News

THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011

Vikings Head Coach Leslie Frazier

We had a good day of work today. Took the pads off and the guys still practiced with intensity which is something we were hoping would happen as a staff and we were able to get that. It was a good, focused practice and hopefully it will carry over and we’ll just continue to improve over the course of this preseason. A good day of work on a beautiful day here in Minnesota.

Q: Is the plan to hold Percy Harvin and Visanthe Shiancoe out since they didn’t practice today?

A: Yeah, I think we’ll do that with both of them and just give them a chance to give them a few more days of rest and then get ready to go next week.

Q: It looked like Erin Henderson and Asher Allen weren’t doing anything. What’s up with those guys?

A: I don’t know if we’re going to play Asher. He has a toe that’s really bothering him. Erin should be fine. We wanted to give him a little bit of rest and then he should be ready to go but just wanted to be a little bit cautious with Asher.

Q: Did Erin Henderson do something yesterday?

A: Yeah, he bumped his knee so we wanted to make sure that the soreness that he felt would be fine and he should be fine for the game.

Q: The past two days it looked like the tempo was going pretty strong and I know you weren’t happy with Saturday night as far as the conditioning. How much do you feel you made up for lost time and how much of that was just a simple byproduct of the lockout?

A: I think every team deals with the conditioning issue when you come back for training camp and this year more so than others when you haven’t had pads and you haven’t been around the strength coach. This is a part of what training camp is in 2011. It’s more than just learning plays. It’s also a part of regaining your conditioning from a football standpoint. It’s no different than what every team in our league faces.

Q: Is it kind of a difficult line to walk in the preseason with playing time, particularly with the offensive line who wants as much time out there as they can get in the new system with some new faces on that line, but also not expose them to any injuries?

A: It is a fine line and not only on the offensive line, but just about every position, especially if you’re concerned about your overall depth, which is most teams are in today’s football. You’re trying to get the time, you’re trying to get the cohesiveness that you want on your offensive line as well as the rest of your team but you also know that you’ve got to have the right people on the field when you line up on September 11. You try to get them to work and you try to have the types of practices that you want but you do have to be conscious of what’s ahead.

Q: Do you plan to play Anthony Herrera on Saturday and if so, limit him a little bit more than you might with the starting offensive line?

A: I think we’re going to hold this weekend, just revaluate it next week. He’s had a chance now to kind of get his feet wet a little bit and maybe get his confidence a little bit more so we’ll see how he does next week in practice and maybe we’ll give him a shot in that game, depending on how he does in practice.

Q: Do you know who your starter is going to be at that spot for Saturday?

A: Yeah, we may end up going with one of two guys. We’re going to talk about it when we leave here. Chris DeGeare or Ryan Cook will probably end up starting but (Scott) Kooistra has a chance too so we’re going to decide on which will play but they’ll all play quite a bit. We’ll split it around.

Q: Strong safety, is Tyrell (Johnson) going to get the start since Jamarca Sanford started last time?

A: Yeah, Tyrell will get a chance to start this time so we’ll get a chance to evaluate him in the starting role and just continue to evaluate that position over the course of this preseason.

Q: With a rookie quarterback, what do you want to see from Christian Ponder just game-to-game through this preseason?

A: I’d like to see him continue to improve in all areas, his grasp of the offense, some of his throws, his command of the huddle. Those are some of the things that you’re trying to judge him on and he is making progress. Now, you want to continue to see him in game situations and see how he progresses.

Q: Maybe more than any other position with quarterback, you’re working with a different experience level and talent level with a guy going from the second to the third string.

A: Yeah we are. Joe (Webb) has some experience at the quarterback position and obviously Christian (Ponder) has none and no experience under his belt whatsoever so yeah, you’re two different spectrums but the offense is put together in such a way that Christian has a chance to succeed when he’s in there and so does Joe.

Q: He has a personality where he isn’t going to back down even though he has no experience and looking at Donovan McNabb as competition even though McNabb is really good. Is it nice to have that mentality from a rookie?

A: No question. He is a fighter. We knew that when we were making a decision about drafting him. He’s a gamer and he’s not backing down but he also knows when we made the decision to acquire Donovan, we told him that “You’ve got to make sure you’re preparing to be the number one quarterback because in our league, it can happen on any play where we turn around and say ‘Hey Christian, it’s time to get warmed up.’” You have to be practicing or approaching things in a manner in which you have to go, you’re ready to go and not saying ‘Oh man, I thought I wasn’t going to have to play this season.’

