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May 20, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Tom Schreier |Chris Schad |Matt Fries |Kaleb Medhanie
Katt Williams has some advice for anyone who visits Jacksonville. “In Jacksonville, you’ll see s— you don’t see nowhere else,” he said in his 2018 comedy special. “You need a tour guide in Jacksonville from Jacksonville to tell you where you can and cannot go. You don’t just wanna be driving around, looking around. You’ll see some s— that’ll scare you.”Willams would know.
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May 18, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Chris Schad |Matt Fries |Kaleb Medhanie |Tom Schreier
Last weekend, J.J. McCarthy took the field for the Minnesota Vikings for the first time. Well, kind of. It wasn’t in front of 66,000 fans at U.S. Bank Stadium, and it wasn’t on a Sunday afternoon with a playoff spot on the line. During rookie minicamp, McCarthy threw to practice squad receivers and got to know his new teammates. People analyzed every dropback like a game-winning drive in the Super Bowl. How does J.J. look? flooded Vikings beat reporters’ mention.
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May 17, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Matt Fries |Kaleb Medhanie |Tom Schreier |Chris Schad
With the 108th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings selected Khyree Jackson, a CB out of Oregon. Jackson has a fascinating backstory. At one point, he gave up football and was Employee of the Month at a grocery store before returning through the JuCo route and playing at Alabama and Oregon. Jackson will have a great chance to compete in Minnesota’s cornerback room, which only has Byron Murphy as a bona fide starter.
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May 16, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Kaleb Medhanie |Tom Schreier |Chris Schad |Rob Searles
Five of the first seven games of the Minnesota Vikings’ 2024 season are against teams that made the playoffs last season. Will the offense be prepared with a new quarterback for that stretch? And what might be Sam Darnold’s leash? The Vikings are one of the league’s most intriguing unknown quantities this season, and the early run of tough matchups will strain their ability to prove themselves in a daunting division.
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May 7, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Chris Schad |Tom Schreier |Kaleb Medhanie
The next few months will be heavy on hope and optimism for the Minnesota Vikings. Last weekend was rookie minicamp. Soon, offseason OTAs will come. Then mandatory minicamp, and that awkward month where everyone hopes the players just make it to training camp in one piece. When the Vikings report to TCO Performance Center in late July, the pain of a 7-10 season will be a distant memory.
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May 6, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Tom Schreier |Chris Schad |Kaleb Medhanie
As training camp wrapped up in late August 2018, Daniel Carlson said he was ready for the pressure of kicking in regular-season games. The Minnesota Vikings took him in the fifth round that year, making him the highest-drafted kicker in franchise history. They were coming off a run to the NFC Championship and had Super Bowl expectations. Carlson would have to convert high-pressure field goals for a franchise with a history of missing kicks.
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May 4, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Chris Schad |Kaleb Medhanie |Tom Schreier
Tucked away from the heart of society, a draft analyst was sitting in his mother’s basement. He was watching the draft, and the picks were starting to come off the board. He approved of the analytics used in the first half of the draft as teams looked to secure quarterbacks. However, something troubled him as the Jacksonville Jaguars were on the clock with the 17th-overall pick. When the graphic on the screen turned from Jaguar teal to Viking purple, things were not well.
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May 3, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Kaleb Medhanie |Tom Schreier |Chris Schad
As one of the heaviest blitzers in the league, Brian Flores is known around the NFL for his aggressiveness. Since blitzing is a staple of his defense, Flores prefers to play press-man coverage, which doesn’t require his squad to drop many of his players into zone. Kevin O’Connell sees eye to eye with him on this. “We want to get to a place where we can play more man coverage,” O’Connell said.
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Apr 22, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Tom Schreier |Chris Schad |Nelson Thielen |Kaleb Medhanie
Josh Metellus was in the Twin Cities when the Minnesota Vikings hired Brian Flores. Once Flores moved into Minnesota’s facility in Eagan, Metellus made his way upstairs to introduce himself. “If you’ve ever been in his office, he has just a list of everything he thinks just thrown onto his wall,” said Metellus.
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Apr 20, 2024 | 
zonecoverage.com | Chris Schad |Nelson Thielen |Kaleb Medhanie |Tom Schreier
The moment Kirk Cousins signed with the Atlanta Falcons, it opened a Pandora’s Box of outcomes for the Minnesota Vikings. They were finally taking a swing at getting a top-tier quarterback, and the photoshops and hot takes on the internet became legion. With less than a week until the draft, many fans are dreaming of Drake Maye or J.J. McCarthy slinging passes to Justin Jefferson. But that fantasy might ignore a reality that Vikings fans don’t want to admit.
