Chiefs Scrimmage Part Deux; Seifert's Takes
By Dan Zinski
The Vikings have wrapped up the Chiefs home-and-home scrimmage portion of training camp. The end couldn’t come soon enough for Brad Childress and Herm Edwards who called off the River Falls session 45 minutes early, partly because injuries had reduced the Vikings’ formerly over-stuffed receiver corps to 5 healthy bodies, and Childress didn’t want them to get overworked. The last event of the evening was perhaps the highlight – a fight between feisty Viking DE Ray Edwards and Chiefs OL Kyle Turley. Yes, Kyle Turley is back in the league. No, he did not chuck a helmet into the crowd at any time during the fight. Edwards did reportedly land several punches on Turley before Herm Edwards came running in to break it up. The fight may have had something to do with bad-blood left from an incident earlier in practice where Edwards hit Chiefs QB Brodie Croyle despite Croyle having a red jersey on. Edwards, by the way, is probably going to start at DE opposite Kenechi Udeze this season, given the still-uncertain status of Erasmus James. If he can channel some of that crazy aggression into rushing the passer, we may have something.
Otherwise it was an uneventful night. A bunch of people sat out, including Troy Williamson whom we’d heard might participate. Adrian Peterson did, however, get some action in, coming back from a hip-pointer.
The big left-over news from the first scrimmage was that OL Dan Mozes probably has a torn ACL, meaning he will miss the season.
This morning on Dan Barreiro’s fine Sunday Sermons show on KFAN, Viking writer Kevin Seifert offered his early impressions of the team. Seifert says the defense is clearly ahead of the offense. He likes what he’s seen from Leslie Frazier so far and thinks the D will be able to continue its solid play from last season, notwithstanding question marks at DE. He’s still a little worried about E.J. Henderson making the transition back to MLB, given the problems E.J. had in the leadership area the first time he held that spot. Offensively, Seifert says things are shaky. He believes Tarvaris Jackson is thinking too much, hence his problems holding onto snaps and handing the ball off to running backs. He also thinks Brooks Bollinger has been inconsistent.