5 Vikings to Watch: Preseason Week 1 vs. the Saints

Kris Boyd – CB

The Vikings were once very deep at cornerback. In fact, I for one was quite adamant how they were one of the deepest teams in the entire league at the position. T

hen Holton Hill got his suspension extended to eight games. On top of that, Mike Hughes doesn’t appear to be very close to returning to the field as he continues to recover from that ACL injury and the depth starts to feel a bit shallow.

Boyd seemed to benefit the most from this situation as the talented young rookie suddenly found himself down to a two-man battle for the fourth corner spot with former AAF player Duke Thomas.

The competition has increased for Boyd lately as Minnesota went out and signed veteran corner Bene Benwikere to add depth to this unit.

Boyd has a great shot to make this team and he has gotten publically praised by head coach Mike Zimmer in a recent press conference. If he has a solid performance on Friday, he’ll only impress his boss further and his chances of jumping both Thomas and Benwikere on the depth chart improve immensely.

Boyd will be lined up opposite Saints receivers like Lil’ Jordan Humphrey, Sammie Cobbs Jr., and veteran Rishard Matthews. One would hope he would do well against that level of competition, but it will be a good first test for the former Texas Longhorn regardless.