Presser Points: Zimmer Evaluates Youngs CBs, Provides Update on Dantzler

[Viktor]

EAGAN, Minn. – The Vikings secondary was shorthanded, to say the least, in Sunday's upset of the Packers.


It's been a bit of a revolving door at cornerback, with Minnesota playing its seventh unique set of corners with the most snaps in as many games.


As Vikings.com's Craig Peters pointed out in this week's "Stats That Stood Out," seven rookies played for the Vikings defense, combining for 196 of 825 possible snaps (118 by cornerbacks).


Rookie Jeff Gladney played all 75 of Minnesota's defensive snaps. Classmate Cam Dantzler was injured on his 14th snap, and fifth-round pick Harrison Hand played 29. Second-year pro Kris Boyd played 57 snaps before leaving the game with an injury.


Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer spoke with media members Monday and addressed the fact that the team "started out a little slow" against Green Bay before getting into a groove. The Vikings ultimately held Aaron Rodgers to 291 passing yards on a blustery afternoon at Lambeau Field.


"Some of the young guys were, I think they were just wanting to watch the Hall of Fame quarterback instead of watching their guy," Zimmer quipped. "But we played better in the second half, did a better job in the running game, which allowed us to do a little bit more in the passing game."


Zimmer was asked a follow-up question about the difficulty in coaching rookies on "eye discipline"; the term was mentioned by FOX analyst Daryl Johnston during Sunday's broadcast when Davante Adams scored a touchdown while being covered by Gladney.


Zimmer broke down the play:


"The first touchdown on Gladney: 17 (Adams) is a guy we're obviously paying a whole bunch of attention to. He's lined up on the outside shoulder of him. He's got Anthony Harris on the inside. The ball is snapped, [Adams] gives him a little shake, [Gladney] looks inside and then he gets beat to the outside, where that's where he should've been all the way. There's a lot of little things like that I'm trying so hard to get these young kids to understand not only about their position, but the guy they're playing against, where their help is, you know, it just makes it tough."


Zimmer said that eye discipline and avoiding contact with receivers after five yards are the "two toughest things" to work on with rookie cornerbacks.


"We talk about it all the time," he said. "It's just guys having enough discipline to, because sometimes they have to transfer their eyes, you know, it might go from a receiver that's blocking to crack the safety and he's got to transfer his eyes back after the crack, or it might be if he's playing off to transfer his eyes off the quarterback after a three-step drop and back to the receiver when it's a pass.


"That's probably what they're having the hardest time with right now," Zimmer added. "They never transfer their eyes back to the receiver and get back into the position they should be in."