“It was nice and hot out here, both days, so that was good”, coach Mike Zimmer.
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After an impressive finish as the NFC North champions last season, the Minnesota Vikings are set to kick off the 2016 pre-season on Friday night against the Bengals in Cincinnati. The Vikings are coached by former Cincinnati coordinator Mike Zimmer. “So I don’t know about sentimental, but it’ll be”. Instead, a player that really stepped up and showed what he had to offer was a seventh-round pick from the 2014 draft, Jabari Price.
“I’ve never been around this part of the stadium before, but I’m just blessed to be out here with the guys competing”, said Lamur, who signed with the Bengals as an undrafted free agent in 2012. I’ll be very excited to see him.
Zimmer got his National Football League start as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys before briefly working for Bobby Petrino’s Atlanta Falcons.
It will be the first football trip back to Cincinnati for Zimmer, who maintains a ranch just south of the city in northern Kentucky. “I have some ideas”, Zimmer told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “but I don’t want to share them”.
So you can be assured the Lewis and Zimmer have talked about this all before and the Vikes aren’t going to bang on A.J. He really is a good athlete. “It’s a chance to get better going up a great receiver like (Green)”.
The Vikings wrap up Training Camp on Tuesday before heading to Cincinnati to prepare for their battle with the Bengals.
On Thursday night, Zimmer will have some other visitors.
“We got a lot of good work done”, he said. “We need to start moving guys around a little bit”.
Newman did not participate in the Vikings last training camp practice this morning in Mankato, but he was not the only notable name not in pads.
McKinnon emerged in the second half of last season as more than simply a change-of-pace scat back to counter Peterson’s slashing power game.
“He’s got sweet feet, ” said guard Alex Boone.
Despite being snubbed by Iloka, Zimmer still had plenty of fun with him before practice. Of course, those teams don’t exactly respect one another. When he arrived, the Vikings were coming off of a bad 5-10-1 season in which they finished in last place in their division. He has some ideas about what he wants to see in the joint practices. And the Bengals’ defenders were looking forward to reminding Zimmer of why they’ve been so good.
“It’s a dream situation”, Palmer says, “having the opportunity to play for a head coach like Bruce (Arians), but also a play caller like Bruce”.
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Duluth native and Vikings running back CJ Ham is listed as the fifth string running back. He is going into his seventh season as a professional player. A great defense, obviously, that made the playoffs past year. Of Cincinnati’s 25 projected starters, including three specialists, 19 remain from his time there.
