Training camp recap: Day 2

Christian Darrisaw was very positive about his health and Kyler Murray took more first-team reps

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

On Thursday, the Minnesota Vikings took the field for Day 2 of training camp. Here’s a breakdown of the day at TCO Performance Center…

What I heard

Christian Darrisaw is feeling great

Following practice, Darrisaw had a huge smile on his face when he was asked how he was feeling.

“The best I’ve felt in two years,” he said, beaming. “Definitely came a long way and this offseason has been huge for me.”

He described practice the last two days as being “tremendous” and said that the rest this offseason for the knee that plagued him during an ACL recovery last year was absolutely vital to getting back to full strength.

“Just feeling like myself truly, like not even having to worry about like just like stiffness waking up and things like that,” Darrisaw said. “It’s just like night and day from how I came into the season and how I’m feeling.”

I asked Darrisaw how much it weighed on him mentally last year when he was battling to get back on the field and several times had to remove himself from games.

“Definitely taxing,” Darrisaw said. “Because my brothers, man, we worked so hard together, and I know I worked my ass off to get back into point, put me in that position [to play last year]. And just my body was not responding the way I wanted to, and not allowing me to do the things I needed to do. It kind of restricted me a bit. But now we’re here and ready to roll.”

Last season demonstrated how difficult it is for the offense to operate without a fully healthy Darrisaw. If he has a healthy summer and goes into the season at 100%, it raises the floor and ceiling of what the offense can be.

Wes Phillips on scripting out the offense

To begin camp, Kevin O’Connell said that Kyler Murray and JJ McCarthy would both be getting 50-50 split and then they would assess how things were going and shape the practice reps from there.

On Thursday, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips discussed the process of scripting out the plays for each quarterback.

it takes maybe a little extra thought than if you just had one guy where you're working through,” Phillips said. “We know who's getting what, and then you want to make sure that in one rack, ‘okay, he had three passes, and he had three runs, what kind of passes were they?’ And are we really giving them a good and fair opportunity as we go through this competition.”

In terms of splitting the rep share, there is the queston of the coaches making sure that Kyler Murray gets enough work so he is totally prepared for the start of the season if he wins the starting job. Phillips said that the onus is on the player to adjust but he didn’t have any concerns about Murray being ready.

“If you're not getting the share of the reps that you need or would like, you have to be able to learn from the other guys that are out there, and you have to hear the coaching, and maybe Josh [McCown] is giving, or Kevin [O’Connell], or whoever it may be, you have to hear their coaching and take it and make sure you don't make the same mistake [twice],” Phillips said. “Kyler just being a veteran is that he's got a lot of banked experience under his belt….He's seen just about everything, and knows how to play football.”

Intrigue with Gavin Bartholomew

On Day 1 of camp, the Vikings 2025 sixth-round pick, who missed last season with an injury, had a strong showing y making a couple catches downfield.

Phillips talked about what he sees in the former Pitt tight end.

“A really good athlete, catches the ball really well, as, in the short time, we had him last year, he showed that he could come off the ball in the run game, and he's got some twitch, some explosiveness to him, that you see when he's catching some passes,” Phillips said. “Generally if a guy's big enough, and willing enough, that usually translates to the run game as well. He's a football guy. He's all about it, so I expect him to only improve his camp goes.”

Jordan Mason…. best shape of his life?!?!?

Shoutout to Emily Leiker of the Star Tribune. She said during practice on Wednesday that it looked like Jordan Mason had slimmed down a bit. There may have been some skeptics within the media contingent but it turns out that she was right.

“What I'm really impressed with Jordan is that, some guys come back, and you just know they're in shape, and you look at, he dropped some pounds, he felt like he was too heavy,” Phillips said. “He put a lot of work this offseason, both in the spring and the summer, into coming in and making sure he's at his best. So, really impressed with his mindset coming in here.”

The Vikings, who have reiterated their commitment to improving the run, will have to decide how they want to divy up the reps between Mason and Aaron Jones. Last year they were fairly closely split when both were healthy and both players had their moments but the 27-year-old Mason ended up with 4.8 yards per carry and in the top-15 in yards after contact.

If the team can trust Mason with all aspects of the offense i.e. pass protection and receiving, it stands to reason that they would lean on him more in hopes of keeping Aaron Jones healthy all year. Being in shape to take on an RB1(ish) workload could help Mason from the jump.

Demond Claiborne’s first impression

It takes about two seconds watching Demond Claiborne run to realize that his quickness and agility is on a different level from most running backs. The former Wake Forest running back, who the Vikings picked in the sixth round, could have an opportunity to carve out some type of role due to his potential home-run capability.

In order to get to that point, Claiborne will need to make strides when it comes to understanding the details of the Vikings’ running and pass protection schemes.

Phillips said that it was a challenge in the spring but Claiborne has put in the work to prepare for training camp from a playbook perspective.

“Some of these college systems are very different from the pros and and and Wake Forest’s was no different,” Phillips said. “It was very different from terminology and things that he had to learn here. So, there were a lot of growing pains in the spring, as far as being disciplined with his footwork, his tracks, and then learning the protection scheme, and all the calls, and the things that go into it. You just see a much more comfortable player, even in the first few days here coming into camp.”

Special teams coordinator Matt Daniels was asked if Claiborne could have a potential opportunity to get involved in the return game, even though they have Myles Price as the KR1.

“I'm really excited about Demond… movement skills, explosiveness, I don't think we've had a guy like this since Kane [Nwangwu], honestly,” Daniels said. “The way that he moves, his first step, the first step burst that he has, the explosion that he plays with and the lateral quicks, short area quickness, and lateral agility…. it gets you really, really excited.”

Daniels said that if Claiborne does have a role in the return game, ball security will be the thing they are focusing on to whether they can have him paired with Price on returns during the regular season. Tai Felton is also a candidate for the KR2 job.

Last year Price emerged as a quality punt and kick returner, earning the job in training camp but there were some missteps that went along with his strong season. Daniels wants him to focus on certain details to protect the ball better this year.

“The next thing for him is gonna be, how good can we be at playing with quiet feet when we do catch it, especially on points, you know, catching it with good, clean, square feet,” Daniels said. “A lot of the times, last year, he was a little off balance, maybe stagger feet not catching it square to the chest.”

What I saw

There was a clear shift in reps on Thursday. Whether that maintains into the future is to be determined by Kevin O’Connell but Kyler Murray clearly took the majority of the first team reps. Onlookers counted 12 reps with the first unit for Murray to just six for McCarthy.

Overall, here’s how I charted the day’s throws:

As you can see, Murray had the higher ups and downs while McCarthy threw a lot of his passes underneath and completed a higher percentage.

Here is the breakdown of exactly where Murray’s throws went:

Murray’s highlights: