Sendejo is battling Michael Griffin and veterans Newman and Greenway are trying to hold off Trae Waynes and Emmanuel Lamur, respectively. He was ailing on an extremely hot day, and was replaced on the first team by Jabari Price for the rest of the way.
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“When that happened, I was seated next to my brother and I just looked at him and said, ‘That’s it, ‘” owner Mike Brown said. “In great position and there’s not a receiver that I’ve seen yet that’s going to outrun him deep”. The team left for Cincinnati, where there will be two days of joint practices before Friday’s preseason opener against the Bengals. I’ve got to see who can play guard, who can play tackle, who can play left, who can play right. His parents, Ron and Erin Waynes of Kenosha, Wis., are in town for the two practices and the game.
Next, the team will face off against Zimmer’s former team as they head to Cincinnati. “When you have him on the field, he’s able to make plays one-on-one, some better than our receivers. And that’s all Zim wants to know”, Spielman explained.
Zimmer notes how working for the Bengals prepared him for head coaching. The Vikings are back though and have a very solid roster from top to bottom and if Teddy Bridgewater can take another step forward this season they will be risky and serious contenders in the NFC.
“It was real easy going”, Zimmer said.
Paul Guenther, who succeeded Zimmer as the defensive coordinator, made it clear there were boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed during practice.
Adrian Peterson enters his 10th season as the Vikings’ star running back knowing his snaps might diminish as the team finds more ways to get the ball into Jerick McKinnon’s hands. There are a lot of the players here that I coached. “They’re hurt. They can’t do anything, so they’ll get better treatment up there”.
Tight end Rhett Ellison, who is recovering from knee surgery and is on the physically unable to perform list, did come to Cincinnati.
Unfortunately for him, though, he was unable to do much as he was dealing with dehydration through most of the Wednesday practice.
In addition to those things, there are some young players fans will be seeing in action for the first time, so despite a scrimmage-type atmosphere, this game is bigger than most people think. “Teddy Bridgewater taking the next step … we know the defense is going to be pretty good”. They’ve been in the playoffs the last six or seven years. We’ll get our first look at some of these two teams’ top rookies and have a chance to gauge where some of the hardest-fought positional battles now sit.
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Mike Zimmer is not a sentimental guy, but the sometimes-gruff Vikings coach admitted that returning to Cincinnati this week could get emotional.
