6 takeaways from the first portion of Vikings training camp

Offense getting back to the basics

Last year, it felt like John DeFilippo was attempting to create some sort of new-age offense for the Vikings that put a lot of emphasis on passing the football. All it did was cause Minnesota to get away from what they did best on of the offensive side of the ball in 2017 and fail to have any sort of balance between their rushing attack and their passing game.

Well, DeFilippo is gone now and currently in charge of running the Vikings’ offense is new offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski and offensive advisor Gary Kubiak.

Through Minnesota’s first few training camp practices this year, the unit seems to be getting back to utilizing some more traditional offensive tactics.

The Vikings have been seen using a lot of formations that feature quarterback Kirk Cousins snapping the ball from under center. Despite Cousins being a much better passer when he starts under center, more than 75 percent of his passing attempts in 2018 were done with him in the shotgun.

Minnesota has also been running a bunch of plays during this year’s camp that use two or three tight ends. Vikings rookie tight end Irv Smith Jr. has been on the field for these packages and it seems like he could have a pretty important role this season.

The new leaders on Minnesota’s offensive coaching staff appear to be focusing on calling plays that give their guys the best chance to succeed. Even though this seems like an obvious concept, this was not the case in 2018 when DeFilippo was in control of the Vikings’ offense.