Teams Minnesota Vikings - Skol Vikings

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The Vikings evaluation of the Strong Safety position continues with the news that Chris Crocker (ex Bengals) is going to get the start for the Vikings against the Cardinals. Kurt Coleman (ex Eagles) started against the Raiders and Robert Blanton has featured prominently with the first team at training camp.

My guess is that Blanton gets the gig for passing downs and Coleman on rushing downs but what that means for Jamarca Sanford and Mistral Raymond is anyones guess. Draftee Antone Exum may struggle to make the team, but I would expect him to pick up a training squad spot.

I know it's early days, with a couple of important pre-season games to go, but to say the SS position is undecided is an understatement.
 
Sven said:
Don't get too excited, the pre-season isn't about winning and losing, it's about finding who is in the best 53.
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Lol, wrote that after 1st Qtr. Cassel looked comforable, Thielen's continuing to impress, Cordarrelle looked pretty sharp, and Defense not giving up mass yards or letting 3rd & longs through was great. James/Price/Wootton/Barr/Shamar did good things. What's not to get excited about? :p
 
I haven't seen the game but heard Cassel looked like he was doing well.

What's the Bridgewater situation, I'd think he needs a bit of work but he looking like a later this season type of player if we need him or will he just sit around waiting for an injury or next year?
 

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happydude said:
I haven't seen the game but heard Cassel looked like he was doing well.

What's the Bridgewater situation, I'd think he needs a bit of work but he looking like a later this season type of player if we need him or will he just sit around waiting for an injury or next year?
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Cassel is still the favourite to start the season as the #1QB, but it will all come down to how Bridgewater progresses in practice and the next two pre-season games. Cassel has the advantage of extensive NFL experience, and has shown the ability to learn new offences with 3 different NFL teams. Bridgwater, as a rookie, is not only learning a brand new offence, but is also learning about the speed of the NFL, and the different defensive structures that can be thrown at the offence on every play. The coaching staff is steadily asking Bridgewater to do more in practice sessions, and you've probably heard more about him throwing more interceptions in practice, but that is because the coaches are asking him to pass more vertically and are putting him in more red zone situations to see how he performs in those areas.

The Vikings have a horror start with games against the Rams, Patriots, Saints, Falcons and Packers as their first five games. My guess is the Vikings will start with Cassel and depending on how they go in the first five games either change to Bridgewater for the week 6 home game against the Lions, or stay with Cassel if they start the season on a roll.
 
Some takeaways from the Vikings/Cardinals game:

1. First, the obvious. Although Bridgewater was playing against the 2s/3s he looked good and definitely improved from the previous week. Cassel has firmed as the week one starter, but Bridgewater will start at some stage during the year.

2. OC Norv Turner is known as a TE friendly coach and it looks like Rudolph is in for a big year. His 51 yard TD was a thing of beauty, with a nice block from the WR to spring open the big yards.

3. WR Rodney Smith must be knocking on the door for a roster spot. At 6'5" he's a huge target and he showed some really good body control on the slightly underthrown pass from Bridgewater during the game winning drive. He also showed off his red zone ability with the game winning catch. I wouldn't be surprised if perennial underachiever Jerome Simpson gets cut instead of Smith.

4. The starter for the Vikings at strong safety is still very unclear with no standout contributors on Saturday. Sanford, Crocker, Coleman, Sendejo, and (the injured) Blanton are all in the mix with Zimmer saying after the game:

"There's so many things going on," Zimmer said of how the safeties looked Saturday. "I have to really study the tape to figure that out. I thought they all did some good things as far as the safety spot. I didn't notice Crocker all that much. Jamarca had some good plays, had a couple of bad plays. Sendejo, same thing."
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5. Anthony Barr played a few snaps at DE (right and left) with Everson Griffen sliding into DT on those plays. Zimmer has talked about this alignment for passing plays for some time and it surfaced on Saturday.

6. Kickoff Returns. The Vikings persisted with Jerick McKinnon and he was serviceable. I doubt the team will go back to Patterson because he's too valuable on offence so it looks like the job is McKinnon's unless he does something awful in the next two games.

