Vikings coach coach Kevin O’Connell was the Patriots’ third-round pick in 2008 as a quarterback out of San Diego State but lasted just one season in Foxborough.
Vikings coach coach Kevin O’Connell was the Patriots’ third-round pick in 2008 as a quarterback out of San Diego State but lasted just one season in Foxborough.Adam Bettcher/Getty
Patriots center Garrett Bradbury shook his head and chuckled. Of all the teams the Patriots could be visiting this week for joint practices and a preseason game, it had to be the Vikings, for whom Bradbury played six years with 88 starts before being released in March.
“Crazy,” Bradbury said. “It’ll be good to see all the former guys, but at the same time compete and just get that much closer to Week 1.”
For most Patriots, the two days of practice at the Vikings’ TCO Performance Center might feel like paradise.
The training facility, which opened in 2018, is considered among the two or three best in the NFL, along with those in Miami and Las Vegas. It’s relatively new, spacious, and a significant reason why the Vikings have finished No. 2 overall in the NFL Players Association survey the last two years, and No. 1 in 2023.
“We call it, ‘The country club’ up there because it’s so nice,” Bradbury said. “They did a great job with it, and it’s great for a joint practice setup.”
The Patriots have a $50 million training facility set to open in 2026 that will provide the team with a new locker room, meeting room, and weight room facilities. Until then, the Patriots have to spend one last season in Gillette Stadium, with its small, outdated weight room and facilities that ranked 31st of 32 teams in last year’s NFLPA survey.
The Patriots also will stay this week at the Omni Viking Lakes hotel that is a five-minute walk around a small pond from the facility.
This week’s practices likely will not include an elite one-on-one matchup, as Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson and Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez are expected to sit out with hamstring injuries. The headline matchup instead is between quarterbacks Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy, first-round draft picks in 2024.
Unlike last week’s joint practice with the Commanders, who came to Foxborough with an army of former Patriots such as Jonathan Jones and Wes Welker, this week’s practices have only a few connections. But for the second straight week, the Patriots will have a reunion with one of their enemies from Deflategate.
Stefon Diggs first broke out as a star receiver as a member of the Vikings.
Stefon Diggs first broke out as a star receiver as a member of the Vikings.Jamie Squire
Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs will be back in Minnesota for just the second time since the Vikings traded him before the 2020 season. A fifth-round pick in 2015, Diggs had 365 catches for 4,623 yards and 30 touchdowns in five seasons before being traded to Buffalo and replaced by Jefferson. Diggs also scored a game-winning touchdown with no time remaining to defeat the Saints in a 2018 Divisional Round playoff game, a play dubbed the “Minnesota Miracle.”
“One of the most famous plays, if not the most famous, in Vikings history,” Bradbury said.
The Vikings had the NFL’s blitz-happiest defense in 2024 (38.9 percent of pass plays), and it’s a scheme that shouldn’t catch Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels by surprise. The Vikings’ defense is led by Brian Flores, who began his career with the Patriots as a scout in 2004, and spent 15 years with the organization, rising to linebackers coach and de facto defensive coordinator by 2018. Flores is in his third season as Vikings defensive coordinator after three years as the Dolphins’ head coach and one year with the Steelers. The Vikings’ defense, ranked 28th in points allowed before Flores, has finished 13th and fifth in his two seasons, while leading the NFL in takeaways last year (33).
“I’ve seen some offenses come in there for joint practice with not a lot of game plan, and it’s an absolute disaster,” Bradbury said. “Fortunately, Coach McDaniels and Coach Flores know each other really well, so it’ll be a good battle.”
Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell was the Patriots’ third-round pick in 2008 as a quarterback out of San Diego State. But O’Connell lasted just one year in Foxborough, and was released at the end of training camp in 2009, after losing out to rookie Brian Hoyer as Tom Brady’s backup.
O’Connell bounced around the league until 2012, got into coaching in 2015, became Sean McVay’s offensive coordinator in 2020, and won a Super Bowl the next year. The Vikings hired O’Connell in 2022, and he is 34-17 in three seasons, but 0-2 in the playoffs. O’Connell was named NFL Coach of the Year after leading the Vikings to a 14-3 record with backup quarterback Sam Darnold.
Josh Dobbs had a brief, fascinating stint with the Vikings in 2023.
Josh Dobbs had a brief, fascinating stint with the Vikings in 2023.Abbie Parr/Associated Press
This week’s practices will give the Vikings a glimpse of what could have been with Maye. The Vikings coveted him in last year’s draft and dangled the Nos. 11 and 23 picks, but weren’t willing to blow away the Patriots with a trade offer. One reason the Vikings wanted Maye is his relationship with quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, whose sons were high school teammates and best friends with Maye in Charlotte, N.C.
Patriots backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs had a brief, fascinating stint with the Vikings in 2023. Dobbs was acquired at the trade deadline from the Cardinals, came off the bench that week to throw for 158 yards and two touchdowns in a win over the Falcons, then went 2-2 as the starter over the next four games.
Finally, perhaps hiding somewhere in the Vikings’ practice facility, far away from the Kraft family and anyone who was with the Patriots a decade ago, will be Vikings assistant general manager Ryan Grigson. He was the Colts’ general manager in 2014, when they accused the Patriots of intentionally deflating footballs before their 45-7 loss to New England in the AFC Championship game.
Grigson fueled the two-year Deflategate saga when he sent an email the day before the AFC Championship game to NFL headquarters about rumors of the Patriots deflating game balls, asking the league to be “vigilant stewards” of a “completely level playing field” and “overall integrity of our game.”
The NFL set up a sting operation, conducted a sloppy test at halftime, and eventually slammed Brady with a four-game suspension and the Patriots with a forfeited first-round pick. Grigson remained the Colts’ GM through the 2016 season, bounced between the Seahawks and Browns the next several years, and became the Vikings’ senior vice president of player personnel in 2022.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.