwelem… Could you please find out about Coach Flores contract situation? Are there talks? Does he want to stay? What’s the fall back plan if he leaves?

Do you guys mind if I take a break from talking about people’s contract situations? I’m exhausted after the KOC and Kwesi stuff over the last year. I understand why this is a question — he’s an enormous part of this operation and they gave Wes Phillips a new deal — but we are a long, long way away from the end of the 2025 season when this really needs to be a discussion.

From Flores’ perspective, maybe betting on himself is the best play because this defense is really, really talented. Not signing KOC to an extension before 2024 definitely cost the Wilfs some cash. Maybe he would rather run another top-five defense and have the leverage that he could leave. Or maybe it’s July and there’s still plenty of time for them to work it out.

Matt D… Any signs yet that Tre Stewart will get a chance to steal Ty Chandler’s roster spot?

Any idea what the Vikings record is for most UDFAs to make the initial 53? Between Vaughn, Batty, Brown, and even Bolden and the two TEs, it seems like there is at least an outside shot that 2 or 3 make it this year.

I’ve only seen a couple of reps from Stewart. Zavier Scott has actually stood out to me more on a few occasions. It’s Ty Chandler vs. Ty Chandler. If they don’t decide to keep him, I expect that they’d go out and get somebody more experienced rather than turning things over to a UDFA who hasn’t played before.

I agree with you on the UDFAs. The early trend seems to be that Vaughn and Batty are in actual roles. They both have to prove they deserve those when the pads come on. Brown playing left tackle and Rouse playing on the right side is interesting in terms of that swing tackle position. Or maybe they could both make it and the team could cut Skule if they don’t love what they see. If Bartholomew can’t get out on the field soon, the other two are going to have a chance. But TE3 is another position they could address after cutdown day with a vet.

Jason… What is the camp battle that has the biggest surprise people not following the team closely?

Maybe if you weren’t following the offseason super closely, you might be surprised to hear that Jeff Okudah was getting all the first-team reps in nickel situations on the outside (call it the Shaq Griffin spot) and not Mekhi Blackmon. I think we’re going to need to let that battle play out because we have seen a lot of changes through camp at corner during Flores years. What’s going on now might not be the final depth chart. But it’s really interesting to have a former No. 3 overall pick who hasn’t worked out elsewhere getting a legit redemption shot here.

Robert S… When the pads come on, will there start to be indications of how Flores plans to use his two new weapons on the interior line? And will you be able to tell if Greenard is going to end up getting more and more favorable matchups as a result?

It depends. Sometimes we get hints about how guys are going to be used as the summer goes along, like when Josh Metellus suddenly started showing up as a box safety play after play and then that turned out to be his job. Other times, they don’t show their cards when it comes to creative stuff. With fans taking videos from the stands and posting them to social media, they are aware that other teams study those and pay attention to what their opponents are doing, so they wait until after fans aren’t there anymore to put in some of the juicy stuff.

But as far as Hargrave and Allen go, I don’t think that changes a ton for Greenard. His job is still going to be to beat the tackle. Allen/Hargrave make it a harder for OLmen when they are running stunts because of their quickness but I’m not sure the job is going to change a ton. What I’m interested in with those guys is whether they are going to run an actual 3-4 base defense out there regularly. We rarely see base defenses anymore but with Flores’ love for sending five guys and Cashman’s coverage skills, they could do it more than other teams.

Matt D… One more since nobody has asked. Did Rondale Moore look like he still has the juice?

I’ve been impressed. He does look to me like he’s moving extremely well in terms of his quickness and how he’s coming out of his breaks. There’s a legit chance he is WR4 and bumping up in the lineup when Addison is suspended.

Brent M… I have only made it to a few Vikings Training Camps, but one of my highlights has always been seeing and interacting with some of the "old-timers" (like me). Do you have any favorite memories of meeting the legends or any that you look forward to seeing?

Probably the coolest interaction I’ve had with a legend was when I told John Randle that I was from Buffalo and he told me that he won Jim Kelly’s golf tournament once and got a huge statue of a Buffalo as the prize. The other one that stands out was Randy Moss’s press conference when they put him in the ring of honor. We saw everything from him that day. He was reflective, emotional, thoughtful, funny, smart. That was incredible.

As far as the old, old timers, I haven’t had a ton of interaction with them. When Alan Page or Carl Eller are around, so many people are there talking to them that I haven’t really had a chance to say hello.

Arin J… Hi Matthew, training camp is just starting, when do you expect you will know. This is team is in trouble, or this defense looks dominating and offense looks credible, etc. Where you will be more or less confident in you 11 wins at least 1 playoff win? After TC, or after joint practices? Etc

It’s definitely the joint practices. I know it’s only two days but they are the closest thing to real football that we’re actually going to see. The last three joint practices have been enlightening. They went against the 49ers in 2022 and held their own as an offense, which was pretty darn impressive and it looked like things were coming together around KOC. And then in 2023, it was pretty clear when they went against Vrabel’s Titans that the offense was pretty lacking in a toughness element. Last year, the defense was unbelievably good in the practices with Cleveland, which may have inspired them to add a few more million to the Stephon Gilmore offer.

At that point in the game, we have also seen enough to have a big sample size of practices and coach/player commentary to get the whole vibe of the camp. We can tell if they are healthy or banged up, if they are locked into the offensive/defensive systems, how they are getting along with each other and who has emerged. I don’t expect to see a ton of changes from now until then though. With KOC and Flores and so many veteran players, they are going to be ready. It really comes down to how we feel about McCarthy’s play.

Bradley P… What’s a surprising headline we may see from the North after the season. My guess would be that Ben Johnson won’t help Caleb Williams that much.

Have you had a chance to see how Donovan Jackson is looking thus far?

One area I think the staff deserves some criticism on is the punter. The man they keep turning to cannot — for the life of him — have a punt downed within the 15 yard line. What gives? Do they not care or are there only a few good punters in this league?