Daily Norseman
Post-OTA/minicamp edition
It’s only mid-June and the Minnesota Vikings have finished mandatory minicamp and OTAs and are off until the start of training camp at the end of July. Coaches are not talking about players who have stood out to them yet, and there really isn’t too much to go on in terms of which players on the bubble will make the roster and which will not.
But there are hints of who is likely to make the roster based on contract structure, draft status, and sometimes just the fact that the team added a player to compete in a given position may be a sign that an incumbent player’s roster status is in doubt.
Of course there will be changes as the Vikings move through training camp and some players impress more than others, and there remains the possibility of roster additions and subtractions between now and training camp as well.
Lastly, which bubble players make the roster and which don’t often comes down to special teams ability. That may be even more important this year with the kickoff rule changes that are likely to result in more kickoff returns and be meaningful plays that will test each team’s special team units a lot more than in the past.
But based on what is known now, and a little intuition and reading between the lines, here is my 53-man roster prediction- mandatory minicamp edition.
The Vikings carried three quarterbacks on their 53-man active roster last season and I expect that to be the case again this season. The emergency third quarterback rule allows teams to suit up a 49th player to be active on game days as the emergency third quarterback. But in order to do so, that quarterback has to be on the 53-man roster.
It may not be officially official that McCarthy is the Vikings’ starting quarterback this season, but it may as well be. It’s his offense now. Undoubtedly McCarthy will have his highs and lows as he progresses through the summer as the presumed starter, but there has been zero indication from any coach or player that McCarthy is anything but ready to be the starter.
Howell being the backup this season may as well be set in stone now as well, as there really isn’t any credible challenger to him for the role and really no free agent either. It will be interesting to see if Howell is able to show improvement in preseason action when it comes to turnovers and overall command and poise.
The Vikings didn’t invest much in acquiring Brosmer as a UDFA, but Kevin O’Connell had taken an interest in Brosmer as early as last year when he went to the Gophers pro day and was impressed with Brosmer even though it wasn’t his pro day. Brosmer isn’t a high-end talent but he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes either, and that along with a...
