Vikings-Broncos Joint Practice Recap Day 2: Big Days for Adam Thielen, Ihmir Smith-Marsette
16 days after it began, the Vikings' 2021 training camp has come to an end. Thursday's practice was their 14th out of 14 and the second of two joint affairs with the Denver Broncos.
And just like that, it's time for the games to begin. These two teams will face off in the preseason opener on Saturday, which should teach us plenty. In exactly one month, it'll be time for the Vikings' regular season opener in Cincinnati.
It's a great time of year.
First, let's talk about what happened on Thursday. After focusing on the defense during joint practice No. 1 yesterday, I spent the majority of my afternoon watching the Vikings' offense go against a really good Denver D. They started slow and had some hiccups throughout the day, but for the most part, I thought the Vikings had a much-needed bounce-back day on the offensive side of the ball to wrap up camp.
On the far field, it seemed like the Vikings' first-team defense did fairly well despite being without three starters. The second and third-team defenses weren't as successful.
It was a scrappy, competitive day. There were at least three or four instances of near-fights between the Vikings' offense and the Broncos' defense, with players pushing each other and talking trash in the scrums. That's just a natural byproduct of joint practices, and luckily none of them escalated to anything too serious.
Not practicing for the Vikings on Thursday were Justin Jefferson, Mackensie Alexander, Anthony Barr, Danielle Hunter, Nate Stanley, and Dede Westbrook. Christian Darrisaw remains away from the team after undergoing a second procedure to address his lingering core/groin injury on Wednesday. Blake Proehl, who suffered a season-ending knee injury Wednesday, was seen on the sidelines with crutches and a big brace on his knee. Lastly, Rashod Hill got banged up late in practice, meaning the Vikings were down to their No. 3 left tackle (Blake Brandel) with the first-team offense to finish the day.
One last time, let's get to my takeaways.
Jake Browning, Ihmir Smith-Marsette come up huge in 2-minute drill
The Vikings' offense ended practice with a situational drill, needing to drive 75 yards while trailing 30-24 with 1:30 left and two timeouts. It was a mix of 1s and 2s out there for both sides, with Jake Browning at the helm for Minnesota.
The third-year quarterback looked very sharp in getting the job done with the help of a favorite target: rookie receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
On the first play of the drive, Browning found Smith-Marsette for a decent chunk over the middle to move the chains. Then he stepped up in the pocket and connected with Dan Chisena for another solid gain down the right sideline, with Chisena getting out of bounds to stop the clock. Another completion to Smith-Marsette and a nice throw to Brandon Dillon moved the chains again and got the Vikings into the red zone.
Then things started to stall. The next three players were an incompletion to Whop Philyor, a short throw, and a desperate backwards pass to a running back in the face of pressure. That last one caused the Vikings to take their second and final timeout, and Zimmer said after practice that it was a situation where Browning should've just thrown the ball away.
"I was talking to him a couple of times about the situations there, ‘It’s third down now, you can’t clock it.,'" Zimmer said. "He threw the one ball over there on the side, and it’s third down, we’ve got to use a timeout. It was a 2-yard loss or whatever it was. You’ve got to just throw that away. Those are the kinds of things that experience helps with these guys."
Still, the Vikings had one more chance on fourth down. So where did Browning look? To Smith-Marsette, of course. He fired a bullet to the left, and the rookie came down with it for a "game-winning" touchdown. That was followed by Smith-Marsette busting out a celebratory dance and yelling "this s*** easy!" while getting mobbed by his teammates.
"He's gonna be a good player," Zimmer said of the rookie from Iowa. "I'm trying to get him better on special teams because he's going to have that role. He's still going to have to do better there."
One thing Smith-Marsette doesn't lack is confidence. "He's very confident, very cocky," Zimmer said. "Likes to jab a little, talk a little bit."
It was another impressive display from Browning, who was an early star of training camp when he shined as the only available quarterback during Minnesota's night practice a couple Saturdays ago. There are still three preseason games to be played, but Browning seems to have wrapped up the backup job.
"I was really impressed with him in the 2-minute drill here that he did," Zimmer said. "He’s been impressive when Kirk was out. He’s just a get-it-done guy, a leader, players fight for him. He listens."
Rookie Kellen Mond is back from the COVID list and had some nice moments over these two joint practices, but he still has a lot of work to do, according to Zimmer.
"Mond needs to pick up the tempo. Everything is slow-motion, a little bit, but he did make some good throws today, I thought, and moved out of the pocket a couple of times. He needs a bunch of experience, so he’s going to get a lot of reps in this preseason. Just watching him, everything needs to get sped up, faster and quicker, because it happens so much faster than he’s used to, I’m sure."
Adam Thielen wraps up an impressive training camp
With no Jefferson for the past several practices since he got injured last Friday, Adam Thielen stepped up as the No. 1 guy for Kirk Cousins. He was phenomenal on Thursday, making catches left and right, whether it was in 1-on-1, 7-on-7, or 11-on-11 action.
The very first live rep of the day was a deep ball from Cousins to Thielen that fell incomplete due to an overthrow. Even though they couldn't connect on that one, it was an encouraging start to the afternoon to see Thielen burn Broncos rookie first-rounder Patrick Surtain II down the field.
After that, he was by far the Vikings' most productive offensive player. Thielen caught everything thrown his way, with a couple of his highlights being a decent gain on a WR screen and a touchdown reception in 7s.
