The Minnesota Vikings are set to end their preseason with a game against the Denver Broncos at Mile High. The Vikings will seek to improve on their last performance, where they found the end zone just once.
Few, if any, starters will suit up and take reps. This final game is all about the new regime narrowing down their decisions in the closest roster battles. Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah will be looking at every bit of information before making their final cuts.
Here are five things you should watch for in this last week of preseason.
Backup QB Battle
Neither Kellen Mond nor Sean Mannion could prove they can be a competent backup quarterback. Therefore, Minnesota’s front office traded for Nick Mullens, giving the Las Vegas Raiders a conditional 2024 seventh-round pick as compensation.
While Mullens will most likely be the backup this season, this game figures to be the last chance for Mannion or Mond to find a way to stay on the roster. Or, it could be their auditions for other franchises.
If one of them impresses, the Vikings could roster three quarterbacks this season. They could even try to keep one of them on the practice squad for further development (although our own Cole Smith doesn’t think that’s a great idea). It will be interesting to see how the big decision-makers utilize this last look at their suddenly superfluous QB3 candidates.
T.y. McGill
So far, McGill is having a dream preseason, and he will try to maintain his momentum heading into the regular season. He’s had a crazy NFL journey so far. Fourteen teams have cut him, and he’s played on nine of them. But the journeyman seems to have found a home in Minnesota. He has been a force on the inside in the first two preseason games, racking up eight pressures, six QB hits, and 3.5 sacks.
With the Vikings switching to a 3-4 defense, one of the primary concerns was the interior defensive line’s ability to get pressure. McGill has put some of those worries to rest this preseason. He has probably been Minnesota’s best player in the preseason and can lock up a roster spot with a good game in Denver.
The consensus is that McGill will make the team. If he does, it will be interesting to see what happens to Jalen Twyman, a sixth-round pick last year.
Punt Returner
Although Dede Westbrook didn’t make the impact as a receiver that most fans thought he would last season, he was a sure-handed punt returner. The Vikings have struggled to find his replacement, as the competition between Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Jalen Nailor has proved uninspiring.
Smith-Marsette and Nailor have struggled to field punts properly, let alone return them for any sort of yardage. While the Vikings can get a better sense of what’s going wrong in practice, they won’t be able to replicate the same in-game pressure.
Middle Linebacker Depth
The job of the on-ball linebacker becomes much more important in a 3-4 defense. With Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks set to be starters, the question remains what the depth of this position will look like.
Rookie Brian Asamoah has been impressive this preseason and will certainly make the team, but the competition seems to be a bit more open after that. Blake Lynch, Troy Dye, and Chazz Surratt are all holdovers from the previous regime who are looking to carve out a niche. At least one of them will likely not make the final 53-man squad.
It should be noted that the Vikings’ staff have said they will factor in special teams ability when they decide who makes the team and who misses out.
Ryan Wright
Earlier in the week, the Vikings shocked everyone when they cut veteran punter Jordan Berry. They released Berry in favor of Ryan Wright, a rookie from Tulane. You would think this guarantees the job for Wright, but he still needs to show his worth as a punter and a holder.
As a holder, Wright has struggled to get his timing down with the rest of the kicking operations. He has been the primary holder for most of Greg Joseph‘s missed kicks in practice. Wright will need to perform well in this game in both facets to avoid losing his job to another punter outside the organization.
