Top 5 takeaways from the Minnesota Vikings preseason opener

The Wide Receiver Roster Battle Is Heating Up

The Minnesota Vikings have several young unproven wide receivers fighting for a spot on their 53 man final roster. Prior to the draft, the Vikings’ possessed Laquon Treadwell, Cayleb Jones, Moritz Böhringer and Isaac Fruechte. Over the draft weekend Minnesota added Rodney Adams out of USF in the 5th round, Stacy Coley from Miami in the 7th and R.J Shelton as an undrafted free agent out of Michigan State. 3 of these receivers made an impression on me during Thursday night’s affair, all for varying reasons.

Stacy Coley made the biggest impact gaining 67 yards on 3 catches.  Coley displayed breakaway speed on a 38 yard catch and run on an in route in the second quarter. After half time Coley improvised a slant route after noticing that Keenum had been flushed from the pocket and demonstrated great focus to make a 24 yard diving catch at the Buffalo 2 yard line.

Coley was far from perfect. He had a miscommunication with Keenum that led to a pass sailing on him, but after 1 game leads the pack of young receivers. Without Mike Wallace, the Vikings were missing a legitimate deep threat last season and Coley at very least has the raw athleticism to fill the void.

Fellow rookie receiver Rodney Adams had an indifferent evening in Buffalo. On one hand he caught a 2 yard touchdown pass and had a nice end around run for 14 yards.

On the other he may have put himself firmly at the back of the line for return duties with a  muffed a punt and a few mediocre returns. Adams unquestionably is a freak athlete but needs to display better decision-making. It will be interesting to see how he progresses over the remainder of the preseason games.

Isaac Fruechte stood out for all the wrong reasons and unquestionably will be disappointed with his performance. Fruechte was only targeted twice and failed to bring in either pass despite both being catchable. The first pass was hotly contested by a Bills defensive back but the 6’3″ Fruechte failed to hold of the defender and make the catch. The second pass should have been a simple catch after an accurate pass from Heinicke but Fruechte couldn’t haul it in. I wasn’t the only observer who was unimpressed.

With the 26-year-old likely on his last chance to make an NFL roster, Fruechte has a lot to do to overcome the younger talented receivers on the Vikings depth chart. The battle to make the 53 man squad will certainly make for intriguing viewing as preseason rolls on.