Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has been far from thrilled about his offense’s performance in the preseason.
Conditioning came into question after Zimmer rested the first-team offense after three first-half possessions.
And with roster cuts looming on Tuesday, Zimmer and the Vikings brass have much to consider in building their 53-man roster over the weekend.
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‘Those Guys Were Sucking’
In a postgame press conference, Zimmer was asked how many roster spots he thinks are up for grabs and what Saturday’s performance meant toward making those decisions.
Zimmer couldn’t put his answer in ink with many things to consider, but he was clear about his unhappiness with the team’s conditioning, especially at wide receiver and running back.
“It’s tough to say how many because I think you’re looking at guys from other teams too. You’re trying to figure out if this guy is better than a guy we have on our team, that gets released. You try to figure out the practice squad and all of those things, making sure you have enough guys in case guys get hurt,” Zimmer said. “We basically ran out of running backs tonight. We ran out of receivers tonight. The other part is, I think we’re going to have to do some conditioning. I know it’s hot out there tonight, but those guys were sucking. We’re probably going to have to condition the rest of this week and some of next week.”
Rookie quarterback Kellen Mond led a fourth-quarter resurgence where the Vikings scored a pair of touchdowns but ultimately fell three points short. Mond may have won the backup quarterback role with his performance, however, Zimmer was disappointed in special teams contributions.
“Well, these guys played a lot of plays tonight, especially the offensive guys,” Zimmer said. “On special teams, we had a couple of injuries, so guys had to go there. We had a couple of linebackers, so we had a few there. It was hot and they’re playing every play on special teams. I know there was a couple of guys that couldn’t rise to the occasion there towards the end.”
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1st-Team Offense Fails to Score a TD in Preseason
Across six possessions and two games, Kirk Cousins and several first-team offensive players failed to score a touchdown during the preseason.
While it could cause alarm, the Vikings didn’t play their two best offensive weapons in Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook. Zimmer has taken strong consideration into how ready his players are. Jefferson has been dealing with a sprained AC joint in his shoulder but was dressed against the Chiefs.
“I think if you look at a lot of the guys that played that are probably not really ready to play yet,” Zimmer said. “I have been very cautious about playing some of our guys because of injuries. If we get the wrong guys hurt, we are going to struggle in a lot of ways.”
Despite the preseason struggles, Cousins is optimistic about the state of the offense two weeks away from the season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I feel good. We’ve got great rapport with our coaches, with the plan, we really like the plan,” Cousins said. “We feel good about our unit. I’m excited about our guys and now that we’re getting close to the real thing, we really have to be ready to go, get our guys healthy and start fast.”
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