The season now has HOPE (for some). The team is marching on and is obviously only able to take one week at a time. This week, the Ravens are coming to town riding a two game win streak. I am going to guess that they will take a page out of the Falcons play book and try to pound the rock behind Derrick Henry. Lamar Jackson will be a handful to contain as well. I’d like to feel super confident but I cannot. I am hopeful though. We need that run defense to be on point again this week.
Minnesota Vikings News and Links
Asante Samuel Jr. was one of the top cornerbacks in free agency back in March, but a neck injury held him back. After undergoing a spinal fusion surgery in April, Samuel now has been cleared for football activities and plans to make free agency visits.
On Wednesday, he put the plan in motion by visiting the Carolina Panthers. Over the next few days, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the list of visits will include the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers, Chicago Bears, and Pittsburgh Steelers.
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Verdict of where Asante Samuel Jr. should go
The best spot for Samuel comes down to two teams: The 49ers and Packers. If winning right away is a big factor, the edge would go to Green Bay. That shouldn’t be the biggest priority for a player like him, though. The former second-round pick will look for the chance to get as many reps as possible, and staying on the West Coast in San Francisco would be very appealing. So I’m going to predict he chooses the 49ers for his second-chance spot in the NFL, and hopefully he’s able to fit into Robert Saleh’s defense early and make an immediate impact. — Destin Adams, A to Z Sports NFL.
Note: Seems logical.
Vikings News: Asante Samuel Jr Visit is Not What You Think…
Samuel Jr., a 26-year-old former 2nd round pick, was cleared medically by independent doctors earlier this week to play football again, following a neck/spine injury that cost him most of 2024 and resulted in a rather controversial spinal fusion procedure over the offseason.
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And on Thursday morning, we found out just how crucial it is to the Samuel Jr conversation. While on with the Power Trip Morning Show on KFAN Radio this morning, Tom Pelissero (NFL Network) reported that Asante Samuel Jr.’s visits are not what we originally thought they were.
According to the top league insider and Edina native, all of Samuel Jr’s visits are for medical purposes only. He is working out for team doctors and trainers, who will then decide if he is indeed healthy enough to warrant a possible signing.
“Asante Samuel Jr, the reason a player like that has a five or six team tour setup is medical. He needs to go in and get physicals in different places. Without getting too deep into the weeds on the nature of the injury, it is something very serious and very scary that he is coming back from.
He had a surgery and this is not an injury that a lot of doctors thought a surgery was going to be able to fully fix. So it’s not just a matter of his doctors clearing him, it’s a team medical staff clearing him. And when you’re talking about a neck issue, a spine issue, those are really sensitive kinds of topics.”
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“[Asante Samuel Jr.] probably would have been probably the corner to get paid, along with the guys like Carlton Davis in this past free agency class, if he were healthy. The fact that it’s November and we’re talking about him taking a medical tour just shows you how significant this is.
It doesn’t mean the Vikings or someone else won’t sign him. I would just say that this isn’t him coming in and meeting the coaching staff and deciding where to go. This is these teams wanting to put him through a battery of tests and make their own determinations.
There’s 32 team doctors with 32 degrees of risk tolerance. Everybody is going to make their own judgement on this because it is something pretty significant.”
Tom Pelissero – Power Trip Morning Show (KFAN Radio)
Vikings’ Andrew Van Ginkel calls out ‘dirty’ play by Lions
Vikings outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel was not happy with a blindside block from Lions wide receiver Kalif Raymond during Sunday’s game in Detroit.
Late in the second quarter, Van Ginkel’s pass rush was immediately cut short when Raymond came from the side and blasted him to the ground. Fortunately for the Vikings, Van Ginkel — while still on the turf — happened to be in perfect position to take down Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs for a one-yard loss on a screen pass.
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“I kinda thought it was a dirty play,” he said. “Obviously, getting hit on the side, I’m just going to pass rush and all of a sudden I get whiplash because a guy blindsides me. I’m not gonna go into too much detail about it, but I wasn’t too pleased with it, and I think that it’s something that the league should look at, if it’s something they need to take out of the game. Because we can’t be doing that.”
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“I knew instantly,” he said. “When you’re pass rushing like that, you’re not anticipating someone blindsiding you from the side. I’m trying to get off the ball, get on a good pass rush. I had no clue he was there. How are we supposed to protect ourselves in those cases?”
No penalty was called on the play. Here’s what the NFL rulebook says about illegal blindside blocks, which are a 15-yard penalty:
“It is a foul if a player initiates a block when his path is toward or parallel to his own end line and makes forcible contact to his opponent with his helmet, forearm, or shoulder, unless the contact occurs in close-line play prior to the ball leaving that area.”
Andrew Van Ginkel’s value to Vikings defense is impossible to quantify
Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell wanted his entire team to see Andrew Van Ginkel’s effort.
He showed them a clip of the veteran outside linebacker being knocked down on a blindside hit by Detroit Lions wide receiver Kalif Raymond and Van Ginkel still finding a way to create a tackle for loss on a screen.
“He’s on the ground but still recognizes that Gibbs had the ball on the screen and he makes the play,” O’Connell said. “The instinctiveness of plays like that.”
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Van Ginkel explained in the locker room that — despite being knocked to the ground from behind — he was able to still identify the Lions blocking on the play and had a guess at where they were headed with the football.
