2020 Vikings Training Camp

Bisi Johnson isn't giving up the WR2 job (for now)

When the Vikings drafted Justin Jefferson in the first round in April, most writers and analysts – myself included – basically penciled the rookie from LSU into the No. 2 receiver role alongside Adam Thielen. The thought was that he would show up to camp and earn that job without too much resistance.

Things haven't played out that way, although that's not because of any issues with Jefferson. He has been impressive since he reported to camp and has had plenty of good moments since practice officially began. No, the reason he hasn't ascended to that role as a starter in two-receiver sets is because of the brilliance of Bisi Johnson.

The 2019 seventh-round pick out of Colorado State stepped up as a rookie and earned the No. 3 job, filling in for Thielen when he missed several games due to injury. This year, Johnson has taken his game to another level. He began practices above Jefferson on the depth chart because of his year of experience, and has done nothing that suggests he'll be giving up that role soon.

"Oh my gosh, it’s way different," Johnson said of his comfort level in year two. "I would say the game has definitely slowed down for me a lot, as far as understanding the playbook, being confident in my route running and things like that. It’s just easier to go out there and just play football, really.”

Throughout the last week-plus of camp, Johnson has looked like a starting-caliber NFL receiver. His route-running, which he calls "the best part of my game," has been consistently crisp and impressive. He knows Gary Kubiak's offense, has a rapport with Kirk Cousins, and never appears to make any mental errors. Johnson also puts his incredibly large hands to good use by rarely ever dropping passes and making the occasional eye-popping catch, like this one-handed grab on Sunday.

Johnson continued to shine during Monday's practice, standing out with quick breaks in and out of his routes both in 1-on-1 drills and 11-on-11 team periods. He beat Cameron Dantzler, Mike Hughes, and Myles Dorn for catches throughout the day, and punctuated a great practice with some nice footwork on this touchdown catch.

Johnson said that last year, Stefon Diggs told him he "had what it takes to be an NFL receiver." His performance as a rookie – 31 catches, 294 yards, 3 touchdowns – made that clear. But Johnson isn't stopping there. He put in a ton of work this offseason, including workouts with the Broncos' Drew Lock and Courtland Sutton in his native Colorado. Now, it's starting to look like Johnson has what it takes to not only be an NFL receiver, but put up big numbers in a starting role.

Oli Udoh stands out in OL/DL 1-on-1s

The wide receivers and defensive backs tend to get a lot of attention during training camp because of the visible nature of their competitions, but I always enjoy watching the offensive and defensive linemen go at it. It's hard to evaluate the trench play during 11-on-11 periods, so the individual pass-rushing drills provide a good window for watching the big guys battle each other.

During Monday's 1-on-1 sessions, the lineman who stood out the most was second-year right tackle Oli Udoh. Working against players like Eddie Yarbrough, Kenny Willekes, and Stacy Keely, Udoh arguably won every single one of his reps. He demonstrated great footwork, hand placement, and strength in keeping his opponent from getting to the little orange cone that represents the quarterback.

It's been a strong camp for Udoh overall, and this was one of his best days. He's firmly entrenched as the backup right tackle behind Brian O'Neill at the moment, but if Udoh continues to play at such a high level, the Vikings may want to figure out a way to get him onto the field going forward.

Additional notes and observations


No one other than Hunter missed practice, which is good to see. Anthony Barr returned after sitting out on Sunday, and Dillon Mitchell was back after missing the past few practices.

K.J. Osborn still looks like the favorite at punt returner. He consistently gets some of the first reps there and looks very comfortable catching the ball from the JUGS machine.

Alexander Hollins' strong camp didn't stop on Monday. He beat Kris Boyd on a deep ball and is continuing to make the argument that he should make this roster.

Chad Beebe got some work out of the slot with the first-team offense.

Adam Thielen, unsurprisingly, is on a different level from any other receiver on the roster. He made several plays on Monday, including a touchdown on a fade route against Holton Hill to cap off a situational red zone drill.

Eric Kendricks has been on the wrong side of some highlights during camp, but there's nothing to worry about with his play. He had a diving pass breakup against Kyle Rudolph on Monday that stood out.

Jake Browning didn't seem to have a great day in his pursuit of the backup quarterback job. He misfired at least once and also fumbled the ball on a handoff.

