Vikings camp recap, Day 14
Jacob Thomas has suddenly become a name to watch
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN — The Minnesota Vikings held their 14th practice of the summer on Monday. They were only in shells but still had an overall eventful workout. Tuesday they will be off and Wednesday and Thursday will be joint practices with the Ravens.
What I heard
Jamal Adams is officially out for the year
Before practice, Kevin O’Connell announced that Adams tore his quad in his right leg against the Giants on Saturday and will be out for the season.
O’Connell said that he will remain with the team as he recovers.
“I think it's really important… I've talked to a lot, both to him and his family, about just his impact on this organization, his ability to help young players, his ability to be a real beacon of energy,” O’Connell said.
After practice, Josh Metellus talked about how crushing it was for him to see Adams lost for the year.
“To see him working so hard to carve out a role and claim his name back and his position back, for that to happen it sucks,” Metellus said. “It hurts heavy on my heart. This is a guy that I look up to a lot and I model my game after him. I was very excited to play with him. To have that cut short, it’s tough.”
Adams had moved back to safety after starting with the Vikings at linebacker and appeared to be getting comfortable there as the summer went along.
Jacob Thomas is getting comfortable with the defense
The Vikings’ undrafted free agent from James Madison picked off a pass against the Giants and has looked the part when given reps at safety. On Monday, he spent a good portion of practice mixing in with the first team as Adams, Jakobe Thomas and Tavierre Thomas were out.
Thomas talked about his process of learning Flores’ defense.
“It was tough at first, I will say that, but these coaches have been amazing, staying around after meetings,” Thomas said. “We had a bunch of rookie meetings but they're always here to help you. It doesn't matter the amount of questions that you have, they will answer them and try to help you through it. So, the coaches have been a big help, and the veteran players, they've been in the system for a little bit now, trying to get little things from them is very, very helpful.”
Metellus said that he’s been impressed with how Thomas has been able to pick up the system despite not getting a ton of safety work during the spring OTA and minicamp sessions.
“Especially being an undrafted guy, you try to learn your role and he probably wasn’t thinking that he was going to be on the defense, he’s thinking he’s going to be a special teamer but during OTAs when he wasn’t getting reps he was getting ready mentally to take it on and you could hear it in the meeting rooms,” Metellus said. “He gave the coaches confidence that when someone went down they could throw him in there.”
After standing out from a mental understanding standpoint, Thomas’ teammates started to see his confidence and playmaking come along.
“To not make enough plays through the first couple weeks, we were like, ‘Jacob make that play, make that play,’” but then when the lights were on and for him to make that play, it was special to see.”
Thomas will be one to watch going forward with the safety position in flux.
What I saw
The Vikings did only a few segments of practice at 11-on-11 and the rest was spent focused on the red zone. Here’s where Kyler Murray threw the ball on Monday:
Murray highlights:
— Opened practice with a throw deep over the middle to Justin Jefferson that was on the money between the safeties.
— Had his best red zone 7-on-7 of training camp. Found TJ Hockenson for two touchdowns, both were into tight coverage. Hockenson made a very high difficulty catch on the first and then spiked the ball in the end zone on the second.
Murray lowlights:
— Overthrew a pass over the middle toward Jordan Addison that turned into an interception.
— Had a ball batted up in the air on a screen pass that turned into an interception by Dallas Turner.
Additional observations
— It’s officially time to push the “concern” button on Blake Brandel’s snapping. As much as he’s seemed in command and has blocked well in front of Murray, it’s become a near daily occurrence that he’s had a poor snap. On Monday, he rolled a ball back to Murray’s feet.
— JJ McCarthy had a big completion to Myles Price downfield. He took the majority of the second-team reps, while Carson Wentz worked with the 3s. Wentz had two INTs of his own, one of which was a great play by Zemaiah Vaughn in the back of the end zone.
— Chuck Demmings may be in competition for CB3 as he continued to rotated in with the 1s and had another PBU.
— Caleb Banks took more reps with the 1s and 2s than we’ve seen from him in practice all summer. The joint practices will be big for him after a tough preseason opener.