Before Wednesday’s joint practice, Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis gathered his team and the Vikings on the field. “We’ve been hitting purple guys for 10 days”. Loadholt announced his retirement on July 25. Right end Everson Griffen has looked in mid-season form since Day 1, while nose tackle Linval Joseph has shown no signs of the turf toe injury that hit him in the midst what was trending toward an All-Pro season a year ago.
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Now, the Vikings are looking ahead to an exhibition against the Bengals and a new season in a new stadium. It’s the number worn by such tackle luminaries as Hall of Famer Walter Jones from Aliceville, Willie Roaf and Tony Boselli. “I’m not walking back to the huddle on that one”.
Loadholt wore No. 71.
“I was in a bad mood when they asked me”. “But I definitely don’t think there are a lot of guys who’d want to play an 18-game season”. And the accolades stopped. Then he suffered a broken foot in his first week of practice.
Smith broke his foot as a rookie, costing him 10 games. “Michael’s given everybody in the locker room everything you could possibly need to go out and just focus on football and play good football”. First-round pick Corey Coleman and veteran Andrew Hawkins will miss the game with hamstring injuries, while recently reinstated receiver Josh Gordon will sit out with an injured quad.
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.
Mike Zimmer is not a sentimental guy, but the sometimes-gruff Vikings coach admitted that returning to Cincinnati this week could get emotional.
“If it wasn’t with Marvin, I probably wouldn’t have done it”, Zimmer explained, per Vikings.com.
“There’s no hard feelings”, Smith said. Players say they want to make their coach proud. “We’ll get a chance to go sharpen our skills and they’re going to sharpen their’s”. “I knew what it meant”. “They’ve been really gracious here with the facilities”. His career started out (poorly). “His career started out, he had a broken bone in his foot and he was overweight and all that”. I thought that was good. “They’re hurt. They can’t do anything, so they’ll get better treatment up there”. Here are some of the players that have really made a splash during training camp. And at free safety, Anthony Harris is on the second team behind Harrison Smith while Antone Exum is third team.
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As a rookie, Waynes got pushed down by Terence Newman, who was well-versed in the Mike Zimmer defense and came into training camp with a leg up on the talented rookie. “Just having a relationship with him and seeing me for five years and knowing the player I am, the person I am, trusting him, he’s just a great coach and person”.