7. and finally, the final Cardinals TD. I'm no rules expert, but I'm pretty sure that NFL rules don't allow the ball to be propelled forward and be recovered by another player and then that player goes in for the touchdown. The ball should of been spotted at the point it was recovered. Mind you we wouldn't have seen Teddy's last drive so there was some silver lining to the horrible call.
 
JDavey said:
Thoughts for the pre-season games as a whole so far Sven?
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Each game has offered something different, with the third game showing that the defence can win games for the Vikings this year. I loved the pressure from the front 4 against KC, and the DBs contributed with some key interceptions. If the Vikings can come away with 5 sacks and 3 interceptions in a regular season game then I think the team would have a win.

Cordarrelle has come ahead in leaps and bounds, as has Kyle Rudolph and I'm pretty confident the offence is an improvement of last year. Defence is also improved, but I still have concerns about the DBs and their ability to defend the pass. Marcus Sherels is the surprise packet of the pre-season and it looks like he's moved all the way up to #3 on the CB depth chart. What this means for Josh Robinson is any ones guess.

Teddy Bridgewater has shown glimpses and it's definitely just a question of when he gets an opportunity to start, not whether or not he's capable. Matt Cassel has been OK and I'm sure he'll be better when Peterson is added to the mix when the regular season starts. I'm sure Cassel will be looking over his shoulder though, because any slip ups mean it's Teddy time.
 
The Minnesota Vikings have added former University of Minnesota quarterback and NFL fullback/tight end through the waiver wire. Gray, 24, was let go by the Cleveland Browns on Saturday after spending 2013 in Cleveland under current Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner. The Vikings have also been awarded tackle off waivers. Harris played for Turner in 2012 with the San Diego Chargers. The Vikings waived linebacker Larry Dean and tackle Austin Wentworth to make room for the additions.

Following the waiver wire claims here is the current roster by position:

Quarterbacks (3) Matt Cassel, Teddy Bridgewater, Christian Ponder

Runningbacks (3) RBs: Adrian Peterson, Matt Asiata, Jerick McKinnon

Fullbacks (2) Jerome Felton, Zach Line

Wide receivers (5) Greg Jennings, Cordarrelle Patterson, Jarius Wright, Adam Thielen, Rodney Smith (NOTE: Jerome Simpson suspended 3 games and doesn't count against the 53 man roster)

Tight ends (3) Kyle Rudolph, Rhett Ellison, MarQueis Gray

Offensive linemen (9)
C John Sullivan, Joe Berger
G Brandon Fusco, Charlie Johnson, David Yankey, Vladimir Ducasse
OT Matt Kalil, Phil Loadholt, Mike Harris

Defensive linemen (8)
DE Everson Griffen, Brian Robison, Corey Wootton, Scott Crichton
DT Linval Joseph, Sharrif Floyd, Tom Johnson, Shamar Stephen

Linebackers (7) Anthony Barr, Jasper Brinkley, Audie Cole, Chad Greenway, Gerald Hodges, Michael Mauti, Brandon Watts

Cornerbacks (6) Captain Munnerlyn, Shaun Prater, Jabari Price, Xavier Rhodes, Josh Robinson, Marcus Sherels

Safeties (4) Harrison Smith, Robert Blanton, Antone Exum, Andrew Sendejo

Specialists (3)
P Jeff Locke
LS Cullen Loeffler
K Blair Walsh

The Vikings announced nine additions to the practice squad, including rookie CB Kendall James, DT Isame Faciane, DE Justin Trattou, OC Zac Kerin, WR Donte Foster, OT Mike Remmers, RB Joe Banyard, WR Kain Colter and TE Chase Ford. The team has one spot left, possibly for OT Austin Wentworth if he clears waivers.
 
Zimmer scores best debut of any Vikings coach
Posted by Mike Florio on September 7, 2014, 10:02 PM EDT
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The Vikings have had only eight coaches in more than 50 years. On Sunday, Mike Zimmer notched the best debut performance of any of them.

