Day One of OTA’s Brings Competition at the Wide Receiver Position Part I
Joe Johnson
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With Rookie Mini-Camp squarely in the rear-view mirror, the next aspect of the off-season is upon us, Organized Team Activities. The first part of OTA’s takes place today and will run through Thursday of this week (May 23rd – May 25th. purplePTSD.com, Your one stop spot for dates!), with intermittent dates leading up to Mandatory Mini-Camp, which leads to training camp, which leads to the pre-season, which leads to the season, which leads to the playoffs, which leads to the reason we all drink.
So, with OTA’s starting this morning I thought I’d look at my favorite position on the team as well as the position that added the most new faces (Even more so than the offensive line), wide receiver, to discuss where each player is and what they have to do to make an impression, grow/improve as a player or in some cases make the team in general. Part one is this morning, with part two coming tomorrow. This article is similar to one that was posted on ESPN 1500 by Matthew Coller, so I wanted to give him a shout out in this piece just in case people saw the resemblance (And because I’m sure it contributed to my decision to write about this today, as well).
1) Stefon Diggs
For the first time in his career as a Viking, Stefon Diggs should enter the 2017 season as the number one receiver on the depth chart (He was listed behind Charles Johnson early last season). This season, however, he has some competition for that spot with his teammate from 2016 Adam Thielen as well as a new face on the team, Michael Floyd. While I’d love for Laquon Treadwell to also be in the running, he’s simply not there yet, so let’s look at what Diggs has to do to retain his spot not only through the off-season but the regular season as well.
The biggest thing for Diggs has always been injuries. It’s pretty much a given that he’ll miss a couple games each season as he’s got a pretty thin frame for a wide receiver in 2017 and a history of being injured every season that goes back into college (Which is why he fell to the fifth round in the 2014 draft). While it’s hard to blame someone for injury, you’d hope that the Vikings strength and conditioning coaches are working on ways to ensure that his body can put up with the pounding that a receiver takes in the NFL. Diggs, like Thielen, is a possession receiver (A damn good one, at that) and he makes his money by maintaining/increasing his speed through his cuts/routes. So, if he’s injured he’s simply not effective even if/when he is on the field (Or at least, as effective). So, it’ll be interesting to see if he’s added any muscle weight this off-season to hopefully attempt to off-set some of that wear and tear.
Some may be surprised that Diggs started behind Charles Johnson early last season. That’s more of a scheme thing than anything else, with Johnson filling the role of the big bodied, X-type, down the field receiver. While Diggs does have the ability to go down the field and create yards after the catch, his bread and butter is the possession reception. So, I’m extremely excited to see what he will do next to Michael Floyd, especially, as they could become one of the better one-two punches in the NFL this season if all goes according to plan. Throw Adam Thielen into the mix, who is 6’2″ and 200 lbs. and you get mis-matches that the Vikings simply didn’t have last season (Imagine a nickel corner attempting to cover either Floyd or Thielen… Goo!).
2) Adam Thielen
Thielen had a career year last season, exploding onto the national stage with multiple 100 yard games (And a 200 yarder, to boot) that showed how versatile, deceptively quick and physical the undrafted free agent out of Mankato really is. Thielen was 33 yards shy of breaking the 1,000 yard mark last season, with a lot of his yards coming in spurts as opposed to his yardage coming on a more consistent basis.
If there’s anything negative you could take away from his 2016 campaign it’s exactly that. With more competition at the position in 2017 it’ll be interesting to see if Thielen can consistently get the ball. However, despite the need at the position last season the offensive line simply didn’t allow for the passing game to become established in many instances, which is what I mostly blame the inconsistency on. So, with the work that the Vikings have done to completely overhaul their offensive line this off-season, the passing game should benefit accordingly. Despite the additional competition at the position it’s not unheard of in today’s NFL for teams to have multiple receivers tally over 1,000 yards. Considering how awful the line was last season, it’s actually pretty amazing to consider that Thielen did almost reach 1,000 yards.