Ten days away from his 31st birthday, Thielen has shown no signs of slowing down. He's once again going to be a major threat in the red zone this season, even if he's unlikely to replicate his 14 touchdown catches from 2020. With the addition of a 17th game, I think there's a strong chance Thielen records his first 1,000-yard season since 2018 if he stays healthy. Defenses are going to be keying in on Jefferson, which could open things up for Thielen on the other side.
Oli Udoh, once again, outplays Dakota Dozier
For the entirety of training camp, the Vikings had Oli Udoh and Dakota Dozier split reps at right guard with the first-team offensive line. In this humble observer's opinion, the competition there isn't even close. Frankly, there isn't one. The job needs to be Udoh's.
The third-year converted tackle was one of the biggest breakout stars of this year's camp, along with K.J. Osborn and Browning. His combination of size, strength, and athleticism appear to translate very nicely at guard. All camp long, Udoh made things happen in the run game, pass protected well, and won most of his 1-on-1s.
Dozier had some solid moments, but on the whole, he wasn't nearly as good. Plus, there's an entire 16-game season of tape that tells you the veteran was one of the worst offensive linemen in the NFL last season. Why go back to that well when Udoh offers a higher floor and ceiling?
The trend continued on Thursday. Dalvin Cook broke off a few nice runs towards the right side, with Udoh and Brian O'Neill opening up lanes. Dozier was driven back in the pocket far more frequently than Udoh was.
This is the most simple way I can describe it:
Unless he really struggles in the preseason, I don't see how the RG job doesn't belong to Udoh in 2021.
On the whole, the Vikings' offensive line started slow and then played well for much of the day. Losing Hill later on was a big blow.
Eric Kendricks, D-line carry Vikings' defense
With no Hunter, Barr, or Alexander, the Vikings' first-team defense was a bit shorthanded against Drew Lock, Teddy Bridgewater, and the Broncos' talented skill position weapons.
I wasn't watching that field much, but from what I saw and heard, all that mattered was that Eric Kendricks, Michael Pierce, and Dalvin Tomlinson were on the field.
On Wednesday, my biggest takeaway was that Pierce, Tomlinson, and Armon Watts were dominant in the middle of the defensive line. It sounds like that continued on Thursday. I didn't see a lot of running room for the Broncos whenever I looked in that direction.
Both Zimmer and Andre Patterson were very complimentary of Pierce on Thursday, particularly in terms of what the big nose tackle can do as a pass rusher.
"He’s more athletic than you give him credit for," Patterson said. "You see it in 1-on-1 pass rush. You can see he has some quick edge-to-edge to him, and you usually don’t see that in a big, wide-bodied person. The first time he did it in 1-on-1 pass rush, I grabbed him and said 'Hey man, don’t ever let anybody tell you you can’t rush the passer.'"
Kendricks had a great two-play sequence against Bridgewater to highlight an unsurprisingly impressive day for the star linebacker. On back-to-back throws in the red zone, he came down with an interception and a PBU.
The Vikings' front seven is going to be really good, especially if someone like Stephen Weatherly, D.J. Wonnum, or Patrick Jones II steps up at defensive end. The back end should be fine with Harrison Smith and Patrick Peterson leading the way. All the ingredients are in place for an outstanding defense.
Other observations
- Kene Nwangwu continues to make a push to be the Vikings' kick returner. He had a pair of nice returns in live action against the Broncos to start practice. Ameer Abdullah, Smith-Marsette, and Osborn will also be factors in that battle, but Nwangwu has impressed me the most in that area. Let's see if he can carry it over to the preseason.
- I thought Wyatt Davis and Kyle Hinton put together some really nice reps in 1-on-1 drills against Denver defensive linemen. Brian O'Neill, on the other hand, had a tough day going against Von Miller in 1s and 11s. Davis also impressed with his mobility as a run-blocker during 11-on-11s.
- Speaking of Miller, one of the individual plays that impressed me the most during practice was Tyler Conklin single-blocking Miller for several seconds, which gave Cousins the time to find Thielen. Tight ends shouldn't be able to handle elite pass rushers like that (although to be fair, Miller roasted Conklin in a similar situation earlier in the day). That was an extremely good rep from Conklin.
- Dan Chisena didn't have a great day as a receiver. He dropped a perfectly-thrown ball from Browning at one point and also slipped coming out of a break, leading to a hard-luck interception for Browning. Chisena's path onto the team is still solely on special teams.
- The Vikings' second and third-team defensive backs had a rough day. Guys like Kris Boyd, Josh Metellus, and Harrison Hand were burned for multiple long touchdown passes, from what I saw.
- New Vikings receiver Warren Jackson scored a touchdown against his old team, which must've felt good. As that play was ending, Wyatt Davis nearly got into a full-out fight with a Broncos offensive lineman.
- Dalvin Cook is extraordinarily good at football, but Alexander Mattison and Kene Nwangwu aren't too shabby either. The Vikings have a very talented running back room.
- This is how I'd rank my top five for the unofficial "Mr. Mankato" award. All are players in their first three seasons who were a third-round pick or later.
Thank you to everyone who has read my daily recaps and other stories from Vikings training camp this year. It's been a blast.
There's plenty more coverage coming your way with the preseason opener on Saturday afternoon and the regular season just a month away.
Camp might be over, but the football is just getting started.
Thanks for reading. Make sure to bookmark this site and check back daily for the latest Vikings news and analysis all season long. Also, follow me on Twitter and feel free to ask me any questions on there.
