Vikings Territory: Top Vikings Items To Watch For In First Preseason Game

Press release from Vikings Territory:

Dustin Baker Dustin Baker

2021-08-13

No NFL teams played preseason games during the pandemic season, so tomorrow for the Minnesota Vikings will feel like a return to normalcy.

Both teams are stuffed to the gills with esteemed defensive personnel while hoping to rebound from underwhelming 2020 showings.

Wyatt Davis, a 3rd-Round rookie from Ohio State, is supposed to eventually hold down RG duties for the Vikings. But it won’t be in this preseason game nor it will likely occur at the beginning of the regular season.

Can he do it? Or is he merely a training camp success story? That’s the kicker. Minnesota passed on the free-agent services of Joe Thuney, Brandon Scherff, and Lane Taylor, choosing the rookie route in Davis with a Udoh Plan B at guard.

Udoh nailed training camp, showing enough skill to plop him on the depth chart as the starting RG. He faces a mean assignment with the Broncos defensive line — a team the Vikings just scrimmaged against for a few days in Eagan.

See above.

And Hill’s been with Minnesota for five full seasons, if that can be believed. Previously, Hill acted as Riley Reiff’s backup, but Reiff traveled to the Cincinnati Bengals for his next chapter. Hill was slated as LT2 in most folks’ minds when Darrisaw was drafted. However, with Darrisaw hobbled, Hill gets the nod as protectorate of Kirk Cousins’ blindside.

In Darrisaw’s absence, Hill needs to be about as good as Reiff, or the pass-protection will regress. That should send tingles down your spine. The last thing the Vikings offensive line can endure is a step backward protecting quarterbacks.

Nonetheless, Osborn will play, and per the Vikings unofficial depth chart, he’s the WR3 for a couple of weeks. Due to some fumbles last season on special teams, Osborn was largely considered a footnote on the WR roster heading into training camp. Yet, in Eagan, Osbon has performed marvelously.

If Osborn can rip some balls out of the sky from Kirk Cousins and Jake Browning, his stock will rise.

Welcome to the back to past.

The 2021 edition is a competition between little-known Greg Joseph and rookie Riley Patterson. Joseph was pretty solid in training camp, but Patterson arguably has a bigger leg.

This press release was produced by Vikings Territory .The views expressed here are the author’s own.