The Vikings practiced twice on Wednesday, holding a two-hour practice in the morning and then a 90-minute workout this afternoon. The morning practice focused mostly on situational work, with the players in shorts, shoulder pads and helmets. Marcus McCauley, Garrett Mills and Brian Robison sat out of the action once again; there wasn’t much of an injury update given by Vikings Head Coach Brad Childress following practice.
The three above-mentioned players also missed this afternoon’s workout, which had the players in shorts and helmets The afternoon practice centered mostly around special teams but also included other full-team work.
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here to read Inside the Helmet: Derrick Pope
A few observations from today’s action…
-- Remember the Super Bowl commercial last year that featured Ephraim Salaam and Chester Pitts? For those of you who do remember, the ad was created as part of the NFL’s “Super Ad” campaign, where each team was visited by a production crew and individual players were asked to tell their NFL story. The production crew creating this year’s “Super Ad” was in Mankato today trying to flag down a few players to allow them to tell their story. Stay tuned for more details…
-- Today was a good day for the Vikings offense. Tarvaris Jackson looked sharp while completing a high percentage of passes during the seven-on-seven drill. He didn’t look quite as sharp during the two-minute drill (although he looked okay), but then bounced right back with a long touchdown pass down the middle of the field to Aundrae Allison when the offense was backed up inside its own 15-yardline. Jackson was also three-of-four in the blitz period of this morning’s practice. “He is doing very well and he is progressing very well,” Vikings Head Coach Brad Childress said. “We talk about guys in camp – he’s having a very good camp.”
-- The depth chart situation is still very fluid at this point; coaches are moving guys in and out and trying to see how different combinations of players are working together. But today I tried to chart the offensive and defensive lines to see who was working with the second team. Drew Radovich (LT), Artis Hicks (LG), John Sullivan (C), Brian Daniels (RG) and Marcus Johnson (RT) are working with the second-team offensive line. Chase Johnson (LT), Tim Mattran (LG), Dan Mozes (C), Mike Jones (RG) and Radovich (RT) are working with the third unit. The second-team defensive line has Otis Grigsby and Jayme Mitchell at defensive end, with Fred Evans and Ellis Wyms at defensive tackle. The third-team defensive line has Martail Burnett and Leger Douzable at defensive end with Kendrick Allen and Letroy Guion at defensive tackle.
-- I’ll throw out a prediction for Friday night’s preseason game against the Seahawks: Chris Kluwe and the Vikings punt team will down at least one punt inside the ten-yardline. In this afternoon’s practice, the special teams work included punts from the 40-yardline. Kluwe landed a few inside the ten and players in coverage of the punt were doing a nice job of securing the ball before it entered the endzone. Also, Kluwe set a franchise record in 2007 for punts inside the 20 with 34; that mark broke the old record of 28, which was set by Greg Coleman in 1983.