The Minnesota Vikings held their first preseason game on Sunday night as they got a look at their new and improved offense. After a successful rookie year from Teddy Bridgewater, the Vikings spent the offseason building around the quarterback position instead of trying to replace it. That has proven to be a successful effort as several players excelled in their debut while others fell back.
The star of the win over the Pittsburgh Steelers could have been Stefon Diggs, the rookie wide receiver out of Maryland. Diggs did a little bit of everything on Sunday night highlighted by a 62-yard punt return that fell just short of a touchdown. He also added two catches for 14 yards. Diggs has been a name to watch for the Vikings as the team works to build their wide receiver rotation. Several players have been impressed with the versatility the rookie is bringing to the field.
"We know what he can do,'' said Vikings wide receiver Jarius Wright, via the Pioneer Press. "I see him all the time in practice. (Minnesota's veteran wide receivers), we put the dog in him.''
Diggs' success is being met with another player's fall. Diggs is currently doing what the Vikings expect Cordarrelle Patterson to do, but the receiver continues to struggle with consistency. Entering his third season with the team, Patterson is on thin ice. While Minnesota is unlikely to release him this year, Patterson has a lot to prove and getting shown up by a rookie is not helping his case. Head coach Mike Zimmer admits he is frustrated by the lack of progress Patterson is showing.
"Cordarrelle is on a good track right now, OK? Now, can he sustain? Can he continue to sustain what he's doing?" Zimmer said, via Tom Pelissero of USA TODAY Sports. "Because like today, I thought he had a good day. In OTAs, I thought he improved. He'll have really good days, and then he'll have some not-so-good days. Really, I think what he needs to do is just the consistency every single day and the consistency in studying, the consistency in getting extra help that he needs if he needs it, running the routes the same all the time and understanding that there's a lot of great athletes that play professional sports, and there's a lot of great athletes that don't make it in professional sports because they don't have the other intangibles."
The Vikings have Mike Wallace and Charles Johnson as their top two receivers. Wright is likely to fill in as the third spot while Patterson and Diggs battle things out for time on the field. Matt Asiata and Jerick Mckinnon are doing the same thing to backup Adrian Peterson while rookie tight end MyCole Pruitt could challenge Kyle Rudolph for time on the field.
