EAGAN, Minn. — Spotting Jake Golday on the grass was simple.

His strides were long and forceful. His hips swiveled smoother than butter. He didn't hold onto every pass that he shot off the ground to catch in coverage drills, but the ones he did, his hands swallowed.

The second-round pick (51^st overall) out of Cincinnati looked every bit like a future difference-maker for the Vikings defense as he participated in rookie minicamp on a picturesque afternoon Friday with seven of his eight draft classmates, undrafted rookies and some veteran and first-year players invited to try out, along with a half-dozen rostered Vikings with limited or no game experience. Minnesota's top draft choice, defensive lineman Caleb Banks, was present but didn't practice after having March foot surgery.

Naturally, that lured many sets of eyeballs to Golday. Afterward, he took a big breath and smiled freely.

"It's life-changing, really," he stated to a huddle of local media members when asked about hitting the field, finally, and the golden opportunity in his lap. "It's something I've been dreaming of my entire life."

It's a "blessing to get back out there and play some football," Golday said, reminding everyone that his focus over the past few months revolved around perfecting his technique for athletic tests, like the short shuttle and the L-cone (aka 3-cone), and the 40-yard dash — combine drills he passed with flying colors.

"All that good stuff," he quipped.

Those assessments matter, but not as much as what happens with a helmet on and chinstrap buckled. Golday knows that — even in a shorts-and-shirts practice like his first, which centered on instruction and movement, and featured a couple 7-on-7 periods but missed the oohs and ahhs of 1-on-1s or 11-on-11.

It was still a great glimpse of the 6-foot-4, 240-pounder who has only cracked open his can of potential.

Golday shared he's learned a lot in a short span, including gaining a sense of the organization's culture, and "how they play football on the defensive side, punching out the ball, playing with relentless effort."

Golday traveled with the inside 'backers during position drills Friday. As versatile as he may be, that's where he is expected to get his first sips of NFL water. And what a good spot to be — learning beside "Green Dot" Blake Cashman and a couple former Bearcats in splash play zealot Eric Wilson and downhill militant Ivan Pace, Jr. While Golday builds his baseline there and on special teams, he absolutely could factor into the edge conversation, too, because he brings experience and savvy as a rusher and dropper.

Head Coach Kevin O'Connell commented unprompted on Golday's long-term projection, to stress the progress Banks can make above the neck as he recovers: "We've got some thoughts on how the ultimate picture may look, but you want to allow [Jake] — because he's doing it physically from today on — you want to allow him to get comfortable in a spot before maybe you start throwing multiple things at him."

Now, it's not often that rookies are juxtaposed to veterans on their own team, but in Golday's case many prognosticators have connected the dots between him and Andrew Van Ginkel. An understudy, perhaps?

The number of similarities, or boxes checked, strengthens the possibility.

So does Golday's commitment to understanding the intent of the scheme he's playing within, which will be integral to whichever way he is molded by Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores and others on the staff.

Golday is unwilling to let anyone outwork him.

"I'm going to spend as much time as I need in the playbook to make sure I know all the positions so that I can be put at any spot on the field [and] so I don't have to be taken off the field," he said of his approach.

At the most basic level, there's this food for thought: Golday and Van Ginkel charted less glorious paths, beginning at small college programs and transferring up; they honed their get-offs as on-ball defenders — Gink' was a steady presence around the bend for the Badgers but moonlighted in the box and as an overhang player guarding the slot, and Golday mainly aligned as a defensive end in his first two seasons at Central Arkansas before backing up off the ball and calling shots as the MIKE; when he arrived at Cincinnati, the staff valued his athleticism so much they regularly rolled him out as a quasi-nickelback — and they made plays in space, so calmly and instinctively, that the imagination of their coaches exploded.

In one way, it's a testament to their allied athleticism, if you will. On the back of his testing measurements, Golday earned a Relative Athletic Score (RAS) of 9.85 out of a possible 10, which ranked 53^rd out of 3,481 linebackers evaluated from 1987 to 2026. The head-to-head with Gink's LB RAS is wild.

However, in another way, it's a credit to the intangibles that Golday shares with Van Ginkel and the locker room as a whole — attributes that are fundamental to Minnesota's scouting and coaching processes, as well as its culture. His football intelligence is tried-and-true. His grind to get to this stage was tough — not tough like withstanding a hit or delivering one, but tough that would make the vast majority of people in his shoes quit. Ahem, he was a zero-star recruit at Arlington (TN) High School, which produced Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker III two years before him, and he experienced a benching on a losing UCA squad. Lastly — if it's not clear — football means an incredible deal to him.

And that's the mildest way of framing his passion.

When Golday arrived for rookie minicamp, he explained his "why" — the reason he grinds so hard, the invisible force pushing him forward — to Vikings.com in three parts: First, he noted his love for the sport and the chance to pursue it as his career while building lifelong bonds; secondly, the opportunity to honor his family's support by representing them through hard work; and, lastly, his total trust in his faith.

"God put me on this earth for this purpose, and I know this is the purpose he put me on this earth for," Golday offered with unshakable confidence. "I just want to pursue that [to] the best of my abilities."

On the phone with Golday on April 24 to inform him of the pick, O'Connell conveyed how much love people in the building have for him after they scouted him and got to know him on a deeper level during his Top 30 visit. In the dream-come-true moment, O'Connell noted Golday's upside and his "ability to be one of those guys that comes in here as a smart, tough, loves-football kinda guy — our kinda guy — and those guys tend to do pretty well here, and that's exactly what you're going to do," the coach told him.

Need we say anymore? The cup runneth over with evidence that Golday is a "VKG" (Vikings Kinda Guy).

Blend that with blessed size and athleticism, and it's really no wonder spotting Golday was simple.

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