Vikings Start Voluntary Minicamp Today
By Ben Gotz
Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
One week before the NFL draft, Mike Zimmer will finally get to see his team on the field.
The Vikings begin a voluntary minicamp today which will involve minor workouts on the field, and the workouts could affect the Vikings draft plans according to Matt Vensel of the Star Tribune.
The Vikings could first report to Winter Park by April 7th, but up until now their workouts could only involve strength and conditioning. Now, Zimmer gets three days on the field to see what he’s got.
“What I want to do is to get these players on the field and put them in positions to find out how good they are,” Zimmer told Vensel. “Because quite honestly, I’m hoping we find some surprises.”
For the voluntary minicamp, no live contact is permitted according to Vensel, but the team is allowed to run 7-on-7, 9-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills.
“To me that’s the most exciting part right now, to go out on the field with them for three days and then once we have another meeting and we’ll say, ‘Wow, we really need this’ or ‘We don’t need this as badly,’ ” Zimmer told Vensel. “We may rearrange things a little bit [on the draft board].”
Of course, it’s unlikely that three days of non-contact workouts will shake up nine months of work on the draft, but it’s understandable that the workouts could change the Vikings priorities a bit.
As Zimmer points out, maybe a certain player appears to fit better in his scheme than previously imagined, or maybe a player doesn’t fit in quite as well as previously thought.
Either way, its clear the Vikings draft class will tell us a lot about how Zimmer views this squad.
Only nine days left until draft time Vikings fans…let’s hope it gets here soon.