The Vikings with the best chance to emerge as key players in 2023
The Vikings roster experienced a significant amount of turnover this summer after a 13-4 season, leaving the door open for new faces to become key players. But who are they?
"There are two in the secondary that you could really make an argument are swing men, maybe for the season," said Purple Insider's Matthew Coller in the latest Purple Insider Extra.
"The outside corners, two guys who have had very good training camps, Akayleb Evans and Mekhi Blackmon are extremely important to this operation," Coller continued. "I think that with Brian Flores's defensive style it is a double-edged sword where it does help the corners be a little more aggressive, because if you're blitzing all the time quarterbacks have to get the ball out quickly. At the same time, it's a lot of man coverage. And if you're leaving two very inexperienced guys on islands fairly often, then a lot of your success as a defense rests on them."
Evans was a fourth-round pick by the Vikings in the 2022 NFL Draft. The 24-year-old corner was credited with two pass breakups in 162 snaps during his concussion-shortened rookie season.
Blackmon was a third-round pick in this year's draft. The rookie corner recorded three interceptions and was given a 90.1 coverage grade by PFF in his lone season at USC in 2022.
If Minnesota is going to rely on two rookie cornerbacks on the outside with free agent signing Byron Murphy manning the slot, they'll need a successful pass rush.
"We saw it last year where Danielle Hunter and Za'Darius Smith were extremely good but it was really about the weak links of the defense that determined where they finished, which was 27th in points against and you saw how they ended against the New York Giants with Daniel Jones lighting them up," said Coller. "That can't happen again or we're going to end up with a lot of the same results."
Minnesota only registered 38 sacks in 2022, good for 21st in the league, with 20.5 of those 38 coming from Hunter and Smith. Flores, known to have a blitz-heavy defense, will need to manufacture pass rush out of a turned-over defensive line with Smith and Dalvin Tomlinson now on the Browns.
"Evans is a tall, lanky corner who seems to really fit well with what Brian Flores wants to do," Coller continued. "He's really sticky in man-to-man coverage. What I've noticed from Mekhi Blackmon is just a physical edge to his play, which there will be flags at times. You can guarantee that, especially early in the season when he's just getting his feet wet in the NFL. There might be some grabbing and over-physical play but there's a saying in football that you'd rather say 'whoa' than 'go.' And I think that's Mekhi Blackmon.
"I think that those are the guys that have a chance to step up and be the cornerbacks of the future, because both of them are very young. But at the same time, with inexperience comes mistakes and there may have to be some patience along the way," Coller said.
