Minnesota Vikings News Dump (8.5.2025) | Night Practice! McCarthy Preseason Return! Bad Hat!

Minnesota Vikings News Dump (8.5.2025) | Night Practice! McCarthy Preseason Return! Bad Hat!

What’s going on, Jerome? Beautiful Tuesday. Birds are chirping stuff and it’s time for another Vikings news dump. So, last night uh night man fighter of the night practice. Yeah, looked good. Uh descending upon TCO Stadium and again Vikings fans loud and proud. A beautiful gorgeous evening uh last night in Egan southeast metro all that stuff. Plus PA Burch Bersuch, who I’m pretty sure is my neighbor. Want my weed whacker back, man. Uh, and also Ben Liieber, the pride of Kansas State. Go Wildcats. Uh, the the amounts of back we are has not been discovered by scientists yet. It’s like cold fusion. We are so back. We’re so back, baby. It’s good times. Uh, but before practice, Kevin McConnell fed the local media jackals. Uh, said some stuff and things and stuff. Gestling injury updates from Kevin McConnell. TJ Hawinson hip. Ryan Kelly elbow. Well, he described as hip, back, leg sort of thing, but also groin. Uh, I don’t know. It’s It’s like one of those hockey injury reports. Lower body. Great. Uh, Ryan Kelly elbow. Um, yeah. Yeah. And also Josh Mattel’s ankle won’t practice on Monday night. They’re dealing with some bumps and bruises. Perfectly fine. Harrison Smith, Jonathan Allen get a vet day. Fine. uh as Javon Hargrave and Darasaw uh did on Saturday. Carry on my Chard son will return and I did not know that he was dinged up. So uh good to see that there. Uh hopefully the Hawinson thing isn’t that big of a deal. He also did mention specifically uh Kevin Seafford ESPN who’s knock Carl Gerishment who’s not Vikings tight end uh TJ Hoginson leg hip back my leg my hip my back won’t practice in tonight’s practice but Kevin McConnell said the signing of veteran Nick Vanet uh Bunnet the from the Ohio State uh was more to cover up for the continued absence of rookie titan Gab Bartholomew back remains on pup and that’s what we you theorized yesterday when uh the the van signing was official. And I mean, you basically you need some warm bodies to fill out uh these rest of training camp because basically need five tight ends to run three full offenses as well as special teams. So, does make sense there. Uh and with Hawinson, like we said, if they’re really concerned about Hawinson, I think they would have got more of a pass catching tight end versus a Vanet who’s like a poor man’s Josh Oliver blocking tight end all the way, but very valuable too. Uh, also talk about the camp fight. I love this stuff, man. Uh, Alec Clusy athletic Kevin McConnell on the scuffles from Saturday when asked by Jud Zulgad. Guys, just just guys being dudes. Guys are going to react. I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say. Part of me enjoyed seeing our team pushed to that level. So, you know, Okonnell, you know, bans fighting in training camp, but again, I feel I feel like that’s something where especially this time of training camp. You know, the days are long. It’s kind of hot out. Although, it’s been kind of nice the last couple days, except for the freaking Canada wildfire smoke. Uh, but I mean, you get tired, you get testy, you’re sick and tired of hitting each other. Can’t wait till join practice so you can hit someone else. Uh, and guys, get testy. It’s perfectly fine. So, the Asuma fight, the Tyler Patty and JJ McCarthy fight. I I love that both of them are just because of uh Aaron Jones is such a respected member of the team, man. Yeah. Uh but I think he’s right about that. Also, Connell elaborated on what JJ McCarthy’s going to look like in preseason and or joint practices. Gastling strip. Kevin McConnell said JJ McCarthy will play in the Vikings preseason opener on Saturday. That’s been the expected plan for our young quarterback as the Vikings uh get him his first game game action since last year’s opener. Exactly how much McCarthy will play is still TBD. So against the Texans, you’re you’re not sending him out there without the first team offensive line or as much of it as possible. I mean, you’re not going to play Darasaw, but it’d be nice to get everyone else out there. Texans probably aren’t going to be playing a lot of their starters on defense like Denil, Will Anderson probably won’t be out there. Stingley. Uh so this might be a good tuneup for him. You know, get a couple drives in, get some chemistry going. I I would play Addison uh a a little bit in preseason since he’s going to have that suspension. Um and then let the guys run, let the guys roll, you know, get some more uh good tape out there for McCarthy, you know, get some good reps in, stack up good days. And uh if that’s I’m so sick of just watching the all the Raiders highlights. No, I’m not. Just playing, man. Uh Okonnell said the Vikings will uh will more than likely use the joint practices with the Patriots as our real days, meaning JJ McCarthy is unlikely to play in the second preseason game. Perfectly fine. Perfectly fine with that. The Titans game will depend if Okonnell feels McCarthy needs a little more work. But like we said, you’re not tossing him out there unless you’re playing most of the first team offensive line. You’re not going to put him behind backups. you know, whether the defenses are playing starters or backups or or whatever. Uh so, I think it’s more, you know, he’ll probably get a half or at least a couple drives, maybe a half against the Texans. Uh and then we’ll get uh the real work done against the Patriots in the joint practices. Uh sit the Patriots game and then yeah, probably sit the Titans game as well. He’ll be on the sideline. He’ll he’ll do some interviews with Ben Liieber. He’ll have the backwards hat on, be full of great Nashville barbecue, and it’ll be glorious. and he’ll say some great and stoic things. Uh he’s way more mature than I will ever be. I kind of like that. I kind of like that. Then of course the night practice itself. So we covered most of this last night, but you know JJ McCarthy making his night practice debut because remember last year that they had to move the the day of the night practice till after the first preseason game. JJ had the knee and blah blah d right. Uh so uh he’s beloved by fans. I love it. It’s fantastic. It’s good times. Also, you know, JJ McCarthy and Delights 111 plus doesn’t get talked about enough. So, he’s doing this against the Flores defense without Jefferson, now without Hawinson. Uh Ryan Kelly had the night off as well as Darasaw was you can see him in the background just standing where he he’s participating in 11 on 11s, but not every single rep, which is perfectly fine. Uh so, it’s more than holding his own, which is good. Plus, we get to have these two together. 