Mike Zimmer said there was no real discussion among Vikings players and coach about the possibility of canceling practice today. The aim was to discuss creating actual change, not a statement with a short shelf life. "The thing that came out of it is we want to make change and us missing practice one day is a 24-hour shock value and we feel like we can do more things with our football team and with our voices as we continue to move forward," Zimmer said.

Courtney Cronin, ESPN Staff Writer

Cornerback battle

There’s significant uncertainty surrounding the state of the Vikings cornerback group after all three starters signed with other teams this offseason, and it’s one reason many experts predicted the Vikings defense to regress. Though there was a lot of room for that group to improve, there’s always room to look worse — especially with untested players at a notoriously difficult position to learn.

We don’t know who the third corner will be heading into 2020, but the early returns from the looks we’ve seen in camp are much better than the worst outcomes one could envision for such an inexperienced unit. The defense has generally been holding up in practices, whether it’s Cameron Dantzler on the outside or Jeff Gladney on the inside.

It’s entirely possible that the Vikings rotate the two rookies throughout the season in a similar manner to the rotation they gave Mackensie Alexander and Terence Newman for a few years. This would present matchup advantages, too — Dantzler has been having trouble with quicker receivers and Gladney could have issues with larger receivers despite his success against that prototype in the Big 12.

Holton Hill has been doing well, though he’s been getting called for penalties more often now — both for holding and for pass interference. In all honesty, that should have happened earlier in practices; his physical style of play is likely never going away, and he should be learning the limits of that sooner rather than later. Still, he looks like an asset and has been playing better than any other corner in camp.

Altogether, I’m not as worried about the cornerback group. Dantzler’s hype has cooled off and he’s lost a few notable reps in practice recently but overall is playing with a lot of talent. Gladney and Mike Hughes have turned it on more recently with Hughes turning in one of the highlights of Thursday’s practice with a leaping deflection on a pass intended for Kyle Rudolph and ended the day with a few more good-locking pass breakups.

Fourth-round cut?

Going back to the first year where data is easily accessible — 2011 — only seven of the 338 rookies drafted in the fourth round were cut before the opening-day roster for non-injury reasons. One of them was drafted by the Vikings in Willie Beavers, and Minnesota could repeat the feat with James Lynch. Drafted to be a defensive tackle, Lynch played on the edge at Baylor and needed to add some size to compete for his NFL role.

For whatever reason, he simply hasn’t looked like a roster-worthy player for the team, and given the rotations he’s earned with the Vikings on the third team and his production in drills, he’s in real danger of joining that less-than-wonderful list. He has a fairly low win-rate in one-on-one passing drills that favor the defense, and often he’s going against the third-string offensive line. He hasn’t made many more waves in team drills and he’s getting washed out in the run game.

The Vikings could attempt to keep him just for developmental purposes, but with Shamar Stephen, Armon Watts and Jaleel Johnson all but locks to make the roster, the Vikings would have to face a decision to cut Hercules Mata’afa or someone at another position that could use more bodies — like at receiver.

Without a clear answer at three-technique, it’s a little discouraging that he hasn’t been able to show out. While one shouldn’t expect a fourth-round rookie to become an instant starter, his performance right now is below what one would typically expect from the position. For comparison, Jalyn Holmes was a defensive end drafted in the fourth round converted to defensive tackle his rookie year and looked more productive in the camp environment.

There are any number of legitimate reasons the Vikings — and fans — should cut the team slack for the pick, including the fact that a limited offseason might more readily impact those switching positions and making significant changes to their body composition. He could still be a wise pick but hasn’t been able to demonstrate that early on because of constraints largely outside of his control.

Not only that, the number of picks the Vikings used in the 2020 draft allowed them to take some more risks and pursue boom-or-bust prospects. Lynch’s prospect profile contains just as many arguments in his favor as reasons he shouldn’t have been considered, and that kind of high-ceiling, low-floor strategy could bear out in a big way — like it seems to be doing for Dantzler.

Ideally, every rookie would be given the patience they need to fully develop, but teams need to consistently balance the demands of their immediate needs and desire to win in 2020 against investing resources to develop players into the future. We included Lynch in our most recent 53-man roster projection, so it’s not as if he’s clearly a cut candidate for the team, but it’s worth noting that this rare happenstance is a distinct possibility.

