Minnesota Sports Forum

Training camp yey! Preseason game is right around the corner. Young players are looking awesome of course hope springs eternal!!!!!

Seriously though this team is pretty exciting. Maybe they don't put it together this year but it does feel like it's got a lot of talent and a nice mix of young and vet guys. There are some big question marks but most teams have those. Hopefully Teddy is the real deal.

Yes, very excited! We have a coaching staff that you can really have faith in, and the defense (which made a nice leap last year) will be solid. But it's the offense that should really improve this year. Kalil is healthy, and that will help protect Teddy. Mike Wallace adds a deep threat. Second year quarterbacks are always improved, so I look for a better season from Bridgewater. And finally, you can't discount what the return of Peterson does for the offense. Think about how the Vikings offense looked in the one game Peterson played in last year, and it's difficult to not be excited.

Yep LST the Vikings basically added 2 HR threats and gave up almost no assets. I guess they gave up a 5th rounder and dumped Jennings and spent cap room for Wallace but that looks even smarter now that the Vikings receivers are being praised so highly. None of the young guys are deep threats like Wallace and everyone else could be a slot type guy like Jennings was although Jennings was so consistent. McKinnon could be a guy that starts to make DC worry as well. There may be no shortage of weapons for Teddy especially if these WRs are for real.

The oline is the biggest worry for me Will they come together sty healthy and the tackles have a solid or good season? Will they find a guy at RG?

The defense I not worried about at all tht is Zimmer's thing and they added even more talent and the guys they had before are another year in the system.

I can't remember who all says this but basically in the NFL If you have a coach and a QB you are in good shape if you don't have that you are screwed. Tough to argue that. It looks like we may have both plus plenty of other talent

I'm very excited for the most part. My biggest worry is Kalil though. There are already stories coming out of camp of Barr flat out embarrassing him at times and Everson not having many problems either. Honestly this season rides on Kalil. Everything else looks to be on the up except the offensive line and if he can't protect Teddy's blindside, Wallace won't have enough time to get downfield before Teddy is feeling the pressure and possibly being forced to the wrong side of the field. I think we are a legit LT (could still be Kalil) and a year away from being a real team to be feared. Then we just need to shore up the o-line and the other safety spot next to Smith and we should be good to go. If Teddy can build on the progress he made the last 6-7 weeks of last year, I think he'll be on Stafford's heels for the second best QB in the division. That's how well he ended last year in terms of sheer accuracy with the football and pushing it down the field and he gets AP back this year to run play action for even easier throws.

I agree, Khans, that Kalil is the wild card here, but I'm feeling a little more optimistic after hearing a summary of yesterday's practice on KFAN last night. Their 3 observations:

1) Bridgewater had a sensational day after a few ho-hum practices

2) Peterson had a couple jaw-dropping runs

3) Kalil dominated Griffin all day.

Kalil is saying his knee is feeling good for the first time since his rookie season. If his performance is as good as that year, the Vikings are going to be very good. But if he is more like the last 2 years, our ceiling is middle of the pack.

I heard the other day via Twitter that Kalil was having trouble with Griffin and that was troubling but let's also remember Griffin is a stud. Of course Kalil faces studs pretty much every week at that spot but yeah. Like LST I tend to be optimistic about Kalil and part of that is I don't think he is quite as bad as some people have made him out to be. He hasn't been good but as brutal as some fans say. He needs to be a lot better no doubt. I think you can make a case some of the elite QBs in the league not only make WRs look better but they make OL look better also. We don't know if Teddy is going to be one of those type QBs but he worked with a pretty rough OLine down the stretch last year and he did get hit a lot but certainly made it work. I am so high on Teddy I may need to go into rehab or something. lol

I know guards tend to be easier to find to be adequate but I do worry about RG. Hopefully Harris or someone else takes that and played at least decent. I suppose worst case scenario they could just throw Berger in there after a couple weeks if nobody can get the job done.

Loadholt likely being done for the season really puts a damper on things.

Yup. Although it is fortunate it happened this early in the preseason as they have a few weeks to address the problem, and even practice with whatever patch work they come up with.

So, how good is our 4th round rookie, Clemmings?

I really hope we snag Evan Mathis to play RG and move Harris over to RT where he's played most of his life. I get Mathis isn't a scheme fit, but how can a pro-bowl player in the zone blocking scheme not be at least above average in a different scheme? We need interior line help anyway moving forward so why not add a pro-bowler now so O-Line can possibly be a strength as soon as next year when we are playing for a home field Super Bowl? Worst comes to worst, just throw a big 1 year deal at Mathis and if it doesn't work out you can find someone else in the draft or free agency next year. I don't see how we don't pay a price for playing a RG who's only played tackle his whole life and a rookie at RT during this season.

If they have the cap space and Mathis isn't asking for way too much, I would be in favor of your plan, Khans. Clemmings will be a starter somewhere in the OL sooner or later, but it would be ideal to have him backing up Mathis and Harris at RG and RT.

Losing a guy like Loadholt is certainly not good from a depth standpoint, but I think he is easily replaceable. Did anyone miss him when Harris replaced him for the final 5 games last year? It may have had more to do with Bridgewater getting more comfortable at QB, but I thought our offense was really good during those five games.

Clemmings is an athletic stud, and can play either tackle or guard...he actually take most of the snaps at RG during OTA's. So if the Vikes don't make a move to get a veteran like Mathis, I look for them to move Harris back to RT and Clemmings to RG.