‘It will be a good battle’ — Former Viking has great things to say about Brian Flores ahead of joint practices

There are going to be multiple former Minnesota Vikings coming back to TCO Performance Center with the New England Patriots on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon ahead of their preseason game this upcoming Saturday. Among the seven players that have been former Vikings coming back, the biggest one is center Garrett Bradbury, who was the 18th […]

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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There are going to be multiple former Minnesota Vikings coming back to TCO Performance Center with the New England Patriots on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon ahead of their preseason game this upcoming Saturday.

Among the seven players that have been former Vikings coming back, the biggest one is center Garrett Bradbury, who was the 18th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. He never quite lived up to his first round pick status, and the Vikings chose to move on from him this offseason in favor of Ryan Kelly.

Garrett Bradbury praises Brian Flores ahead of Minnesota return

It was an expected move for the Vikings to move on from Bradbury, especially after the way things ended last season against the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams. Despite all of that, he is excited to see the people he used to work with, and told ESPN’s Mike Reiss just that.

“This business is about relationships and so being there for six years — whether it’s guys in the equipment room, the weight room, operations guys, most importantly the guys in the locker room — I have a lot of friends there. It will be good to see them, and at the same time, compete and get that much closer to Week 1.”

Back in April, Bradbury spoke to the media and called the release a wake-up call, and holds no ill will toward the Vikings.

“Had six great years in Minnesota. It’s a great locker room [and] built some really good connections there. And it ended, right? That’s the business,” Bradbury said via the Boston Globe. “You never want to feel comfortable, but that’s a wake-up call. That’s, ‘All right, here we go, that’s how they feel and they move on.’

“There’s no ill will. I’m not bitter towards the Vikings. It’s just a new opportunity for me. I think when there’s a change, if you don’t take that opportunity, you’re not going to grow from it. So it’s more about, ‘All right, I get to reinvent myself, I get to re-prove myself.’ And the minute you think you have it figured out, you’re gone.”

Now that the move is behind him, Bradbury is focused on what practice may bring to the Patriots. That will come in the form of defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

“I’ve seen some offenses come in there for joint practice with not a lot of game-plan and it’s an absolute disaster [for them],” Bradbury said. “You have to game-plan.”

He’s right. Just look at what Flores’ defense has done to the offense during training camp. The first couple of weeks was an incredible showing from the Vikings’ defense, as they made McCarthy’s life miserable.

What will the Patriots have for Flores this time around? We will find that out throughout the week, but it’s obvious that Bradbury will have them ready.

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