So, when it comes to today’s OTA’s I’d be interested in seeing how the Vikings plan to use Diggs and Thielen along-side a true number one receiver (In position type) like Michael Floyd. Like I said above, I believe that the size that the Vikings now have at the position should create a lot of mismatches at the position, so while they’ve got a lot of work to do before they can implement that offense, I’d expect to see some semblances of that even today.
3) Michael Floyd
Outside of the offensive line, the largest positive contribution to the Vikings passing game this off-season has been Michael Floyd who is only 27 and thus entering his physical prime. Floyd has mainly played as a number two receiver in his career, playing behind future hall of fame receiver Larry Fitzgerald in Arizona since being drafted in the first round in 2012. While he’ll obviously have to earn that spot on the Vikings depth chart, at least on paper he fits the bill perfectly. Some people have said that they don’t really think that Floyd will have that big of an impression on the Vikings roster, perhaps because the Vikings really aren’t paying him that much and because they’ve had some iffy results with down the field receivers recently (with Mike Wallace’s tenue leaving a lot to be desired).
The reality is, though, that only two other NFL receivers have been targeted for down the field passes more in the past few seasons than Michael Floyd. Baggage or no baggage that’s the type of receiver that he is and that’s why the Vikings are bringing him in. The difference between him and a Mike Wallace is the fact that the Vikings should have a better offensive line in 2017 then they had even in 2015 and a much better down the field passer in Sam Bradford than they had in 2015 in a younger Teddy Bridgewater. So, I expect to see the Vikings testing what they have a lot in this week’s practices, in the hopes that they can forge some chemistry between Floyd and Bradford (Something that was sorely missing in 2015 between Wallace and Bridgewater). So, I expect to see Floyd really showing what he can do today so the coaches get a general sense on exactly that and his teammates can begin to see how he’ll benefit the offense/their game.
I’ve said this above, but the 1-2-3 punch of Diggs-Thielen-Floyd is one of the better in the entire NFL and with Bradford coming off of the most accurate passing season in NFL history, you suddenly see exactly why the Vikings went after Floyd. It may be to the detriment of another receiver on the roster, but as far as the offense is concerned it could bear a lot of fruit. This week should broadcast that loud and clear.
4) Laquon Treadwell
There’s been an argument out there about whether or not the Floyd signing is statement about the Vikings faith (Or lack thereof) in 2016 first round draft pick Laquon Treadwell. While I don’t want to seem like I’m harping on a Vikings player, as that’d be counter-intuitive, the reality is that Floyd wouldn’t be here if Treadwell was performing at the level the Vikings expected when they drafted him with their first pick last season. Sure, Treadwell is not a down the field receiver, but he is a big body guy who was supposed to be able to move the chains and help out in the red-zone. So far, we can’t really say he isn’t that guy, because he simply hasn’t gotten on the field.
I did recently learn from a friend of our site/Podcast @JReidDraftScout that Treadwell was injured for most of last season, which is partially why he didn’t get a lot of playing time despite the fact that the Vikings clearly needed help at the position. So, with OTA’s being this week it’ll be interesting to see if Treadwell looks better than he did in practices last season. I honestly can’t think of a player that has more riding this pre-season than Treadwell, as he really needs to show massive improvement and also that the Vikings didn’t in-fact bring in Floyd (Or draft/bring in five other receivers) as a concession of sorts.
I do believe that there is a spot for a player of Treadwell’s ability somewhere on the Vikings roster. The first thing I’m interested in is simply when/how the Vikings are lining him up today. Is he with the second team? First team? What about goal-line situations? Sure, it’s OTA’s so you’re not going to see a lot of the X’s and O’s that teams will use during the regular season, especially with Mike Zimmer as your head coach. But that doesn’t mean that the personnel doesn’t tell you something about who they expect to do what. With that in mind, I am hoping that Treadwell will be visible this week, with Bradford more so than Keenum.
Check back in tomorrow for Part II of this piece!