Brace Hemmelgarn – USA TODAY Sports
The Minnesota Vikings made a big splash at this year’s NFL Draft, making moves that earned them three first-round picks. After selecting Sharrif Floyd, Xavier Rhodes and Cordarrelle Patterson, the Vikings were almost unanimously hailed with one of the highest grades in the draft, but that was before any pads were put on. Now that we’re a week into training camp in Mankato, how are these players performing?
Floyd, the Vikings top pick, has perhaps the toughest route to the Vikings’ starting lineup, playing behind incumbent defensive tackle starter Kevin Williams. Head coach Leslie Frazier has said that Williams will be limited to somewhere between 30 and 40 defensive snaps, but defensive coordinator Alan Williams doesn’t expect to put the two side by side in games. According to Andrew Krammer of 1500ESPN.com in Minneapolis, Floyd is comfortable paying his dues with the special teams unit, spending time on the field goal protection and kick return units. On the eve of the preseason, Floyd will be looking to maximize every live rep he gets.
Patterson, wearing a familiar purple No. 84 jersey, may remind some fans a little bit of another player who wore No. 84 here in Minnesota, and that’s for good reason. Patterson grew up idolizing Randy Moss, but hopefully he brings more of the talent and less of the headaches. He’s already impressed Frazier and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave with his work in Mankato.
“In particular, carrying the football, he’s dynamic,” Frazier told Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “He has the vertical speed to get behind defensive backs. That won’t be an issue. That’s going to give us a dimension we didn’t have a year ago. But where he’s electric is when you get him the ball on a bubble screen or a reverse or a hitch or a slant. He’s pretty special.”
Despite the impressive performances, coaches also say that Patterson has some work to do to grow into a true top receiving weapon on the team. Since he’ll be able to work with veteran Greg Jennings, and the team is still going to go as Adrian Peterson goes, he’ll be able to work a lot on the return units and add some special twists to the offense, much like Percy Harvin did in his time with the Vikings.
Rhodes, the corner out of Florida State, has the highest immediate expectations of the rookie class, and so far he’s living up to the hype. Playing with the first-team nickel unit, he’s had solid performances nearly every day of camp. Coming in with that hype, you’d expect the veterans to give him some grief, but he’s earned his teammates’ respect quickly, and his coaches have taken notice. Williams isn’t quite ready to say that Rhodes will be a starter, insisting that he wants to let the camp competition play out, but if Rhodes brings the same physicality and ball-hawk mentality to live game action as he has in practice, that situation will work itself out before long.
So far, things look good for the highly-touted rookie class. With the Houston Texans coming to Mall of America Field on Friday for the preseason kickoff, it’ll be an exciting time to see how these rookies adapt to the NFL game.
Brandon Raper is a golf writer and NFL contributor for Rant Sports. “Like” him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter @Brandon__Raper, or add him to your Google+ network.
