7 takeaways from the first two weeks of Vikings OTAs

Rhodes knows he has to be better

Xavier Rhodes didn’t perform horribly in 2018. But he also didn’t play at the All-Pro that he displayed in the 2017 season either.

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer knows what Rhodes is capable of and he made some headlines this offseason when he criticized the corner’s performance last year.

Some believed that these comments might have created a rift between Zimmer and Rhodes (especially when the corner liked a few interesting tweets reacting to what his head coach said), but this doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Rhodes recently came out and actually admitted that Zimmer was right about him needing to play better next season.

Sometimes guys like Rhodes just need a little kick in the pants to get going and Minnesota’s head coach knows this, which is why he said what he said. Unfortunately for the rest of the NFL, the Vikings’ top corner is likely motivated even more now to be better than ever in 2019.