Vikings OTA Observations

Separating the usual from the unusual this time of year

As the Minnesota Vikings complete their OTA practices over the past couple weeks, they still have mandatory mini-camp next week and one more round of OTAs the following week- we are beginning to get a little flavor for this year’s team and how it may differ from last year’s team.

Of course this is the time of year for a lot of throw-away lines from players (e.g. “I feel great”) and coaches (e.g. “we’re just trying to get better every day”) that all sound good but don’t really give you any sense of the dynamics of the team or changes compared to last year. But listening and watching closely, there are a few observations worth noting at this stage that may be revealing about this Vikings team and their season ahead.

Here are a few observations of OTAs that stood out to me so far.

Harrison Phillips is Fired Up

It’s one thing for a new player to be excited and optimistic about his new team (“I just want to help win championships”), or an existing player who recently signed a new contract, but it’s another thing when an older, multi-year veteran and captain displays enthusiasm he hasn’t in previous years and with details to back it up. That’s what Harrison Phillips did last week in his press conference.

Of course this is the season of optimism when every team is healthy with shiny new additions and seemingly can only be better than last year, but for a veteran like Phillips to come out with a previously unseen level of enthusiasm- and reasons to back it up- is noteworthy. Here are a few bullet points from his press conference:

• Phillips had positive things to say about J.J. McCarthy, comparing his leadership style to Josh Allen, who he played with in Buffalo, earlier in his career when he was just getting used to the power of his role.
• He was excited about all the new additions and credited the Vikings’ ownership for their commitment to building a championship team.
• He was particularly excited about the additions to his D-line room in Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen and how that will allow them to send waves at an offense during a game with a deeper rotation and allow more variation and ways they can attack a particular offense.
• He was excited about what they bring to the table, learning from their techniques, how their playstyle may result in different opportunities, and also how the Vikings’ new strength coach had a new program designed around promoting quickness rather than simply bulking up for more power.
• Lastly, he said this is the farthest along the team has been at this time of year since he’s been with the Vikings. He attributes that to the continuity of core players (and coaching staff) and that compared to previous years when they used OTAs to build the foundation, this year it...