Odds and ends

Justin Jefferson is generally doing a good job getting open — especially lately — and hauls in the ball with good positioning, but has also demonstrated a habit of attempting to catch passes one-handed when it’s not necessary. Almost all of his drops in camp are a result of this — not something we saw much of in college. …

Nate Stanley hasn’t been doing much to challenge Jake Browning‘s spot as the third quarterback on the roster, and his passes have been sailing. Browning isn’t playing well enough to clearly unseat Sean Mannion, and Mannion himself isn’t lighting up the second-team defense. The backup situation for the Vikings doesn’t seem particularly solid — though Kirk Cousins doesn’t have injury problems in his history. …

Irv Smith Jr. hasn’t been receiving many notes from those covering the Vikings, but he’s been quietly effective. Based on camp performances thus far, there should be every reason to think his performance takes a jump this year. …

Brian O’Neill is similarly poised to take a big step, and has looked like the best offensive lineman in camp. It’s a pity there isn’t any preseason, or that Hunter isn’t healthy enough to practice, because O’Neill is doing an excellent job shutting down the other edge rushers in camp. …

Tyler Conklin has had his share of highlight plays and has been showing out a bit more near the conclusion of camp. He could be an effective depth piece at tight end going forward …

Late-round pick Kyle Hinton is a dark horse to make the roster despite the number of offensive linemen the Vikings could easily justify keeping on the roster. Among the third-stringers, Hinton looks the most comfortable taking on NFL-level defenders. He likely won’t make the initial cut, but he’s certainly a practice-squad candidate and could surprise prognosticators. …

There’s not much use in trying to predict a season based on 66 practice snaps, half of which don’t involve the first team and nearly all of which strayed from the tendencies they established last year. But it sure is fun to try and tease out as much as possible from the closest thing we have to a preseason.

The Vikings beat the Vikings 14-13 after the trailing Vikings drove down the field to make up an eight-point deficit. They scored what would be the game-tying touchdown and decided not to send the half into overtime by going for two, instead conceding with a well-placed extra point.

This preview of the team was a bit rocky, like much of camp, and the relatively high-scoring half — which translates to a 54-point full game, nine points more than the NFL average last year — hides the fact that the offense generally performed fairly poorly. The team still didn’t have defensive end Danielle Hunter participate, who didn’t wear pads or a helmet but was present. At one point during the scrimmage, seventh-round rookie defensive end Kenny Willekes was injured and left the field in crutches. Other than that, there was full participation.

The passing game under Kirk Cousins averaged 6.10 yards per passing attempt — 122 yards in 20 throws. That doesn’t include the three “sacks” where he lost 19 yards, netting 4.48 yards per dropback. For context, that average over a season would be the worst in the NFL in 2019. It’s not that the Vikings offense is on the verge of being the worst in the league, but they do not look ready yet.

Sacks came from Jaleel Johnson, Ifeadi Odenigbo and Eric Wilson, with Wilson’s coming unblocked. Johnson beat Pat Elflein for his sack and Odenigbo beat Riley Reiff for his. For the most part, the offensive line did a poor job preventing pressure and allowed pressure on at least seven dropbacks — likely more. In particular, Elflein seemed to be a concern.

Drives led by Cousins led to two scores and three punts and both scores were field goals, with red-zone opportunities squandered by the offense. Dalvin Cook dropped a pass, as did Justin Jefferson.


Aside from the pressure created by the defensive line and an array of blitzes — featuring safeties, cornerbacks and linebackers in a heavier rotation of pass rushes than we’re used to seeing from the Mike Zimmer defense — the defensive performance was largely not responsible for offensive miscues. Passes sailed out of reach of the intended receiver more often than we typically see from Cousins and receivers did a good job breaking free from their coverage.

The pass rush looked good from the defensive line and the pass protection looked poor, but the flip side of that is that the run blocking from the offense looked solid and the defensive line had issues staying stout, especially along the first team. Cook only had three carries but gained 16 yards on them, and likely would have had more if the play didn’t stop as soon as any contact occurred. The first team overall averaged “only” 3.5 yards per carry, but managed a success rate of 75 percent and the no-tackle rule hurt the running game.

