The Vikings secondary is short on experience, but that hasn't stopped the group from making plenty of plays through the first week of Verizon Vikings Training Camp.
The collection of Mike Hughes, Holton Hill, Kris Boyd, Jeff Gladney and Cameron Dantzler have all been impressive at different points throughout camp, as those players have primarily lined up with the first and second-team defenses.
Michael Rand of the Star Tribune recently wrote that although the group features just nine career starts at cornerback, the talent is there.
Rand wrote:
We label the secondary a question mark because these players lack experience, but that doesn't mean they won't succeed. They're just unproven at this level.
And those corners will have the benefit of playing with veteran safeties Harrison Smith and Anthony Harris, perhaps the best tandem in the NFL and a duo that can cover for a lot of on-the-job mistakes.
Rand added that Minnesota's cornerbacks will need to get ready to go for Week 1, as the Vikings will face a tough slate of quarterbacks during the 2020 season.
Rand used The Athletic's tiered-quarterback rankings by Mike Sando for his analysis and wrote Minnesota will face a top-two tiered quarterback on an almost weekly basis.
Rand wrote:
Sando rates five QBs in the top tier; the Vikings face four of them — Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, Deshaun Watson and Aaron Rodgers (twice) — while also going against second-tier QBs Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford (twice), Matt Ryan, Dak Prescott and Philip Rivers.
That's 11 of 16 games against some pretty good QBs (and it should be noted that Kirk Cousins is considered a third-tier QB in these rankings).
This is all on paper, and we should account for the potential for injuries, the decline of older quarterbacks and Zimmer's ability to scheme his way into favorable matchups as counterweights.
Still, the fact that the Vikings are employing a set of very raw corners against a group of very good quarterbacks this season is something to watch. How well those young corners hold up could very well determine their fate in 2020.
Zimmer is 11-10-1 in his career against the pair of NFC North quarterbacks on the list. He is 4-6-1 against Rodgers, and 6-5 against Stafford, since joining the Vikings in 2014.
Vikings 2017 win over Rams to be featured on FOX 9
Sunday evening will bring the second of four re-airings of recent Vikings game at U.S. Bank Stadium.
FOX 9 will air Vikings Preseason Primetime at 5:30 p.m. (CT), and the show will be followed at 6 p.m. (CT) by the Vikings 24-7 win against the Rams on Nov. 19, 2017.
The Week 11 matchup featured eventual playoff teams who entered the game with 7-2 records.
There were plenty of storylines entering the game — including Vikings quarterback Case Keenum facing his former team — but it was Minnesota's defense that stole the show.
The Vikings, who would end the season as the league's top unit, limited a high-powered Rams offense to just 254 total yards and an opening-drive touchdown.
Safety Anthony Harris started — and shined — as he forced and recovered a fumble at the goal line with the game tied at 7.
Latavius Murray rushed for a pair of scores on the day as the Vikings pounded the rock for 171 yards on 35 carries (4.9 yards per carry).
Keenum completed 27 of 38 passes for 280 yards and a score for a passer rating of 100.8. Four minutes after Murray scored his second touchdown, Keenum threw a short pass to Adam Thielen, and the receiver broke free for a 65-yard touchdown with 10:14 left in the game.
The Vikings moved to 8-2 with the victory, which was the sixth in an eventual eight-game win streak.
