Presser Points: Zimmer Splits Squad for Final Week of Preseason Practices

[Viktor]

3. Comprehensive assessment


With the offensive and defensive starters for the Vikings essentially set, reserves will try to jockey for position by performing well one more time under the lights.


Zimmer said the fourth preseason game can play a role in roster evaluations as the team narrows from the preseason max of 90 to the 53-man limit (all teams must reach this limit on Saturday), but he prefers a more comprehensive assessment.


“I think you have to look at the whole preseason, training camp, all those different areas. I don’t think you can base it on just one particular game,” Zimmer said. “If there’s two guys that you’re trying to decide between 50, 51, 52, 53, that could decide it — if one of them played good last week and then they play good this next week.”


4. To practice squad or not?


When the team reduces to 53 players on Saturday, it also will be signing up to 10 players on the Vikings practice squad.


There’s no shortage of Vikings who have worked their way up from the practice squad. The most famous current Viking to do so is Pro Bowl receiver Adam Thielen.


C.J. Ham and Chad Beebe are two others who have ascended in recent years. Ifeadi Odenigbo spent parts of the past two seasons on Minnesota’s practice squad.


The risk of placing a player on a practice squad is that they can be enticed to sign elsewhere if another team has a spot on its active roster. Odenigbo was signed by Cleveland last September after not making the Vikings 53-man roster. He then landed in Arizona before returning to Minnesota.


Zimmer was asked about the decision-making process for the practice squad.


“A lot of the times, it’s if we see some future development in those guys,” Zimmer said. “Obviously, [they] have to be talented enough.


“Sometimes it takes a while for them to learn the systems, learn the techniques, all that. But it’s really a vital part of professional football,” Zimmer continued. “You see a lot of these guys that aren’t ready until year two-and-a-half or three sometimes, but they get better and better. If they’re dedicated and they work hard and they’re smart, then they have a chance. They start understanding the system; I think that’s part of it as well.”