3. Which under-the-radar players could emerge?<\/p>\n
For starters, let’s highlight Rodgers.<\/p>\n
A Super Bowl champion with Philadelphia, the 2020 sixth-round draft pick of the Colts played his way onto Flores’ radar years ago, and yet his spring signing with the Vikings didn’t result in that much hype.<\/p>\n
Rodgers was a spot starter for the Eagles and technically their No. 4 cornerback in 2024, behind rookie phenoms Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean and six-time Pro Bowl honoree Darius Slay.<\/p>\n
Now, with a Lombardi under his belt, plus a change of scenery and chance to lead, Rodgers is one to watch. He’s fast with a sturdy frame and has good instincts in coverage and intriguing kick-return chops.<\/p>\n
In addition to Rodgers, Blackmon and Okudah will attempt to rewrite their career arcs. Blackmon made three starts as a rookie in 2023 and was in position to compete for more opportunities in 2024 before going down on the opening day of camp. The third-round selection was effusively praised by Flores and teammates for his rehabilitation focus and now can positively spin his story with a convincing preseason.<\/p>\n
Okudah is only about a month older than Blackmon but has three times the NFL experience, starting 31 of 44 games for Detroit, Atlanta and Houston. The No. 3 overall pick by the Lions in 2020 enjoyed his top season, statistically, in 2022 when he compiled 73 tackles, seven PBUs, one pick and one forced fumble.<\/p>\n
One very under-the-radar name to be aware of is Vaughn, who went undrafted out of Utah after walking-on and converting to cornerback there. A high school quarterback, with an 80-inch wingspan, Vaughn was commonly around the ball in OTAs and minicamp. You can read more about him here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3. Which under-the-radar players could emerge? For starters, let’s highlight Rodgers. A Super Bowl champion with Philadelphia, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2073],"tags":[29414,7,21433,9714,8782,7103,15626,233,259,2529,1025,1219,31439,6,23207,234],"class_list":{"0":"post-218950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-vikings","8":"tag-dwight-mcglothern","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-harrison-smith","11":"tag-isaiah-rodgers","12":"tag-jeff-okudah","13":"tag-josh-metellus","14":"tag-mekhi-blackmon","15":"tag-minnesota","16":"tag-minnesota-vikings","17":"tag-minnesotavikings","18":"tag-news-index","19":"tag-news-team","20":"tag-news-training-camp","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-theo-jackson","23":"tag-vikings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114878852902374230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}