EAGAN, Minn. — Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell spent nearly an hour gathering with folks on both sides after joint practices at Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center with the New England Patriots.
There were plenty of familiar faces for the ex-NFL quarterback who was drafted in the third round by New England in 2008. Among them, of course, was former teammate and Patriots Head Coach Mike Vrabel, who celebrated his 50th birthday Thursday with cool, windy weather and some intense football.
"I mentioned it when we got this thing started, before the work, that there was a reason why the Patriots were here," O'Connell said to begin his press conference following his catching-up on the field. "And now that it's concluded I feel great about the work we were able to get in. I think both teams accomplished a lot of things in these two days. I wish them nothing but the best moving forward, and we'll have a competitive game on Saturday and move on with our process of leading into the season.
"I thought for two days of joint work, to come back, our team had kind of a good look in their eyes today of wanting to really accomplish a lot of things," O'Connell added. "I thought the offense did a lot of really good things. I thought it was a really impactful day in the red zone and then some second down into some third downs again for two days in a row and then the 2-minute, finding J.A. (Jordan Addison) there to start the whole thing off was really positive. A lot that we'll correct, a lot we'll go into meetings here in a little bit and make sure we dive into this tape the right way and get ready to play a game on Saturday."
Joshua Metellus appeared to hurt his shoulder defending a Hail Mary-type play in a 2-minute drill and will be evaluated, O'Connell noted. Also, Jalen Nailor jammed his hand and exited practice as a precaution.
Justin Jefferson remains sidelined with a hamstring strain but is progressing. Other non-participants included Harrison Smith, C.J. Ham, Andrew Van Ginkel, Levi Drake Rodriguez and Christian Darrisaw.
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We expanded our observations to six, again, in order to capture action scattered across, at times, four fields. They are presented by Minnesota Eye Consultants, the Proud LASIK Partner of the Minnesota Vikings.