Q: How close is Tyrell Johnson to realizing his potential? Obviously he is an athletic guy. In your eyes, how close is he?

A: He’s very close. He’s experienced in our system and he know what we expect and these are great opportunities for him to show that he deserves this job and I’m looking forward to watching him play on Saturday night.

Q: If the conditioning had been better on Saturday, would you still have done the no-huddle two days ago and two minute drill yesterday or did you put those in the practice to pick up the tempo?

A: No, the conditioning we knew was a factor going into training camp, it would be a factor and the no-huddle, the up-tempo, all of those things were previously planned. This is going to be a process getting into game shape. That’s going to be a part of it this offseason. As long as we’re fine when our first one rolls around we’ll be alright.

Q: You want to get continuity with that offensive line, when would you ideally like to pick your five and let them have some time together here?

A: Well I’m hoping next week we have a better handle, but I don’t know if that will be for certain because we are still taking a hard look at the guard position and we just have to see how that unfolds. You would like to be able to say in that third preseason game that this is our starting unit but that may not be the case. 

Q: Do you want all your backups to be able to play both tackle and guard?

A: Well if you could have two or three swing guys on the second team, or even one guy on the first team that would be great from a numbers standpoint come game day. To be able to dress seven linemen knowing that you have two guys that can swing at guard or tackle or guard or center, but we will have to see how this unfolds over the next couple preseason games and practices.

Q: Do you have the order set for your quarterbacks and how much they are going to play this week?

A: Yeah, Donovan McNabb will obviously start the game and we will see how it goes; number of plays we have an idea of what we want and then we’ll come back with Christian Ponder and then we’ll go to Joe Webb. We are going to try to get Rhett Bomar in the game sometime in that second half but we will see how it goes.

Q: What happened to Matt Asiata?

A: He has a hip-flexor so he will be out for this ballgame.

Q: Heath Farwell and Greg Camarillo; I assume all those guys are out as well?

A: Yes.

Q: What’s your biggest unknown going into game two?

A: I just want to see how much we’re going to improve. I don’t know that. I’m believing based on the way we practice we will improve, and that’s the goal.  If we see improvement then you really feel like you’re heading in the right direction, improvement in certain areas, that’s the one that will tell a lot about our football team.

Q: So with Percy Harvin and Greg Camarillo out how much opportunity will that give these guys, the guys that seem to battling for the potential final starting position at wide receiver?  It seems like a good opportunity to show what they can do.

A: It is.  And that’s one of the reasons we didn’t want to rush Percy or Greg, if this were a regular season game things may be different, but we really need to evaluate that position and when we talked about it, we said ‘you know what, we know Camarillo, we know Percy, we want to get to know these other guys much better so we can make the right decision.’

Q: Is the reality that there is one job to be had? It seems with Greg Camarillo he is pretty much a lock, and with Michael Jenkins, Percy Harvin, Bernard Berrian; there is a lot of guys there but it seems there is basically one job open.

A: Not at all. That’s not reality, because there are some spots that are open. We’re not sure who the fourth receiver is going to be, we’re not sure who the fifth receiver is going to be. We are somewhat certain who the third receiver is going to be, but there is a battle for that fourth and fifth spot for sure. So special teams will factor in and nobody has really nailed down those spots yet.

Q: What have you found out about Kyle Rudolph that you didn’t know when you drafted him?

A: I knew he had great hands and he was going to be able to have the ability to run after the catch, but he has shown a toughness that you really couldn’t see his last year at Notre Dame because of his injury and his lack of playing time. You know, we were concerned from a blocking standpoint, and believing it would take a little bit longer than we thought, but he has shown a toughness that we knew he had but not to the degree that he has.  It really tells us that the blocking is going to come a lot sooner than later so we were really excited about that, we always knew that part was going to be there, but that has really been eye opening for us. Just to see how tough he is at the point of attack, not afraid to be a guy to go up against linebackers plays with a lot of courage, he’s not just a guy that can pass-catch.

Q: Outside of Percy Harvin, Bernard Berrian and Michael Jenkins, is there a clubhouse leader for the four spot based on who has impressed you?

A: Not really, I mean it’s just a battle. This next game will help in determining who is ahead of who and where they are. I think this it will be a process over these next couple games and even the fourth game.

Q: Is Mistral Raymond still on track to get some time on Saturday?

A: Yes. We are anxious to get to see him, he finished strong today in practice so he should get a chance to be up and ready to go for this game on Saturday night.