Several players likely to sit out
Earlier, it was stated that rookie left tackle Christian Darrisaw was likely to be out for the first Minnesota Vikings preseason game. However, it appears as though he won’t be the only one sidelined for Saturday’s action.
Vikings analyst Eric Smith shared some notes from Mike Zimmer’s presser on Twitter revealing that there will be two other players who likely won’t see any snaps during Week 1 of the NFL preseason
Late takeaways from Zimmer’s presser:
— Eric Smith (@Eric_L_Smith) August 11, 2021
-Excited for “cranked up” practice competition today vs. Broncos
-Sounds like only Joseph will kick Saturday
-Darrisaw unlikely to play
-Joked he and Fangio are just old and boring defensive-minded coaches
-More praise for Teddy B.
As I stated in the previous preseason observations, it was likely that the kickers on the roster would alternate games and probably split kicks in the preseason finale. That appears to be the case as Greg Joseph is expected to handle kicking duties on Saturday with Riley Patterson sitting the game out.
Smith added in another tweet that Kellen Mond is unlikely to be behind center against Denver. Since Kirk Cousins isn’t likely to see more than a quarter of play at most, that means this will be a great opportunity to see more from Jake Browning and get him more game-type experience before entering the regular season as the team’s QB2.