Vikings Training Camp: Sunday Morning Practice Notes

The Sunday morning walk through was probably the most laid back, atmosphere wise, of the practices I've watched so far.  Not a lot of changes to note, with one major exception.

Offense:

QB: No changes. Matt Cassel is still the top guy and has taken all the first team snaps.  He made some nice throws during 11 on 11, with a beautiful throw to Rhett Ellison, who was well covered by Gerald Hodges on the play.  Teddy Bridgewater managed to over throw a receiver so bad that hit hit Mistral Raymond in his back (team was split into offense and defense, each at the opposite end of the field). Norv Turner looked at Bridgewater and gave him the classic, two  handed WTF look.  Ponder looked solid working with the threes.

OL: No changes to the depth chart from yesterday.

WR: The big news of the morning was that Cordarrelle Patterson returned to practice, and was worked in, albeit a little slowly. He still seems to be limping a bit when he runs, and wasn't going full tilt.  With the team putting pads on today for the first time, I'll be interested to see if he takes part. (NOTE: He won't. Mike Zimmer just announced that he will be limited to morning walk throughs, but might participate in the Monday night full practice. Stay tuned). It appears that Adam Thielen is safely on the second team.  Kain Colter dtill took some snaps with the 2's, and so did Rodney Smith.

Defense:

DL: Didn't notice much of a change with the depth. I think we'll get a lot more clarity for both lines after the first pads practice today.

LB: Still a lot of mixing and matching, and this position group is far from settled.  Chad Greenway and Gerald Hodges were the top linebacking pair in the nickel formation; I wasn't able to catch who the linebackers were in the base 4-3.

DB: Xavier Rhodes, Josh Robinson, Robert Blanton, and Harrison Smith are still your starters.  Jabari Price was seen working with the first team nickel defense this morning.  Like the linebackers, I think there's still some mixing and matching going on, and Captain Munnerlyn's injury isn't helping matters.

Overall impressions are relatively unchanged: Cassel is your starter, Thielen seems to be putting a little distance between himself and the rest of the receivers, and the linebackers are really unsettled in terms of who starts, and where. That's going to be a fascinating battle to watch as we get deeper into training camp.