Arizona - 18, Minnesota - 17
KEVIN O'CONNELL: We did want to come out today, and there was a lot of guys fighting, whether it's to make our 53-man roster or possible practice squad consideration. Today was a lot of guys playing a lot of snaps that, quite honestly, I just have so much respect for the grit and kind of the effort that we played with today.
Would have loved to win the football game today. Got off to a really good start there, started making some substitutions and just didn't have the cleanest execution late in the game to try to go win that thing.
Had one shot at a field goal. I would have liked to give G one more, but just couldn't manufacture a lot there on that last drive, backed up.
Wanted to give you guys an update. Thayer Thomas did go into the concussion protocol on that punt return, kind of a secondary thing after the muffed catch. He just took a helmet-to-helmet.
There were a couple guys, three or four guys today that we hoped to try to get in the football game but just couldn't quite get there from an injury standpoint. That would be Joejuan Williams, Esezi, NaJee, and Beauplan were the four guys really right up against it and just wanted to be smart with them, knowing that as much as we would have loved to see them out there, wanted to make sure we were taking care of those guys from a health standpoint, not asking them to do too much, being banged up like they were. All of them tried like crazy to make it.
Now we've transitioned to really the toughest part of this job is really the next 72 hours or so for me, not only from personal experience and being on the other end of those conversations, but just the way training camp's gone. From the work against each other to the joint practices, a lot of guys have really laid it on the line and done everything they could to become Minnesota Vikings.
We've got a really competitive roster. Feel really good about our depth, and a lot of young guys that have shown well in different areas will give us a lot to think about.
We'll start that process here tomorrow with the coaching staff and personnel, and then as we roll through the early part of the week getting down to the 53-man roster and trying to get our 16-man practice squad set.
Q. What did you learn about Jaren Hall?
A. The plan was to try to get Jordan at least some series at the end there, but I just thought there was situationally such good work there that he could get.
Across the board, I thought he came out, started really sharp with that first group and that first drive. Got some runs off and some keepers, different things to get him in a rhythm. Then we get the sudden change touchdown where he throws it to Abram.
I thought the start of the football game was really indicative of where his preparation was. And then it's going to get hard any time you start the substitution processes, guys that have been there or haven't been with certain combinations up front or skill guys, whatever it is.
Things that stuck out to me, his athletic ability really and how he applied it. There's been some times in the first couple preseason games where I thought he got through a progression -- the pocket's collapsing, you can go steal us a first down or two, and he did that today. Thought he could have even on that last fourth down play, maybe just taken off and gotten us a first down. Then who knows where we go from there?
So it's just finding out, so many guys you have to coach that out of them, but he's a guy that we don't want to coach that out of him, but it's all about the application of that as part of his skill set. Because I thought he threw the ball really well today, efficient in and out of the huddle with the operation, all the way really down to the end of the game.
Might not show up stat sheet-wise, but I thought it was a real positive day for Jaren. Would have loved, like I said, for him to lead us to another field goal to try to win the football game.
Q. Is he a guy you want to keep around ideally and continue to develop?
A. Yeah, I definitely would like to keep him around. I think my philosophy, when you're going to draft a quarterback, I think you pour into him on a daily basis. Development is a huge word, but I love the fact that we got him as many reps as we did this camp, not only just in the preseason games, but Chris and Grant did a good job working him in when they could even with the second offense throughout the early part of camp.
We did a lot of developmental periods, threes-on-threes throughout the training camp. I feel like Jaren has a really, really good understanding of our offense, where he can grow, where his comfort level can grow, and hopefully hit the ground running the next opportunity that he gets.
Q. You mentioned the situational, two-minute at the end of the first half, trailing at the end of the game. How important are those situations to put him in regardless of how it turns out?
A. Really when you think about those down the line guys, the hardest thing to do is get them the situational work. You could really try to manufacture it in practice, but that's normally for your ones and twos, especially how we handle the preseason game.
That's one of the reasons why Jordan, I felt like Jordan came in and has done a really good job and wanted to get him on the field to at least get him some work, but those opportunities are so few and far between for Jaren and really a lot of the guys in that huddle that I just wanted to make sure, A, we weren't asking too much of Jaren with some of the no huddle aspects of that -- sorry, of Jordan. B, it was a great, great time to really have some teachable moments for Jordan -- Jaren moving forward. I'll figure it out. You guys know who's who.
Q. How much have you seen Jay Ward progress over the course of camp?
A. Yeah, I think what shows up, every time we play these games, is kind of a culmination of what we've seen on the practice field. I think we've got one of the better safety rooms in the National Football League, and that's our starters. That's these guys that have really made up the versatility for Flo to be able to play three, four safeties in a grouping.
