Minnesota Vikings: Best Moments of OTAs and Minicamp

The Minnesota Vikings wrapped up their final week of mandatory mini camp today, concluding a three-week period of offseason activities leading into training camp.

The team will traveling down to Mankato, Minnesota on July 28th for check-ins, then finally suiting up in pads July 29th. There will be a very rare joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals on August 10th and 11th before they play each other in a Friday preseason game August 12th.

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Many positional battles will be had, with the possibility of more than a few quality players not making this suddenly deep Minnesota Vikings team.

Before the masses of purple and gold have to worry themselves about what transactions may come in a month, there where quite a few memorable moments had during the shorts and helmets portion to kick off the summer.

A personal favorite of mine was one of the more recent events to close out mini camp. A Minnesota Vikings crew led by tight end, Kyle Rudolph, pulled a fast one on rookie first rounder, Laquon Treadwell. A birthday gift? Partially. Maybe payback for poor parking etiquette? Sounds about right. Happy birthday rookie.

The fun and games didn’t stop there as many more of the offensive group got in on the action.

One of the more intriguing storylines from the Minnesota Vikings has become the immediate rise of Cordarrelle Patterson (courtesy of Matt Vensel of the Star Tribune), finally showing glimpses of what could be if “Flash” keeps his focus an continues to grind like a professional should.

What else has become instantaneously well liked by many is his epic “Rock, Paper, Scissors” exchanges with quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

Those two would know the won or loss results better than any of us onlookers would, the reactions themselves do enough justice to humor us football snobs. Take a look if you haven’t seen the battles yet, this was the final square-off before the players called it a minicamp.

Interested to see if that may become a new in-house celebration from the Minnesota Vikings offense when hitting pay dirt, or it may just stay a Patterson/Bridgewater thing even though we saw Stefon Diggs get in on the action early in the video.

Even though the player himself may becoming less spry as the seasons continue to add up, hearing from the ten-year Minnesota Vikings left defensive end never gets old.

Coming straight from a bass fishing boat in Texasm straight to training camp in Mankato will be none other than the ever hilarious, Brian Robison. Between he and Everson Griffen, does the defense really need anymore talkers among them?

Robison came up big for the Minnesota Vikings in the final five games of last season, recording four of his five sacks on the year in those games with a forced fumble.

Danielle Hunter may closing the distance on his starting position, but the wily vet out of the Longhorn State will continue to find ways to make impactful plays, and humor us as the season moves along.

Staying on the defensive side of the ball, the Minnesota Vikings opted on rewarding one of their key pieces to the team in Harrison Smith.

This signing was vital for the front office of the Vikings to get done; Smith is just as irreplaceable than any other player on this team, arguably could be even more important than a former MVP, Adrian Peterson.

Harrison “The Hitman” Smith sets the tone on the back-end for this defense, while also being the Vikings prolific play maker on the defensive side of the ball.

To close; fans, players, coaches, and even the owners are anxious for the opening of the new U.S. Bank Stadium on top of old site of the Metrodome.

The grand opening for this masterpiece will take place on July 23rd and 24th, with tours being held for those who purchase tickets.

The Vikings will get their first crack at the Green Bay Packers the second week of the regular season to open up their new home field, live on Sunday Night Football broadcasted on NBC.

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No more bone chilling playoff games in January for the Minnesota Vikings, whether or not that will be beneficial is yet to be decided. Just as long as the team is alive during that time, they’ll take it either way.