2023 Vikings Training Camp

Other notes

Ivan Pace Jr. just continues to impress. He took basically all of the first-team reps with Asamoah still sidelined and made some plays in both 7s and 11s. Pace even knocked Henry — who has a slight size advantage on him — to the ground on one rep. "Gold stars all the way around for Ivan," O'Connell said of his performance thus far. It's clear that Pace is no longer competing to make the team, he's competing for a starting job at inside linebacker when Week 1 rolls around.

Danielle Hunter, who was a full participant in this practice, made his presence felt on a number of plays. Not only are his physical tools constantly on display, he's excellent at reading things like play-action passes and then quickly getting to the quarterback.

The Vikings' most common defensive look featured Josh Metellus lining up in the slot as a big nickel. It seems like that's a personnel group that Brian Flores is going to use often this season.

With the second-team defense, we also saw plenty of reps where Lewis Cine filled the Metellus role and lined up in the box instead of playing in a traditional safety alignment. Are the Vikings switching things up for Cine to try to get more out of him?

The Titans did rip off a couple big pass plays in 11-on-11 action. There was a Malik Willis deep ball against a coverage bust from the Vikings' second-team defense (Andrew Booth Jr. may or may not have been at fault, I genuinely don't know). There was also a Ryan Tannehill bomb to Treylon Burks past Akayleb Evans, after which Burks came up hobbling and left practice.

I thought Vikings rookie cornerback Mekhi
Blackmon had another nice day. It looks like he'll be in the starting lineup ahead of Joejuan Williams unless something changes.

Jalen Reagor and Brandon Powell worked in with the Vikings' first-team offense with Addison out.

Trishton Jackson stood out for the Vikings in 11s, making a couple nice catches. Brandon Powell, Thayer Thomas, and N'Keal Harry all looked good in 1-on-1 drills against Titans DBs.

There was some trash talk and a couple of near-skirmishes, but no actual fights broke out, which sometimes can be an issue at joint practices. O'Connell and Mike Vrabel made it clear to their teams that anyone who threw a punch would be kicked out of practice for the day.

Camp notes

A lot to unpack here.. I’m not going to overreact for a training camp session or a preseason game. I care about September 10th and even more September 14th BUT..

The Vikings have some serious issues in coverage.. once 11 v 11 started Ryan Tannehill kept finding space in the middle and burnt the Vikings CBs several times on the outside.. the front 4 and OLB put some good pressure on the Titans QBs but that didn’t make up for the lapses in coverage.. Hicks, Pace and Metellus were kind of a mess and Asamoah is the best hope in coverage

Intensity.. the Vikings didn’t bring the intensity and the Titans did.. I had the same feeling as I did at Ford Field and Lambeau Field last December when the Vikings just looked like a soft bunch on defense especially the secondary.. Brian Flores can’t be happy about that.. but the offense was also lackluster without Addison and Hock

Ty Chandler is looking really good.. sorry but better than Mattison.. but it’s only camp

Josh Oliver can catch the ball too

Byron Murphy the only shining star in the CB room

Mekhi Blackmon keeps climbing the charts.. don’t be surprised with the lack of CB talent if Blackmon is a starter into the season

Hunter looking real good.

Although the practice was fairly tame, some key themes emerged. Here’s what I saw:

1. This year’s offense is going to be different. I expect heavier personnel groupings to set the tone in the run game. I anticipate more passing concepts that help free up superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson.

For multiple reasons, the full revamp was not on display Wednesday. Personnel played a role. The Vikings were without first-round pick Jordan Addison, who entered the concussion protocol recently after making a catch and hitting the ground. Additionally, tight end T.J. Hockenson, who has been navigating an ear infection that affected his equilibrium, did not participate Wednesday.

The Vikings replaced Addison with Jalen Reagor when the team used three-wide-receiver sets. Newly signed Josh Oliver, meanwhile, manned the No. 1 tight end spot.

3. Brian Flores’s defense has been the buzz of training camp for a number of reasons. In many ways, his schematic approach is the polar opposite of Ed Donatell’s. Sitting back and taking punches from the offense is a thing of the past. Throwing uppercuts is the theme of the present.

Wednesday served as the starting defense’s first real opportunity to deploy its strategy. And Flores did not hold back. Cornerbacks blitzed while linebackers dropped. Safeties blitzed while defensive linemen dropped. Pick any two defensive position groups and they likely switched off, taking turns flying toward the quarterback.

Early in the practice, the Vikings defense fared well against the run as Henry appeared to have little wiggle room. Later on, Titans quarterbacks Ryan Tannehill and Malik Willis plucked away at underneath zones and the flats. Short passes helped Tennessee move the sticks, and as one Vikings player put it afterward, the team believes that more time operating at full speed will help the defense improve at constricting underneath windows.

4. The two Vikings cornerbacks featured most prominently were Byron Murphy Jr. and Akayleb Evans. If you’ve followed the arc of camp, neither name should surprise you. Murphy is unquestionably the team’s best at the position. He’s also the most experienced. Among the remaining players in the room, Evans seems the most prepared to man an outside spot.

After practice, Evans giggled when asked what it was like to finally use all of the knowledge he and the team had learned from Flores and defensive backs coach Daronte Jones over the last few months.

“It was so fun,” Evans said.

5. When the Titans lined up in 11 personnel Wednesday, featuring three wide receivers, the Vikings used rookie cornerback Mekhi Blackmon alongside Evans and Murphy. In fact, in that defensive subpackage, the Vikings slid Murphy inside.

NFL teams (like the Vikings and Titans) are aligning their best receiver in the slot more than ever. When DeAndre Hopkins shifted inside Wednesday, Murphy was there, standing across from him. On certain snaps, Murphy even appeared to be playing man coverage then darted in toward Tannehill on blitzes.

6. Speaking of Blackmon, if you had entered the TCO Performance Center on Wednesday with zero knowledge of the cornerback room, you would have been struck by No. 11. The rookie, whom the Vikings selected in the third round of April’s draft, looked comfortable playing with the starting group. Not once did he appear out of sorts, overmatched or confused.

“The thing that I’m most pleasantly surprised about with him,” Jones said, “is he doesn’t have a typical corner mindset in that he wants to learn the entire defense. Not just his position. He’s learning the defense more from a safety position, and that allows him to be able to play inside and outside.”

7. There is not a Vikings defender who will see a bigger year-over-year shift in his role than safety Josh Metellus. This was evident in the spring even in walk-through practices without pads. The early portion of training camp has only cemented Metellus’ uptick in defensive snaps, and Wednesday did nothing to change that expectation.

For much of Wednesday’s practice, the Titans used three-wide-receiver sets. When they did, the Vikings matched it with five defensive backs, three of whom were safeties. Harrison Smith and Cam Bynum occupied more traditional safety roles, while Metellus roved around as a quasi-linebacker. He mugged the A-gap. He retreated to the deep safety spot. He had a level of freedom that matched only Smith’s in terms of the ways he could operate.

9. Here’s another creative defensive personnel tidbit:

On numerous snaps, the Vikings had Danielle Hunter, Marcus Davenport and D.J. Wonnum on the field all at once. This is an indication of creativity on the front, especially on pass-rush downs. Even then, the Vikings did not appear to put many of the stunts, twists and games they will use during the season into play.