With the regular season going from 17 to 18 games last season, the change was reducing the preseason down from four games to three. The Minnesota Vikings will be the last team to debut this preseason with their first game coming on Sunday afternoon at 3:25 PM CT against the Las Vegas Raiders. They will then take on the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday, August 20 in Week 2. The final week of the preseason sends the Vikings to Denver for a Sunday Night Football matchup under the lights vs the Broncos.
With three games to watch before the team needs to cut down from 90 players to the final 53, we’ve got four preseason storylines for fans to watch closely over the next few weeks.
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Can Kellen Mond win the backup QB role?
The last regime may have drafted Kellen Mond in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft, but Mike Zimmer never placed much stock in the former Texas A&M QB’s development. As Mond mentioned earlier this week, he was mostly relegated to working with the third-string offense, where he didn’t receive very valuable reps.
But that’s all changed with a true quarterback guru coming to town, with Kevin O’Connell, a former QB himself, taking over as head coach. Mond should be getting much more hands-on coaching than he’s ever received.
Mond was drafted because he flashed big-time talent in college, where he threw for nearly 10,000 passing yards and displayed enough athleticism to be used as a dual-threat QB. But he’s also incredibly raw, and there’s no guarantee he can even be a backup in the NFL. While his ceiling is tantalizing, his floor is also very low.
If Mond can’t look drastically better than Mannion in the preseason, the second-year pro may be in trouble. I expect Mannion to make fewer mistakes than the 23-year-old Mond, but the latter’s arm talent better flash when he’s under the spotlight.
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Is the offensive line still a wreck?
The Vikings have the potential to have a kickass offense in 2022. Aside from injuries, the only thing that can derail their scoring attack is if the offensive line continues its inconsistent play. There wasn’t any addition as big or as impactful as when they drafted Christian Darrisaw out of the first round a year ago, but the front office did make several additions to the trenches.
In the second round they drafted guard Ed Ingram out of LSU. After facing some of the best talent in college football on a weekly basis in the SEC, early reports out of camp suggest Ingram’s acclimated himself well to the next level. But he’s still not guaranteed to start at right guard, and if he does, there’s likely to be some growing pains for the rookie.
The biggest area of weakness has been the offensive interior, with Garrett Bradbury being the team’s anchor, only in a bad way dragging them down. Bradbury’s unlikely to suddenly develop Hulk-like strength, so his struggles may continue. Unless coach O’Connell has some magic in him, finding a way to gameplan for his center’s drawbacks.
Fans want to see the line hold up at the point of attack, giving Cousins a clean pocket to operate from, and plenty of time to find the open man. We don’t want to see Bradbury getting pushed into the backfield in the preseason. We can’t suffer through that again.
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Sorting out the defensive front
Get ready, Vikings fans. Many of you are about to see a defense you’ve never seen from the group in purple. The days of the team running a 4-3 defensive front are gone. In is veteran defensive coordinator Ed Donatell’s 3-4 base, which has four linebackers and three down linemen.
But the Vikings have prepared for this all offseason, which is why Za’Darius Smith was added to the group of pass-rushers. Imagine having to deal with Smith and Danielle Hunter rushing off the edge? It’s going to be a massacre.
While the pass rush should be improved immeasurably, this team also couldn’t stop the rush last year. By bringing in the thumping Jordan Hicks as the run-stuffing linebacker, allowing Eric Kendricks to roam in coverage, the Vikings are showing a clear desire to change.
Yet, the down linemen are unproven. We know what Dalvin Tomlinson can do, creating pressure and stopping the run. Harrison Phillips is lauded for his ability to eat up space and clog the running lanes too, but this is all just hope, on paper at this point. Let’s see it in action.
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How does the pass defense look under Ed Donatell?
To Vikings fans, this is nothing new, but they also couldn’t do much of anything when teams decided to drop back and throw 40+ times per game. The hope is that the unique scheme Donatell prefers will help the defenders in coverage, as quarterbacks will need an extra second or two to decipher who’s dropping into coverage and who’s a threat to rush the passer.
But you can do whatever you want with the front seven. If the back four aren’t doing their job, it won’t matter how much pressure is created. In the past few years, the Vikings just haven’t had enough playmakers in their secondary, not only to slow down receivers but also to break up the pass or even intercept the ball.
There’s been an influx of talent, with Andrew Booth and Lewis Cine, both expected to play big roles as rookies, yet there’s still that solid veteran leadership for the young players to lean on with Harrison Smith and Patrick Peterson. Maybe it’s the perfect mix of youth and experience. For now, the defensive backfield looks like a deep group of which the Vikings will have several contributors emerge, but let’s see how they develop this preseason.
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