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The first day of Minnesota Vikings Training Camp saw a few players that were sidelined with various physical issues. After the first day, the Vikings did not have to place anyone on the Physically Unable to Perform or Non-Football Injury lists, meaning that center Pat Elflein is still the only player with that distinction.
However, a few payers are either playing with injuries or had to sit out part of the first day of camp. Let’s take a look at some of those players here.
The biggest name that’s dealing with an injury is defensive end Everson Griffen. Griffen was hobbled by a foot issue for the second half of last season, but what he’s dealing with now is a knee issue that caused him to sit out much of the team’s OTAs this spring. When asked about Griffen’s injury, Mike Zimmer kind of shrugged it off.
“I don’t know if he’s fully healthy or not,’’ Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said before the workout at TCO Performance Center. ‘If he’s out there, he’s going to go.’’
The Vikings are apparently going to try to play their starters, particularly Griffen, for fewer snaps this season, so the development of players on the depth chart is going to be a key.
Speaking of depth, wide receiver Stacy Coley sat out of today’s practice with a groin issue. He apparently suffered the injury during Wednesday’s session, but the Vikings don’t seem to think it’s anything serious. Coley is one of many players in the running to be the #3 receiver in the Vikings’ offense, so hopefully he’ll be back on the right track here shortly.
Offensive tackle Rashod Hill didn’t have the best of days, either, according to our own Eric Thompson:
Saw the puke live right in front of @Luke_Spinman and I. Not a highlight of our day or Hill's. https://t.co/aZdYsevQLH
— Eric Thompson (@eric_j_thompson) July 28, 2018
From what we’ve heard about Rashod Hill’s commitment to losing weight and gaining more endurance this offseason, I’d have a hard time believing that this was any sort of conditioning issue or anything like that. Hopefully it’s just a bug of some sort and he’ll be able to be back at 100% before too much longer.
Although, if there is an upside to Hill having to take a seat for a while, it’s that it gave rookie Brian O’Neill some snaps with the first team at right tackle.
Those are all the injuries that I saw people talking about on this first day of Vikings Training Camp. Eric will be along with his insights from the front here sometime later this evening.