Daily Norseman
I attended the Minnesota Vikings Monday night practice with media access courtesy of the Vikings (Saturday too) which allowed for some additional content and observations that can be more difficult otherwise. Here are the observations I took away.
Kevin O’Connell gave a press conference ahead of practrice and he detailed that the plan for J.J. McCarthy is to play in the upcoming preseason game against the Texans (how much is TBD) and then ramp up to the joint practices against the Patriots, which will be an important evaluation that will help determine the future program for him. In any case, he won’t play in the Patriots preseason game and may not in the final preseason game either, unless it is determined he could use the additional reps.
O’Connell also said T.J. Hockenson (hip/back/leg), Josh Metellus (ankle), Ryan Kelly (elbow) are dealing with what he called more routine training camp injuries and are day-to-day. Jay Ward, who had been dealing with an injury, will return for Monday Night’s practice. Jonathan Allen and Harrison Smith have been scheduled for veteran days off on Monday night. He also mentioned that Javon Hargrave and Christian Darrisaw had off days on Saturday and would be back on Monday night. However, I did not see either Hargrave or Darrisaw during team drills on Monday night.
In other injury-related news, the Vikings signed tight end Nick Vannett as sixth-round pick Gavin Bartholomew has remained on the PUP list since the beginning of training camp. That would appear to signal that Bartholomew’s return is not imminent, which would seemingly make it difficult for him to gain a spot on the 53-man roster. O’Connell mentioned that they needed Vannett as essentially a camp body with Bartholomew out.
The Vikings night practice has always been the big event of training camp and tickets for tonight’s practice were sold out as fans look forward to the delayed start to the J.J. McCarthy era.
Ahead of the official start of practice, Silas Bolden, Rondale Moore, and Myles Price were practicing punt returns. Tai Felton and Lucky Jackson later joined them. But while others beyond the top three have taking a couple reps catching punts, it really seems like the competition is between Bolden, Moore, and Price at this point.
Will Reichard was also practicing the new kickoffs, which are basically line-drive kicks meant to land between the 20-yard line and the endzone to avoid a touchback to the 35-yard line. It’s a much tougher kick to handle as it’s either a line drive that can have some curve to it, or it’s a fast-moving bouncing ball that is easier to muff. If the ball touches in the landing zone before going out of the endzone, the ball comes out to the 20-yard line, which is poor field position following a kickoff (average starting field position last season was around the 30). So there is an incentive for the return team to...
