Darrisaw back, defense keeps cooking

It’s hard to know what to make of the struggles we’ve seen from the Vikings’ first-team offense in matchups against the first-team defense early in training camp. Should we be concerned about the offense? Or is this defense so good that most offenses would look like this?

I lean toward the latter. I don’t think it’s worth overreacting to the Vikings’ offense — not with some new offensive linemen and a young quarterback and injuries to their two best players. I think the takeaway continues to be that Brian Flores’ defense is going to be a major problem for just about everybody on the schedule in 2025.

Anyways, the defense dominated again in Wednesday’s practice at TCO Performance Center. It was the second practice of camp with full pads on, and like Monday’s session, you could feel the competitive intensity emanating off of the field. This was a longer practice that featured a lot of productive work. Iron sharpening iron, to borrow a cliche.

In one period later in practice that was best on best, the Vikings’ offense went nowhere. Byron Murphy Jr. raced off the edge and swatted down an attempted screen pass. J.J. McCarthy was under pressure on the following play and had to tuck the ball down and try to scramble. The pocket completely collapsed on him on the ensuing play for a sack, leading to a synced-up celebration from Jonathan Greenard and Dallas Turner. Blake Cashman stuffed a run. McCarthy finally got a pass completed to T.J. Hockenson after escaping pressure, but that one may have been a sack too.

All four of the Vikings’ quarterbacks threw an interception in 11-on-11 action over the course of this practice.

The defense just seemed to be enjoying itself quite a bit more than the offense. Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel were as active as always. So was Turner, who got into the backfield for a loud TFL at one point. Harrison Smith punched a ball out of Jeshaun Jones’ arms for a force fumble, then scooped it up himself and pitched it to a teammate. Some of the same cornerbacks who have stood out over the course of camp — including Jeff Okudah and Zemaiah Vaughn — continued to make plays.

Despite the defense’s strong play, it wasn’t as rough of a day for McCarthy as Tuesday was. He bounced back early in practice with some nice throws to his top three targets: Jordan Addison, T.J. Hockenson, and Jalen Nailor. One particular throw to Nailor, on the backside of a progression, stood out. McCarthy and the first-team offense won their situational period at the end of practice when McCarthy hit Nailor twice and then handed it off to Jordan Mason for a big run. Overall, there were ups and downs for the Vikings’ young quarterback.

But the theme of the day — and the theme of camp — is that this defense looks incredible.

Vikings left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who is in the final stages of recovering from a major knee injury, took his first 11-on-11 reps of camp on Wednesday. He participated in a couple periods, then stepped aside for Justin Skule, who had gotten all of the first-team work up to this point. It’s a big step for Darrisaw to be back out there in team drills. For the first time, we saw the Vikings’ full starting offensive line, with both Darrisaw and Will Fries participating. Will we see it in Week 1?