10, 12, 15, 20 years. A dozen Robarties in the next 10 years. A baker’s dozen in the next 11 years. I don’t know. But also, I don’t know, 24 and 20. Why not? Why not, man? Our notes from last night, too. Uh, basically, the offense McCarthy and Addison is pretty damn good to go. Uh the quarterback was being moved off the spot all night by the defense. Doesn’t matter. First team, second team, third team. It was good to go. Uh we may need to be looking for a new quarterback, too. Could it be Max Bromer one time? Uh Jaylen Redmond was out there. Javon Hargrave was just Harrave I feel like is going to be a fantastic pickup for the Vikings. He’s going to be really good. Uh Carry on my Jayward son was uh in place at starting safety. Uh and Mattel had the night off. Well, Reichard was finally perfect. Completely redeemed himself. He’s going to be good to go. Also, Lucky Jackson rising up. I feel like there’s so many amazing stories uh in this training camp and so many like this would be the year if the Vikings ever did hard knocks because they could go so many ways and go with Nudy and go with Lucky Jackson. Uh go you go with Jeff Akuda the resurrection all that stuff. It’s really good. All right. And then Kevin Oonnell wrap things up. He’s wearing the new sideline hat which we’ll talk about later. I I don’t like Also, it’s 50 bucks. 50 bucks for hat model. I don’t know if he could pull it off. Yeah. But he thanked the fans again. I feel like he’s an emotional EQ genius. I really think so. All right. Like Mozart did music. Monae did painting. Also, do you have STD? I don’t know. I’m I’m going to get uh I’m going to get liel charges from Monaet’s Foundation or something. And also uh so PA announcer came out was like uh we need to make the air quality in Egan even worse. Like in fairness last couple days like it’s receded the wildfires from Canada’s like all right so we’re going to launch fireworks and also we need everyone in the stadium man woman and child of all ages to light up a pack of lucky strikes or camel unfiltered or marbor red 100s hard box or something like that I don’t know just hazy no did did we come up actually no we didn’t come up with But someone came up with last year, someone much smarter than us came up with purple hazes for the defense. In fact, that should catch on. Also, DraftKings put out this NFL tier list of quarterbacks, which I feel like this is just pure rage bait and engagement bait. Although, the fact that they put McCarthy in the C tier along with Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, whatever. Stafford, sure. Trevor Lawrence, no. Uh, but also ahead of Caleb Williams, ahead of Jaden Daniels, ahead of Bo Nicks. I mean, this is pure just Lamar ahead of Lamar Jackson. I mean, this is just pure rage, right? And now, obviously, we fell for the bait because we’re talking about it, but honestly, where would you put JJ McCarthy? All right, we always say, “All right, for one season, who you got?” So, I will take Burrow. I will take Mahomes. I will take Lamar. I will take Josh Allen. Not taking pretty. I’ll take Baker, actually. Straoud. Yeah, I’ll take Straoud. Even last year was a disaster. Dak, no. Goof, no. Uh, Herbert, nah. Uh, Jordan Love, absolutely not. Stafford for one year, yes. I’ll take Stafford. Trevor Lawrence, no. Kyler, he’s my countryman, but no. Jane Daniels, yes. Darnold, been there. Uh, Bonx, no. Penn mightier, no. Caleb, no. Gino, nah. Uh, Tua, no. Herz, depends. Do we get Do we get the Philly offensive line? If not, no. Rogers, absolutely not. Bryce, all five foot four of them, no. Uh, Drake May, no. Russ, no. Uh, Cam Ward, even though he’s older than JJ McCarthy, no. Uh, Fields, no. Rattler, absolutely. Or or Shuck or her? No. Flacco and Anthony Richardson said, no. And Daniel Jones, no. So, what was that like six d six dudes? I didn’t count. But basically, again, I I love that it’s DraftKings putting this out. This is not some fly by night website. This is like legitimately DraftKings, which is just funny to me. Lastly, so I got problems, right? So, the the NFL revealed their their sideline cap for the 2025 season, and I know that hats have sort of gone, especially golf hats, you know, the the panels, the the lighter materials, you know, the venting and all that stuff, but I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I I I I respect that they’re trying something different, but this just looks like like a stupid bicyclist hat. Maybe it’s just the angle. Maybe it actually looks cool in real life, but I I’m not buying this. No. Like the the the small logo and and the text and you know, just the way the hat’s laid out. Nah. Nah. Nah. And I know. Watch. It’ll probably be the coolest hat ever. Kevin McConnell will make it look cool because he’s hat model, but nah, not buying it for now. Anyways, that’s it. That’s at Tuesday Vikings News Dump. You guys are the best to do. Skull production value.

Minnesota Vikings News Dump for Tuesday, August 5th.

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