On Thursday, he Minnesota Vikings return to Mankato State University for training camp for the 51st time. There's a lot of optimism in Minnesota these days. A beautiful new stadium, a fantastic head coach, and a young talented football team are pretty much the reasons for that optimism. Many positions are set on the team. Teddy Bridgewater and Adrian Peterson will be in the offensive backfield. Everson Griffen will be rushing the passer. Anthony Barr will be doing quite a bit of everything. Harrison Smith will be everywhere. There will still be enough position competition to spice up every practice and preseason game until the Vikings travel to Tennessee on September 11. Some of the positions may have as many as five contenders for the job. Here's a look at some of those competitions on the offensive side of the ball.
Offensive line
The contenders:
Just about everyone
The Vikings offensive line was a mess in 2015. It wasn't so hot in 2014 either. The line has to play better if the optimism for 2016 is to become something real. Tony Sparano was brought in to coach the line. Guard Alex Boone and tackle Andre Smith were added in free agency. Center John Sullivan returns healthy after missing the entire 2015 season to back issues. Willie Beavers was added in the draft. Head coach Mike Zimmer said this offseason that the offensive line was missing a voice, an attitude, a little bit of the nasty that every line needs to be effective in the NFL. Bringing in Sparano will change that. Adding Boone will change that. Competition for nearly every spot on the offensive line will change that. There are 15 offensive linemen on the roster. Six of those players have started at least 50 NFL games. Eight have at least one full season of NFL starting experience. Ten have at least one start. Those players expect to start but only five of them will. Vikings beat writer Matt Vensel, of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, even went so far as to consider Matt Kalil, Alex Boone, Joe Berger, and T.J. Clemmings as the only locks to make the team. I'd throw in rookie Willie Beavers. But, that's just me. On the surface Vensel's prediction seems absurd but he's probably more right than wrong. The line will be shaken up this training camp and the cuts could be surprising.
Left tackle
This job is Matt Kalil's to lose. He was the fourth pick of the 2012 NFL Draft but he hasn't played to that level since his rookie season. His second and third seasons weren't so good. His fourth was an improvement. His fifth must be much better or he won't be in Minnesota in 2017. He has the natural talent to be great. The sort of natural talent that gets a player drafted fourth overall. The hope here is that the training camp competition, the addition of Sparano coaching him, and Boone playing next to him will bring out the best in Kalil. Bring out some of that nasty in him. T.J. Clemmings started all 16 games at right tackle last year. He's been moved to the left side and will compete with Kalil.
Left guard
This is the one spot on the line that can be written in ink. This spot belongs to Alex Boone. His energy, his intensity, his personality is such a boon to this position group.
Center
John Sullivan had been the Vikings starting center since 2009 until a back issues wiped out his 2015 season. Joe Berger started and played well in his place last season. The center competition probably comes down to Sullivan vs. Berger but youngsters Nick Easton and Zac Kerin should be in the mix. It really isn't fair but one thing working against Berger is his versatility. He can play, and play really well, all three interior line positions. He may be more valuable to the team as a backup to those three positions than a starter at one of them. Especially with the limited roster space available on game day.
Right guard
Brandon Fusco was moved to left guard last year after playing really well at right guard for a few seasons. He struggled on the left side. Those struggles and Boone's presence put him back on the right side. He will compete with Mike Harris in training camp. Harris, a converted right tackle, was a nice surprise at right guard last season. Rookie Willie Beavers was drafted as a tackle, is listed as a tackle, and his future might be as a tackle but I have a feeling that he could be part of the right guard competition this summer.
Right tackle
The right tackle competition changed before it got started when Phil Loadholt retired on Monday. He had been the Vikings starting right tackle since he was selected in the second round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He rarely missed a game in his first five seasons. The last two have been a whole other story. A torn pectoral muscle wiped out the last quarter of the 2014 season. A torn achilles tendon wiped out his entire 2015 season. That's a tough injury for a big man to overcome. Loadholt suffered some sort of setback since mini-camp and decided that the injuries have just become too much to overcome. He'll be missed. On the field and off. Andre Smith was added in free agency to compete with Loadholt. Now the right tackle job is his to lose. Smith had been a solid starter for the Cincinnati Bengals since he was selected with the sixth pick of the 2009 NFL Draft. Competition for the Vikings job could come from youngsters Austin Shepherd, Carter Bykowski, Jeremiah Sirles, and possibly the rookie Beavers. If he's not at guard.
Receiver
The competition at receiver is more about the order of the depth chart than who makes the team. Unless something stunning happens in Mankato the six receivers on the Vikings 2016 roster should like this.
Stefon Diggs
Laquon Treadwell
Jarius Wright
Charles Johnson
Cordarrelle Patterson
Adam Thielen
Stefon Diggs is probably the one sure starter. Charles Johnson enters training camp as the other starter. Laquon Treadwell was the Vikings first round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He has the talent to be a star. Jarius Wright has made the slot position his own but can play outside the numbers as well. He's a solid, underrated football player that just makes plays. Often of the big, move-the-chains variety. With only four years in the league, Wright is also the veteran leader of a very young group. A very young group that is versatile and talented. Cordarrelle Patterson is the wildcard of the group. It would be wrong to call Patterson a bust. He's the most explosive kick returner in the league. The Vikings selected him in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft to be more than a kick returner. He's such an electric player with the ball in his hands and so physically gifted that he has to be more than just a kick returner. He's done basically nothing on offense the last two years. As with Kalil at left tackle, 2016 could be Patterson's last shot at showing the Vikings that he can be a cornerstone player in Minnesota. Patterson's biggest problem seems to be that football has always come so easy for him. He's never had to work at the nuances of the receiver position. He's finally done that this offseason. He's done it on his own and he's joined his fellow receivers in "passing camps" with quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. If the OTAs and mini-camps are any indication, Patterson may finally become the receiver that the Vikings drafted him to be. Adam Thielen is a special teams dynamo. A fixture and play-maker on each of the units. He also makes strong contributions on offense. Moritz Boehringer was drafted in the sixth round out of Germany. He's new to the game and so raw as a player but he's 6'4", 230 lbs and runs a 4.4 40. You can't teach that. There was a time not long after the draft that I thought that the Vikings had to keep him on the roster because they couldn't risk losing him by putting him on the practice squad. I'm not so sure that's the case anymore. Unless he makes incredible progress during training camp he's just too raw right now to keep on the 53-man roster. If he can make that leap then things might really heat up for the receivers in Mankato.
Tomorrow: The defensive training camp competitions.
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