There were five plays out of the 66 total where the offense gained at least 20 yards. Two came on deep receptions — a deep go route to Adam Thielen from Cousins and a near-identical shot downfield from Sean Mannion to Alexander Hollins — and another two came from yards gained after-the-catch. The first was a crosser from Jake Browning to Chad Beebe, and another came on a flare-out to Dillon Mitchell from Nate Stanley. The final big play also came courtesy of Hollins, who drew defensive pass interference from Kris Boyd to bring the offense to the 2-yard line.

Thielen earned five targets, generating 65 yards on three receptions and he unsurprisingly looked like the best player on the offense. Thielen looks ready to go, while Cousins and some members of the offensive line — notably Dakota Dozier and Elflein — still seem like works in progress. Given that Dozier took every rep with the first-team offense, it seems extremely likely that he’ll be the Day 1 starter there. Ezra Cleveland only worked with the third team and didn’t look particularly comfortable.

For the most part, Mike Hughes seemed to have had the best day in coverage while Jeff Gladney looked like a starting-quality player. He nevertheless got turned around by Hollins on his deep reception. Holton Hill largely struggled, particularly against Thielen — though the best catch of the day, which came against Hill, was likely not his fault.

With regards to the biggest risers and fallers in camp from Chad Graff’s story earlier Friday, Hollins and Eddie Yarbrough continued their strong camp performances into the scrimmage, with Yarbrough earning at least one sack and generating even more pressure. Bisi Johnson earned 17 yards on three targets — neither an indication that he’s building on the momentum he’s generated thus far nor proof that he’s falling short of the expectations he’s created for himself.

Cameron Dantzler got first run with the first team and didn’t see many targets. That’s likely a credit to him, but he wasn’t consistent with maintaining tight coverage. Instead, it seemed likely that Cousins’ proclivity for targeting Thielen had much more to do with it.

As for the fallers, James Lynch looked significantly more productive during the scrimmage than he did during camp and found penetration in the run game and as a pressure producer. He could be benefitting from matchups, but if that’s the case, it’s a worry — Cleveland struggled against him.

Browning averaged 5.63 yards in 11 dropbacks and completed all but one of his passes. He didn’t seem particularly willing to push the ball down the field, with only one pass thrown over 15 yards in the air. That matches his scouting report, though the Vikings called a few screens on some of his plays. Still, without some willingness to create big plays, his development will stall. The biggest issue might be the delay-of-game penalty he took. Dru Samia and Brandon Dillon didn’t have notable performances one way or another, though that’s likely a problem for those on the outs.

Jefferson was targeted five times, but only gained 25 yards, with the drop marring his performance. He saw the field with the first team a good deal more often than he has in camp and saw time in the slot and on the outside.

The Vikings wanted to see as much as they could of K.J. Osborn at returner in their only real opportunity to see live kick and punt returns from someone who hasn’t returned for them before. It’s difficult to tell how well he did for the same reason the running game is tough to completely evaluate — he was “tackled” as soon as he was touched. For the most part, he looked natural. His many reps at both returner spots don’t likely mean much, however. They know who they have in Ameer Abdullah and Beebe.

Otherwise, notable performances include Dan Chisena, who earned three “tackles” downfield on special teams — more than anyone else — Dan Bailey, who didn’t miss a kick, and Mike Boone, who looked even more elusive and explosive than he did last year.

There isn’t much to learn from their schematic preferences in this matchup — the Vikings played well out of their traditional comfort zone, mixing in many more shotgun snaps than we’re used to seeing from the offense and played with personnel packages that don’t seem likely during the season, with a heavy dosage of three-receiver sets and even occasions with four receivers on the field. They didn’t avoid two-tight end or two-running back sets, but given that the Vikings were completely averse to putting additional receivers on the field in 2019, it seems notable.

Aside from that, they threw the ball much more than they ran it — probably the best sign that these scrimmages were more about finding what works than truly previewing the offense. After all, any game where the Vikings drop back to pass 51 times and run 15 times is unlikely to be helmed by Zimmer.

Still, more information is generally better than less, and we have some signs that the offense could evolve, that Thielen could produce and that there might still be a pass rush despite seeing defensive linemen leave. Alternatively, we’ve also seen signs that the passing game needs more work, that pass protection is an issue and that the defense might be vulnerable to the run.