Vikings Camp Journal: Day 9

Things got chippy at TCO Performance Center and JJ McCarthy got into a groove

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

The Vikings were back on the field for another fully-padded practice and it was quite eventful. Here’s everything that went down…

What I heard

The quote of camp so far: “That was f—ing sick!”

That was what Brian O’Neill said following a practice that involved multiple dust ups between the offense and defense, including one started by JJ McCarthy.

Late in Saturday’s contentious practice, rookie defensive lineman Tyler Batty got a free shot at running back Aaron Jones on a handoff and slammed Jones to the ground. McCarthy jumped to Jones’ defense, pushing Batty and getting in his face. That set off a bunch of pushing and shoving from the offense and defense.

Earlier in the practice, the chippiness began when guard Will Fries — who routinely plays through the whistle — got into it with linebacker Brian Asamoah. We saw the practice increase in physical play more and more and Batty’s hit was the final straw. Kevin O’Connell called the team together before the final period of practice but nobody was ejected.

Prior to the highly-aggressive events of the day, Brian Flores took the podium and talked a lot about the state of the cornerback room.

The most interesting man among that CB group is Jeff Okudah. The former No. 3 overall pick has received the vast majority of first-team reps when the defense is in the nickel and Kevin O’Connell said yesterday that they had a “clear” role for him carved out. Flores commented on what he wants to see from Okudah through the rest of camp.

“Physically, he's got long arms so his ability to potentially put hands on receivers is it's something he's done well over the course of his career,” Flores said. “Now it's just, how consistent can we be with that? Off coverage and tackling and zone coverage and cover-2 and cover-3 and perhaps blitzing off the edge. All these things are things that with his skill set he can do. It's really that we're trying to build in all those areas and he's doing a lot of good things.”

Okudah has been ahead of 2023 third-round pick Mekhi Blackmon, who is coming back from an ACL injury. It’s tough to get a read on whether there is a direct competition between Okudah and Blackmon or if they seen the ex-USC corner as depth. Last year Backmon was set to be their starting corner alongside Byron Murphy Jr.

“Coming off the injury from last year, I think Mekhi has looked very good,” Flores said. “His quickness is there, the speed is there, the football acumen is there. And I think just he just continued reps and opportunities. I've been very pleased with him. I think he'll continue to just improve, get better, ascend. Obviously, the preseason game is going to be great for him. But he's looked good in practice.”

In terms of the second unit, Blackmon has often been on the field with Zemaiah Vaughn, the UDFA out of Utah who has made waves rather than last year’s UDFA darling Dwight McGlothern. Still, we have seen McGlothern continue to make plays on the football, picking off passes in three consecutive practices earlier this week.

Flores praised McGlothern’s big plays but added a coaching point.

“This is about consistency,” Flores said. “I tell those guys all the time that carving out a career or a role for yourselves about consistency. And he's starting to become more consistent. And that's what we've been harping with him.”

The question is whether the Vikings want to keep six corners (Murphy Jr., Rodgers, Okudah, Blackmon, Vaughn, McGlothern)? Or is the battle for the final spot going to come down to Vaughn and McGlothern?

In terms of the dominating performance by the defensive line thus far, Flores said that he’s only still in the beginning stages of fully understanding the skillsets of free agent acquisitions Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave.

“I think this time you're trying to figure out as a coach, what does Grave like to do? What does J .A. like to do? Where are they comfortable? So there's been some dialogue from that standpoint,” Flores said. “Do you like to be head up on the center? Do you want to be shaded? I think still conversations like that.”

On Saturday, Hargrave was not practicing, so there was a mix of second-string D-linemen mixing in, including Jalen Redmond, Levi Drake Rodriguez and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins. Redmond said he’s just trying to take away everything he can from the stars.

“Those guys have a lot of years under their belt so right now I’m just learning from them, trying to pick their brains here and there and take a couple moves from them,” Redmond said. “I’ll get my snaps in and when I get in, I’m going to handle it.”

What I saw

Aside from the kerfuffle, it was an excellent day for JJ McCarthy. You wouldn’t be out of line calling it his best practice of the year considering the physical nature and high intensity.

He opened the day by dropping a 30-yard touch pass into the hands of Jordan Addison. It was exactly the type of throw he’s been talking about with “layering” all offseason.

McCarthy’s 7-on-7 period with the starters facing starters was one of his best portions of practice this year. He drove a ball into Jordan Addison’s hands and then had an intermediate completion along the sideline to Nailor. After that throw, KOC was giving some coaching points but the placement was good enough to move the sticks.

Then McCarthy made the throw of the day. He fired a line drive to Josh Oliver, who was trucking it down the seam. The ball hit Oliver right on the money 20 yards+ downfield. KOC came over and gave a big high-five to McCarthy after the throw.

McCarthy had two other decent throws during that period: A low completion to Addison and a deep ball to Nailor that was broken up (but probably would have been caught by Justin Jefferson).

Later in practice, McCarthy added a jump ball touchdown during the red zone period to Addison that put a bow on his excellent overall day.

Other things that stood out…