Vikings Joint Practice Vs. Ravens Recap: Brian Flores’ defense dominates, while Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy struggle to find footing
The first joint practice between the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens is in the books and dominated by Brian Flores’ defense.
The Minnesota Vikings are wrapping up training camp with joint practices with the Baltimore Ravens.
Over the next few days, the Vikings will have two practices and a preseason game on Saturday afternoon. Those performances will have a major impact on who will make the 53-man roster.
What ended up happening at practice? I was there live and these were the main takeaways.
Dallas Turner is everywhere
One of the biggest questions surrounding the Vikings going into the season was at edge rusher. Trading Jonathan Greenard created a big hole at EDGE3. Dallas Turner is set to elevate to the starting role, and continues to prove how ready he is.
Joint practices are a good litmus test for Turner, and he passed it with flying colors. He blew up a run play in the early portion of team drills and got a sack paired with Levi Drake Rodriguez shortly thereafter. He’s explosive and holding up well at the point of attack, proving that he’s the guy they drafted him to be.
On two-minute drills, Turner continued to get massive pressure on Lamar Jackson. He’s primed to be a monster.
Quarterbacks struggle, but it’s not a big deal
One of the interesting elements about joint practices is seeing a team you haven’t dealt with for the last three weeks. It creates a better avenue for growth and exposes you to new players and different techniques.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go well collectively for the quarterbacks. It was hard to see collectively what the offense was doing from a distance, but multiple interceptions were thrown by both Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy. First day is often an adjustment period, meaning Thursday’s practice will be a more informative showing.
The best throw of the day came from Murray, who hit Justin Jefferson on a deep corner route toward the end of practice on situational team drills.
Elijah Williams rises up
One of the best stories from last year’s training camp was defensive lineman Elijah Williams. After earning a contract at rookie minicamp, he was the star of training camp and earned a spot on the 53-man roster.
This year, he’s gotten mostly second and third-team reps, but has looked good in the process. He had a three play sequence with the second team on Wednesday that stood out:
- Tackle for loss
- Dropped into coverage
- Tackle for loss
Williams even got some reps with the first-team defense and was solid in those, including driving the offensive lineman backward a few yards.
Other notes
- Linebacker Jake Golday mixed it up with the first-team and cornerback Da’Veawn Armstead with the 2s in 7-on -7 drills.
- Linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. continues to look more comfortable in coverage and working in space.
- Safety Jay Ward had a nice interception in two-minute drills, and safety Jacob Thomas nearly followed up on the next play with one of his own.
- Wide receiver Myles Price continues his success. He caught a couple touchdowns on the day, including a deep post from McCarthy in the two minute drill.
