The Minnesota Vikings completed the first of two joint practices with the New England Patriots today at TCO Performance Center. They practiced in shells so more limited contact in the trenches compared to full pads, which makes evaluation of linemen more difficult.
But there were a lot of noteworthy things that took place during this practice. Here are my notes.
Vikings Defensive Front Good, Secondary Not So Much
It probably isn’t news that an offensive line with Garrett Bradbury at center and a couple rookies at left guard and left tackle had a tough
time against the Vikings’ defensive front, but they did. By one count among the Patriots media here they allowed a total of six sacks, plus were flagged for two holding penalties. So, it was a pretty dominant performance by the Vikings’ defensive front- a theme we’ve seen throughout training camp that is likely to carry-on into the regular season.
What wasn’t so good was the performance of the Vikings’ secondary in pass coverage. There was a blown coverage that led to an easy toss-and-catch touchdown for Drake Maye to Mack Hollins and another one to TreVeyon Henderson, who had another nice catch on tight coverage from Blake Cashman- all three plays shown below.
But apart from the coverage lapses, it was pretty much small ball for the Patriots- short runs and passes- with plenty of pressure from the Vikings’ front seven who dominated the Patriots’ offensive line.
The Vikings secondary did have a couple picks of Josh Dobbs- both pick 6s, one by Dwight McGlothern and the other by Jay Ward.
In drills, however, things didn’t go so well for the Vikings’ secondary.
I didn’t see much from the Patriots first-team offense in the ground game, but the lapses in pass coverage gave the Patriots’ first-team offense some easy TDs – something the Vikings’ first-team offense did not have. Vikings’ CB Byron Murphy Jr. talked a bit about the lapses in coverage after practice was over:
Vikings’ First-Team Offense: Small Ball Seminar
When the Vikings’ first-team offense was out there, it was mostly short completions and running plays- similar to the first preseason game- only this time T.J. Hockenson was McCarthy’s favorite target- although he hit Jordan Addison and Jalen Nailor a couple times too.
One of the takeaways from this practice was that outside of Jordan Addison, the other Vikings’ receivers working with the first-team- Lucky Jackson and Jalen Nailor- aren’t getting open much. I don’t believe Lucky Jackson was targeted at all today.
A certain amount of the small ball thing may also have been the play calling. There weren’t a lot of vertical routes on the call sheet today in 11-on-11s, and maybe that was by design. Certainly Kevin O’Connell isn’t showing a lot, even in joint practices, which is normal. But it may also be that they’re working on the run game and run blocking with three new interior linemen and a new running back, and also working on the screen game rather than the deep route concepts that are a big part of O’Connell’s offense. But with Justin Jefferson not participating, perhaps that makes some sense. Save that stuff for when he returns. It may also be that O’Connell wants to give McCarthy plenty of exposure to the bread and butter plays before moving on to the other stuff when practices are no longer open to the public.
I won’t post them all here, but I have around 20 or so plays on video on my X timeline if you want to look at them- follow me on X @wludford to see them.
McCarthy connected mainly on over the middle routes to Hockenson, Addison and Nailor, and screen or dump off routes to running backs. He was accurate on all the throws in 11-on-11s that I recall, but not pinpoint accurate on at least a few (e.g. catchable but not ideal ball placement). He also had one deep ball to Addison that got broken up/tipped at the last second by a diving Patriots’ defender, but it looked to be an accurate ball.
Overall, generally more of the same as the preseason game last Saturday from the first team offense, with McCarthy continuing to operate well in the pocket, good decision-making and accuracy for the most part, but not much of a highlight reel. Maybe that is being saved for the regular season.
Chapman Wins Today’s Punting Competition
Of all the position battles going on, one of the more visible is the punter competition between Ryan Wright and Oscar Chapman. Chapman won today’s competition easily.
In punting drills from about the -35 yard line, Ryan Wright had 2-3 go out of bounds around the 30 yard line- a 35-yard punt. His best was caught about the 20-yard line between the hashes- an average 45 yarder.
By contrast, Oscar Chapman had a couple land or caught around the 5-10 yard line in the coffin corner. His worst punt was equal to Wright’s best of the day- caught between the hashes about the 20-yard line.
The other thing of note for Chapman is that he was the holder on Reichard’s second-to-last field goal attempt, which was good. I didn’t see for sure if he was the holder on his last field goal attempt- also good- but he might have been as Wright had been the holder on the first few field goal attempts.
In any case, it was a good day for Chapman relative to Wright and he may be starting to separate himself a bit from Wright as a punter. But, the big thing for Chapman is to be able to perform as well as Wright as a holder for Reichard. If he can do that over the next couple weeks, he may win this competition.
Punt Returner Update
Silas Bolden and Myles Price were the main two fielding punts today, although Isaiah Rodgers fielded at least one- the first time I’ve seen him do so since the start of training camp. Jalen Nailor and I believe Lucky Jackson also were back fielding punts. I get the sense that with Rondale Moore out for the season, Bolden or Price will win the punt returner job- and a roster spot.
QB3 Update
Max Brosmer seemed to help himself today in the QB3 competition. He seems a bit more comfortable and confident since the first preseason game. He also had the bomb of the day to Tim Jones:
Overall Impressions
Overall, I’d say the Patriots first-team won the first day of joint practices over the Vikings’ first-team, if you want to call it a competition, based on having fewer mistakes in coverage. The Patriots have already had one set of joint practices with the Commanders, and team’s can have somewhat different sets of objectives which govern how they approach team drills, for example.
But I’m keeping an eye on Jeff Okudah. He had some bad reps today and Brian Flores has said he wants to see how he does in off- and zone coverage before really determining what his role will be in a press conference last week. I’ve been more skeptical of Okudah being able to perform well as the first cornerback off the bench outside of press-man coverage- there is a reason he hasn’t been able to stick with a team so far- and I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve seen peak Okudah in training camp already. We’ll see. But how he does may well impact the rest of the cornerback depth chart and who comes in off the bench first and how often. Maybe Flores opts for a slot corner to come in first off the bench and leave Murphy outside opposite Rodgers. We’ll see.
I’ll have more coverage of the second joint practice tomorrow. Hoping it will be full pads.
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