If this is it for drama, Vikings are off to a good start
EAGAN — On Saturday, the Minnesota Vikings welcomed fans to TCO Performance Center for the first time this summer to attend training camp. On the big board over TCO Stadium, the team posted a message asking fans to avoid sharing video clips of the practice on social media.
Head coach Kevin O’Connell asked in his press conference for fans to give their hometown team a hand by not giving other teams the competitive advantage of seeing practice online. Naturally, some amateur content creators in the stands decided not to be team players and blew off the request, posting literally every play of the final pad-less practice before things ramp up on Monday.
The internet chuckled at the Vikings’ attempt to keep a practice internal that had thousands of folks in attendance. Some X’s and O’s types broke down every play, even in some cases posting things out of the Los Angeles Rams’ playbook to show the similarities.
Over the first five days of camp, this is about as hot as it’s gotten in terms of controversy around the Vikings’ facility. Yawn.
(Side note: I saw about 27 other teams’ highlights on Twitter that were taped from the stands).
Two days before VideoGate Justin Jefferson told the Pioneer Press that Kirk Cousins did not accept an invite to throw in Florida during the break between minicamp and training camp. Some folks in need of internet engagement tried to stir up some Kirk-isn’t-a-leader noise based on the report. JJ suggested on his twitter that it was a bit much. Meh.
Before that, there was a radio appearance by a former Viking that revealed Mike Zimmer and Cousins weren’t on the same page. The comments made ProFootballTalk and other aggregation sites but the quotes might as well have been saying that the turf inside US Bank Stadium is green.
There was also something about Cousins and Zimmer after the win against the Lions last year. I didn’t care enough to try to figure out the whole story and I hope you didn’t either because.. what difference does it make?
Kwesi vs. USA Today was kind of interesting. The Vikings’ GM acknowledged that he should have been a little more careful in his wording so his comments aren’t interpreted as being direct analysis of his quarterback. Alrighty, that one gets a 4/10 on the controversy scale but if you’re reading this and having to review what was even said by Adofo-Mensah, then it doesn’t come close to the white hot raging drama that this organization is capable of producing.
Think about last year alone. Vaccination statuses, public questioning of a QB’s leadership, major injuries, coach and GM on the hot seat, Adam Schefter/Dalvin Cook/civil case, Everson Griffen, COVID, “I see him every day,” close losses, narrowly missed records. Whew. Now that was some stuff.
So far the Vikings’ offseason has gone just how they drew it up: Without incident.
Mark Wilf said players are energized by the atmosphere and there’s no evidence to the contrary. Practices seem lively. No fights or meltdowns like in 2019 and Cousins hasn’t thrown the ball into the road out of frustration like he did in 2018.
Importantly O’Connell and the staff have been managing players’ workloads in a scientific manner to best reduce injuries. Health in football is usually luck but you can stack the deck in your favor. Everyone practiced on Saturday.
So what is there to talk about? Mostly what’s to come. The padded practices will ramp up the violence and possibility of injury. They will also determine a lot of interesting position battles, whether it’s jockeying for position at depth defensive line or Lewis Cine trying to pry the first team reps from Cam Bynum. Oh yeah, there’s the backup QB thing. That’ll play out too.
The Vikings will have some practices against the 49ers. Getting an up close look at Trey Lance and how the two offenses practice against each other will tell us a lot about the roster.
If you got bored reading that, well, that’s probably a good thing for the Vikings. All the nuances are compelling because it’s football but it does almost feel empty in Viking land if they aren’t at the center of something completely unfathomable (say, like Brett Fave showing up or a roof collapsing).
Savor it folks.
Trust me, the Vikings will be the Vikings and the regular season always comes along with madness, so there will be plenty of reasons to be worked up about this squad when the time comes. But the more time spent where the biggest problem is @VikingBuddy69 posting a bunch formation on twitter, the better for the team in the long run this season.
This is what everyone wanted. Less tension. Less distraction. And no excuses for the team to come up short of their expectations. Will it stay that way? Well, Vikings fans should hope so.