Zimmer’s 34-6 road win over the Rams, a 28-point margin, edges Norm Van Brocklin’s franchise debut, a 37-13 victory over the Bears in 1961.

Two other coaches won their first games — Dennis Green in 1992, with a 23-20 win over Green Bay, and Brad Childress in 2006, with a 19-16 victory over Washington.

“I assume that there won’t be very many of these,” Zimmer told reporters after the game. “I have said for a long long time, that I think the fans of the Vikings will like how this team plays. When they watch this game today, they will be excited about continually watching. We played with a lot of heart and a lot of effort. For the most part we did a lot of the right things.”

They did plenty of the right things, on both sides of the ball. And now the Vikings have seized the early lead in the NFC North, with a 1-0 record. The Packers and Bears are 0-1, and the Lions have yet to play.
 
I'm so happy we have started out so strong.
BUT I felt like the win said more about the Rams then it did us.

However, the fact our D had 5 sacks, 2 INTS (including a pick 6) is a great start. Did not feel like we missed J.Allen out there. I think Zimmer was asked about our D after the game and said we just played okay and had a way to go. I feel that once we start playing some more high powered offenses it may get exposed a bit more.

Thought the offensive play calling was the best we've seen in a few years as well.
 

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I was happy all day after that but mainly because I thought we'd go 0-5. Hope we can knock green Bay off this year. Excited to see what Zimmer can do
 
Anthony Barr has all but been forgotten over the pre-season with all the talk about Bridgewater.
With week one out of the way theres a gif below with a couple of stills about what makes him an exciting prospect and potential DROY.

Barr quickly identifies that a screen play with Cunningham is incoming, he takes off BEFORE the pass is even thrown.
The play is well executed though and two lead blockers meet Barr. Due to his play anticipation hes already reaching speed and is able to split the gap on the double team and stop the play for just a three yard gain.


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I kept wondering if he was doing well over the preseason games.

Our D was the biggest issue last year but even when that improves the media still live to focus on the offense.

Same with most sports I guess.

I tend to like defenders when I watch sports personally.

Harrison Smith looked good too, glad he's back
 
Under Zimmer the defence was always going to improve, and you can bet he saw the potential in Barr and pushed for him in the first round.

Harrison was always going to be good, but what I'm liking is that they're mixing it up this year, with him being added to the blitzing mix.

Sharif Floyd also looks like a changed man under Zimmer.

It's also interesting that Blanton got the SS gig and that last year's starter Sanford didn't even make the team.

It's a completely new defence and I'm liking it, thank god Tampa 2 is gone.....
 
Sven said:
Under Zimmer the defence was always going to improve, and you can bet he saw the potential in Barr and pushed for him in the first round.

Harrison was always going to be good, but what I'm liking is that they're mixing it up this year, with him being added to the blitzing mix.

Sharif Floyd also looks like a changed man under Zimmer.

It's also interesting that Blanton got the SS gig and that last year's starter Sanford didn't even make the team.

It's a completely new defence and I'm liking it, thank god Tampa 2 is gone.....
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Given the Patriots woes on the Offensive Line, I'm not particularly looking forward to seeing Floyd and Joseph (who I wanted the Patriots to sign in Free Agency) terrorise the interior of the line. That's a significant advantage in favour of the Vikings.
 
Brady usually hit targets too and they would wanna make up for the loss this week.
 
Peterson has been reinstated to the team and management have announced that they'll wait for "due process" (ie his date in court) before making any further decisions on his status on the team.

"Today's decision was made after extensive thought, discussion and consideration," Spielman said. "On Friday there was a significant amount of uncertainty and information coming in. We felt it was best to step back, evaluate the situation and keep Adrian out of the game this past weekend. Over the weekend and early this morning, we gathered as much information as we possibly could, had multiple conversations with Adrian's attorneys and met several times with Adrian personally. Based on all that, we made a decision that we felt was the right decision at this time."
"Based on the extensive information we have right now ... we believe he deserves to play while the legal process plays out," Spielman said.
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I suppose everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but the situation still makes me very uncomfortable being a Vikings fan at the moment.
 
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