EAGAN, Minn. – Add it to the list of things to find out.
In addition to evaluating the roster and judging plays within offensive and defensive arrangements, the Vikings on Sunday were required to respond to multiple COVID-19 tests that return positive.
Head coach Mike Zimmer announced during his mediation that eight players, an assistant coach and three staff members tested positive for COVID-19 and would not participate in Sunday’s practice.
“They will not practice today and we will move forward from there,” Zimmer said.
All 12 individuals isolate while results are confirmed as determined as false positive. Vikings Vice President of Sports Medicine Eric Sugarman will provide care kits, and players will have food delivered without contact and will attend meetings regularly.
“Specifically, we just follow protocol and what the league gives us as guidance at this point,” Zimmer said.
The Vikings need to find more information on Monday.
Several teams had positive returns, and the NFL released the following statement on Sunday:
“Saturday’s daily COVID tests have returned several positive tests from each of the clubs served by the same lab in New Jersey. We are working with our test partner, BioReference, to investigate these results while the clubs work to improve it. positive affirmative action or exclusion.Clubs take immediate precautionary measures, as set forth in the NFL-NFLPA Health and Safety Protocols, to include contact tracing, isolation of individuals, and to temporarily adjust the schedule, as appropriate. other labs used for NFL testing have not had similar results. “
While it is not clear at this point how many, if any, will be confirmed, Zimmer pointed out the situation offers teams and the NFL more to learn about procedures than a similar situation occurs in the regular season.
“Honestly, for us, it’s probably good that it happened now, because we can adjust and adjust the kind of things and figure out what would happen if it happened during the season and what we would do from there,” Zimmer said.
Here are four other highlights from Zimmer’s session.
Sunday’s schedule initially included the Vikings who simulated the last 10 minutes of a fourth quarter twice.
Zimmer said the “game” is still on, but the team can only do it once.
“We’re going to have to manage some reps a bit, have a few more hydration breaks and get going,” Zimmer said. “We’ll practice the judge, how it goes … We can cut it a little shorter or something like that, just depends on how it is.”
While talking about changes in Sunday’s practice structure, Zimmer also called “nice warm and humid” conditions a decision-making one as well.
“It’s steamy today, and basically eight fewer players and one less coach, you know,” Zimmer said. “And you have some injured guys, so you’re down, presumably in the ’60s now.”
Shortly after Zimmer’s session, the team announced that the exercise was transitioning to the Indoor Practice Facility.
3. Increasing work pressure for Odenigbo
It is not surprising that defensive end Ifeadi Odenigbo has teamed up with the first team on the spot once manned by Everson Griffen.
Odenigbo worked last season in rotation with Griffen and Danielle Hunter and was very productive with his snaps.
Eric Smith of Vikings.com recently revealed that Odenigbo was recording 7.0 drops to just 368 defensive snaps (34 percent of Minnesota plays) in 2019.
Although Odenigbo is expected to play more in 2020, Zimmer recalls that a rotation will still be implemented to keep players as fresh – and hopefully productive – as possible.
“I think the biggest thing is just because we are going through the rest of the training camp here, that we can simulate those kinds of situations where he gets a multiple number of plays,” Zimmer said. “But honestly, we want our boys to try and run all the time. It’s important that they are fresh in the fourth quarter.”
4. Update on Danielle Hunter
Against Odenigbo, Hunter has refrained from practicing for all Minnesota practice sessions that were open to the media, except the first non-padded session on August 14th.
“He gets a little better every day, so it’s really up to Sug,” Zimmer said.