We've got Lewis, we've got Metellus to go along behind him and Harry. Now Theo Jackson and Jay Ward, probably if you were ranking training camps that guys have had, those two guys would be on the top tier of those rankings just because of the production because, when you're building things for two or three safeties in the first group, you end up doing the same for the second group, and those guys have capitalized on that.
Really happy with where Jay's at. His physicality, his ability to go see it and go pull the trigger and make a play. Shoot, he almost came out of the post to pick a ball off. If it wouldn't have been high, he probably would have taken that one back the other way. He's been making plays like that, showing instincts. And the best thing has been some of the physicality we've seen from him not only on defense, but on teams.
Really happy with that whole safety group. We've got six of them. We're going to have some really, really hard conversations that may or may not involve keeping all six of them because that's how strong we think that room is.
Q. Kevin, just from a big picture standpoint now that preseason is over, how do you feel about the group you're going to start the season with? I know you have to make roster cuts, but what you saw from them even if they didn't get a whole lot of time in the game?
A. That's where the joint practices are so critical. To get all four in, it kind of has become a thing around the league to either cancel the second day or maybe cancel the whole week of them based upon circumstances that other teams view that that's best for them. Those are so critical for us. We have such an unbelievable facility to host another team here.
I feel like the first groups on both sides, offense and defense, they could not be more prepared based upon our philosophy of getting guys ready. Got a little help from that 97 degrees last Wednesday just to truly force some of our guys to dig deep and work through that. It was a grind of a day. It was probably the most reps they've had all training camp, and it happened to be the hottest day of training camp. Secretly, I was enjoying that quite a bit.
Then we came back and had one of our better days overall on Thursday in the joint work, which I thought was really big for our team. Both weeks I felt like different challenges, different types of groups on the other side, but I felt our team grow. Whether it was that Friday walk-through after the joint practices -- and you can just feel it in the huddle when you call the team up and talk to them.
And then talking to a lot of our veteran guys, they feel really happy about where they're at, and they know exactly what it looks like the next 15 days or so before we're back here trying to win our home opener.
Q. What are your thoughts on like Sheldon, Ross, backup defense and your decisions you have to make there?
A. Yeah, it's going to be tough because, if we carry some extra numbers in some different spots, we can be really versatile with our front and our back end to play more guys in certain positions, different groupings. So we're going to have to be razor sharp in our evals of where those guys are and what they've done.
Those two names, Sheldon and Ross, both kind of showed up today at different points -- run game, pass game. The outside backer discussion is going to be very, very interesting just because of our guys. The personnel department did a great job of bringing in Luiji last year, we drafted Esezi, who I would have loved to see get a chance to play today. Then you've got Andre, you've got Benton, so your legitimate guys we want to try to find a way to still keep coaching and then watch them ascend and grow and develop.
So we've got some real, real tough decisions really on that front defensively, but the versatility of our scheme allows us to maybe try to keep the best possible 53 guys we can and 16 guys on the practice squad that may get called up week in and week out. That's one of the things that you like about that versatile scheme is you can really fit it to your best 53.
Q. How about Jake Gervase coming in?
A. When we were in a pinch there and knew more than likely we didn't want to -- Lewis is working his way back. I expect Lewis to be in a good spot here moving forward. You get within 48 hours of the game, and you've had a month long training camp and you're still adding somebody that's going to play darn near the whole game, there's a select few. Jake is definitely one of those guys.
Having experience from him in the past in L.A., came out and really learned every single call. Didn't get a ton of full speed work in Thursday's practice, and then he's out there playing a whole game. Give him a ton of credit, but that's who Jake Gervase is. Glad he was willing to come be a part of it, and I know he had a blast out there today.
Q. Was it hard to keep Brian Flores' defense -- for him to be vanilla all preseason and in this game?
A. It's one of those things where I find myself calling for things now, and the response even today was are you sure you want to show that? I did want to win the football game today, so there was maybe a little bit more in there on some of those situational downs.
As everybody knows to every single one of those calls, there's an equal counter punch to those calls. So I don't really mind showing some things. I do think our opponents probably had some things left to their imagination, which is a good thing. But it's one of those things where probably he's more patient than I am knowing certain situations in the game.
Wes was calling it today, so that allowed me to float around the headsets. I'm sure everybody's probably ready for me to get back to calling plays so I stay out of everybody's business.
Q. Did Wes call the entire game?
A. He did.
Q. And then defensively?
A. I believe it was Daronte Jones and Mike Siravo.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports