Monday Morning Mailbag: Elflein's New Role & Jefferson's Versatility at WR

[Viktor]

We all can agree Adam Thielen is an outstanding NFL wide receiver. It is my opinion that we wasted one or two good years of his career. We have a free agent, Dan Chisena, he did not play that much college football. If you watch his college tape and high school tape the guy has a nose for the football and tracks it beautifully on long passes. Kirk Cousins thrives throwing the long ball.


Cris Carter said before the draft the Vikings need speed at wide receiver. This definitely is the year of rookies stepping up to the plate for Vikings. … Chisena should make the team on special teams and [get] one deep pass every game. The Vikings are so high on Dantzler, who has shut down Adam Thielen repeatedly. Dan Chisena on his opportunity against Dantzler did a double move and scored a 20-yard touchdown. I am just concerned about how Coach Zimmer is nervous about using rookies. Well, this year he has no choice, and Dan Chisena is already a star. Use him to totally to stun the Packers on the deep ball.


— John Farmer


A lot to unpack here from John. Chisena has generally done well at camp so far. He certainly has the speed John mentioned, but he has had a few noticeable drops, one of which came in the end zone.


But I'm not sure I agree with having him on the active roster just for one deep ball a game though. Opposing teams would likely pick up on that pretty quickly and sniff it out by the second or third try.


If Chisena doesn't make the 53-man roster, he might be a candidate for the practice squad in 2020, which has expanded to 16 players. He excelled on special teams at Penn State, and we'll see how he does in practice when those drills start to ramp up.


And a quick note on Dantzler while we're here, he was a bright spot in the first week of padded practices. But he certainly has not shut down Adam Thielen on a repeated basis. Yes, Dantzler has made a few plays here, but Thielen has been far and away the team's best wide receiver in camp, which is to be expected.


I'd also argue against the notion that Zimmer is afraid of using rookies. Look at how much Garrett Bradbury, Alexander Mattison, Irv Smith, Jr., played on offense in 2019, as well as Kris Boyd and Austin Cutting on special teams. The Vikings will throw a bunch of young rookies into the fire this season, and the team is on board with that.