Vikings training camp preview: How do Brian Flores’ defense, skill players look?

Vikings & Packers sit atop Emmanuel Acho & James Jones’ NFC North team rankings Is it ‘Super Bowl or Bust’ for Vikings QB Kirk Cousins?

Carmen Vitali

NFC North Reporter

The Minnesota Vikings are among the most perplexing teams in the league.

Their offseason moves and insistence upon a “competitive rebuild,” as general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah put it, don’t provide any clarity, either.

The Vikings won the NFC North last year behind a 13-4 record that shocked the NFL world. Many felt they were undeserving, and with a first-round exit in the playoffs to a New York Giants team they had beaten in the regular season, those doubters felt somewhat vindicated.

But the Vikings have addressed their defensive struggles in a major way while also parting ways with cornerstones on both sides of the ball. Will training camp give us a clue as to what we can expect this season in Minneapolis?

Here are the most pressing question marks as training camp gets underway this week.

How will the Vikings defense look under DC Brian Flores?

There’s no way around it: the Vikings’ defense last year was anemic. They ranked in the bottom five in most major defensive categories and let up the second-most yards per game with 388.7. The bulk of those yards were through the air, with a 31st-ranked passing defense on a per-game basis. They ranked 30th with a 7.32 passing yards per play average. They middled in third down situations, ranking 12th with a 38.14% conversion rate and had a 2.43% interception rate, which was good for 14th in the league. Though not quantifiable, those turnovers often came at opportune times, allowing the offense an extra possession to pull out their 11 one-score wins.

But the pass rush needs work — and Minnesota has already lost Za’Darius Smith, with Danielle Hunter’s status also in question.

Vikings & Packers sit atop Emmanuel Acho & James Jones’ NFC North team rankings

But that shouldn’t matter for new defensive coordinator Brian Flores. He doesn’t need sack artists to create a viable pass rush. While Ed Donatell seemed stagnant in his scheme, Flores brings the complete opposite to the table. His system thrives on creativity and confusion, presenting multiple fronts and math problems for offenses to figure out. You just never know who’s coming on the blitz with a Flores scheme — and that’s why it works.

When he was with the Miami Dolphins, he took them from dead last in sacks in his first season to a top-five unit two seasons later — all without ever having a single player reach 10 sacks or more. Each season would see between 13-15 players register sacks, a good portion of them not on the defensive line.

That’s key to curing Minnesota’s pass-rush woes.

But overhauling a system to this degree won’t be without its hiccups. Players will have to understand the scheme before they can execute it, which isn’t to be taken lightly in a system with so many moving parts. Especially when players need to understand not only their job, but the jobs of those around them in order for it to work.

“I think [there are] some guys who learn conceptually,” Flores said in his first presser of camp this week. “There’s things conceptually that you can see versus someone who’s memorizing it. And in that instance, yeah, he can handle his job, but he doesn’t know what else is going in some other spots which those players play, too. It’s about putting a group together and that’s what training camp is about.”

Things might look worse before they look better in camp, but if Flores can install his system, at least in its most basic iteration in one offseason, the Vikings should look drastically different on defense come Week 1.

Will the Vikings offense take a step back or be as potent as ever?

The Vikings retained the core of their offense and are coming off a season when that core (read: Justin Jefferson) has the trust of his quarterback more than ever before. There were multiple instances in which quarterback Kirk Cousins saw double coverage on Jefferson but threw him the ball, anyway. And in most cases, Jefferson rewarded him.

Jefferson finished with the most targets (184), most receptions (128) and most receiving yards (1,809) in the league, winning him Offensive Player of the Year in the process. Minnesota did benefit from having a reliable No. 2 in Adam Thielen, who was able to take just enough attention off Jefferson while making clutch plays of his own.

Is it ‘Super Bowl or Bust’ for Vikings QB Kirk Cousins?

The trade for tight end T.J. Hockenson also proved fruitful, with Cousins’ passing stats trending up afterward. It manifested most in how willing Cousins was to push the ball down the field. His air yards per attempt went into double digits in multiple games after Hockenson arrived, whereas before Cousins didn’t have a single game with a double-digit average. In 10 games for the Vikings, Hockenson caught 60 passes on 86 targets and recorded 519 receiving yards with three touchdowns.

Hockenson is back. Jefferson is back. Thielen departed in free agency but the team took wide receiver Jordan Addison out of USC with their first-round pick. Addison won’t have the burden of being a number one receiver, which should allow the Vikings to utilize him in his exact right role — and allow Addison to play the part of Thielen, taking attention off Jefferson while proving himself to be a reliable target as well.

The big question mark is how much the offense will be affected by running back Dalvin Cook’s departure. The team released him after a trade failed to materialize, saving themselves millions off the cap in the process. Cook’s 4.4 yards per carry average ranked just 25th in the league. He wasn’t at all as efficient as the Vikings perhaps needed him to be, despite the number of light boxes they faced due to Jefferson. Cook also ranked outside the top 10 in yards after contact per attempt, according to PFF, managing 3.16.

The Vikings’ system need an efficient (which isn’t the same as balanced) run game in order to function. They utilized play action at the second-highest clip in the league last season. That doesn’t work if the defense doesn’t bite on the run. They also live in 11 personnel, ranking fifth in usage at 73.5% of all offensive snaps. That means the onus to “establish the run” falls on one back, and it’s now no longer Cook.

Will running back Alexander Mattison be as or more effective than Dalvin Cook last season?

This is where Mattison needs to step up. He was good enough to wrestle some carries away from Cook last season and finished the year with 283 rushing yards. That came on 74 carries, giving him a paltry 3.8 yards per attempt average.

That isn’t going to cut it this year.

In his limited amount of work, he did have nine runs of 10 or more yards. He also didn’t fumble the football. If Mattison can continue to take care of the football and head coach Kevin O’Connell can put him in position to take advantage of a defense’s attention on the passing game, the Vikings should be able to continue their offensive productivity, no problem. But they’ll go the way Mattison goes and he’s a huge question mark going into the season. Watching how he acclimates to the No. 1 role in training camp will go a long way in answering that before Week 1.

Carmen Vitali covers the NFC North for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.

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