Vikings Mini-Camp Day 1: Clemmings At Guard, Jones Gonna Eat, and More

The first day of the Minnesota Vikings’ mandatory mini-camp took place at Winter Park on Tuesday. There were a few different stories to come out of the session, and we’ll do our best to summarize some of the more important ones here.

Much of this news will come from the reports of Andrew Krammer of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and Matthew Coller of 1500 ESPN.

Clemmings Shifting To Guard

After proving to be a bit of a disaster at both of the tackle spots, the team has decided that they’re going to shift T.J. Clemmings inside to right guard. Head Coach Mike Zimmer thinks that the move might be the best thing for Clemmings.

“It’s a little bit of a work in progress,” he said. “How’s the best way to say this? The best place for him is where it’s a little bit more condensed. T.J. is a great kid. He’s going to give you his best every day. He’s going to come out here and work. He doesn’t really care where he plays.”

While Clemmings might still serve as a backup at tackle for the team, the Vikings brought in Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers to be the starters at those positions. Add in the draft selections of Pat Elflein and Danny Isidora, in addition to Joe Berger apparently being the new starter at right guard, and Clemmings might be facing a serious uphill battle just to make the roster in 2017.

Vikings Want Jones To Gain Weight

Datone Jones might have been playing end in Green Bay, but the Vikings will be putting him at the defensive tackle spot. To that end, the team has apparently asked Jones to put on a few more pounds in order to help him out on the interior of the line. There is no word on how much weight the Vikings want Jones, who is currently listed at 285 on the official roster on the Vikings’ website, to put on.

Adams Returning Punts and Kickoffs

It appears that rookie Rodney Adams might get the first shot at being Cordarrelle Patterson’s replacement as the Vikings’ primary return man. Andrew Krammer says that Adams is also getting the “lion’s share” of punt return opportunities, so we can safely start the “Marcus Sherels is going to get cut” speculation that we’re all going to look really stupid for by the end of August.

Because, seriously, Marcus Sherels is never getting cut.

Easton Leading Elflein?

According to Coller, the current leader for the Vikings’ starting center spot appears to be Nick Easton, who filled in for Joe Berger last season. The Vikings drafted Pat Elflein out of Ohio State in the third round of this year’s draft, and many. . .yours truly included. . .thought that Elflein would just sort of walk right into the starting center job. This is going to be one of the more interesting battles of Training Camp to watch for the Vikings, so it’s probably too early to speculate too much about it. If Elflein isn’t the starter, though, he could probably serve as a backup at both center and guard, which would be a plus.

Treadwell Impressed By Bridgewater’s Recovery

In news that will no doubt be met with nothing but reasonable reactions, wide receiver Laquon Treadwell had this to say about the progress that’s been made by rehabilitating quarterback Teddy Bridgewater:

“He looks great, like he was never hurt, that’s [his] God given talent,” Treadwell said. “He’s a worker, he’s a fighter and he’s shown us a lot in the small time we’ve seen him and for him to bounce back so fast, that’s a blessing.

“The way he gets the ball out, he’s getting the ball out before you’re breaking [out of the route]. He told me he’s spent a lot of time studying film. So he’s spent time on things he was, you would say, messing up on, so he’s looked 10 times better.”

MOAR SAM VS TEDDY DEBATES! WOO-HOO!

That’s a quick look at some of the things that happened at the first day of the Vikings’ last camp between now and the start of Training Camp in Mankato. We’ll try to put together recaps like this for each day of the session.