“I felt the O-line all moving to that direction,” Van Ginkel said. “I figured at that point it was going to be a screen and it so happened that I fell into the play.”
For Blake Cashman, the extra effort was typical of the 2024 second-team All-Pro.
“To get knocked down and have awareness to pop right back up and find the ball carrier and stop a potentially explosive play right there,” Cashman said. “It doesn’t matter what happens to Gink on the field, I can always trust him to get back on the play.”
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While Van Ginkel might have been more frustrated than happy about his highlight, it was a drop in the bucket of his importance to the Vikings defense.
In the win over the Lions, he played 39 snaps, picked up two QB pressures, dropped back in coverage 13 times, made three run stops for negative plays and helped the entire unit play mind games all day long with QB Jared Goff.
“It’s just the communication,” O’Connell said. “Everybody’s on the same page. We had way more snaps with Andrew Van Ginkel on the field where all 11 guys did their jobs and knew exactly what the call was. So he provides so many layers of things to our defense that allows [Brian Flores] to be who he wants to be as a play caller.”
The Vikings defense blitzed on 57% of Goff’s drop-backs and he took three of his five sacks vs. extra rush and was pressured in total 43% of the time.
J.J. McCarthy explains his gameday intensity — it’s his alter ego
As Kevin O’Connell prepared to give him a game ball in the visitor’s locker room at Ford Field on Sunday, J.J. McCarthy stared, nodded his head, and talked to himself like a man possessed. Cameras captured the look on his face in that moment, following the Vikings’ upset win over the Lions, and the clip drew plenty of attention on social media.
“McCarthy in a trance there?” commented NFL on FOX host Curt Menefee. “He was locked into it.”
Except that wasn’t McCarthy — at least in a sense. No, that was Nine, his jersey number-inspired alter ego who comes out on game days. On Wednesday, the Vikings’ young quarterback was asked if he goes to a different mental place on those days, and it led to an explanation of his second persona.
“I feel like I do, yeah. There’s definitely a level of a switch that gets flipped,” he said. “For me, I call him ‘Nine.’ Nine comes out, and I gotta understand he can’t be at his peak performance throughout three and a half hours. So how do I find little ways on the sideline, get back to my breath, get back my visualization, that can kind of maintain that intense, competitive stamina throughout the whole game. But yeah, it’s just the pure will, determination to get the job done.”
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“He’s a killer,” linebacker Blake Cashman said. “He’s the ultimate competitor. He takes everything, when it comes to his work, very serious.”
“I just know to give him the football, deliver the message that I’d like to deliver, and then get the hell out of the way, for my own personal safety in that moment,” O’Connell joked about their interaction in the locker room in Detroit.
What Kevin O’Connell said on Wednesday about J.J. McCarthy, Ravens, more
On J.J. McCarthy
After his opening statement, O’Connell was asked, essentially, how much of their offense moving forward will be shaped around what they’ve seen out of McCarthy so far
“I just think it’s about doing things that he’s comfortable doing right now,” O’Connell said. “Pre-snap, post-snap, what we’re asking him to do in the pass game. Where are the areas that we’re continually working fundamentally, and where are the areas, throughout the ebbs and flows of games, where we see some of the inconsistencies that come with a young player who just made his third start? We’re gonna try to do the things we think gives our offense a chance, but all that goes through a scope of what J.J. does well.”
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“I’ve always thought J.J. is a very, very high-level processor of information,” O’Connell said. “Whether it’s protection calls and the things he has to have to make certain looks blockable and make it right. I’ve known that from the first time I sat down with him in Ann Arbor. That’s what makes you so encouraged and excited about the fact that some of the things we’re working through right now with a young player, totally normal, are the physical side of things. The fact that he’s so high capacity and capable, mentally, of so much, is where you hope to see a young player grow within the same system for a long time, hopefully.”
On the Ravens
“He’s just such a weapon now on schedule,” O’Connell said of Jackson. “When he’s clean in the pocket, he’s throwing in rhythm. Just playing the initial snap is going to be hard enough with the scheme that they run, and it’s very well coached, and they’re very physical.
“To me it’s about disruption, and it’s about getting him off the spot, and then it’s the player that gets him off the spot is more than likely not going to be able to always make the play. So, who’s the next guy there? And was there discipline in making sure you corral and keep him in the area that you have to, because he can change a game. Even if you’ve done it for 70 plays and you’re in the fourth quarter, he can do it in a got-to-have-it moment and win the football game. So it’s going to be a challenge.”
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“They make the trade for another safety, really talented guy in Gilman, which allows Kyle Hamilton to then play pretty much predominantly the nickel spot, which they’re playing a lot of nickel defense to basically every grouping,” O’Connell said. “And then, that also allows (Marlon) Humphrey to stay out at the spot where he’s incredibly impactful, at the outside corner spot.”
On a quiet trade deadline
”I know there were some calls and some things, but I thought Kwesi (Adofo-Mensah) did a really good job communicating and kind of letting us know kind of what some of the possibilities were and talking through those. It’s a game-plan day (Tuesday), so we’re pretty hard at work as coaches. But nothing really materialized.
“And like I said, we’ve kind of felt like — very similar to our opponent, probably, who dealt with some injury adversity, and now they’re getting healthy and getting back to being the original team they thought they’d be, and they’re a really good one. So we’re hoping we’re the same, and hoping and talking about it doesn’t do a whole lot. We gotta go put consistency on tape every single week.”
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