Presser Points: Zimmer on Rookie Recall, Roster Management as Camp Opens

Viktor

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Mar 19, 2019
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2. Emphasis for young running backs


The Vikings have two running backs currently at camp: 2019 third-round selection Alexander Mattison and Mike Boone, who joined the team as an undrafted free agent last year.


Zimmer said the biggest thing for Boone and Mattison during training camp is to improve in the pass protection part of the game.


“The pass routes that they have to run, making sure they’re precise on those,” Zimmer said. “Carrying a ball, for those guys it’s pretty natural, but the other part is where they’ve gotta get in a certain route and it’s a read route, or they’ve got to go out instead of in, or they have to block this linebacker or that linebacker, whichever one comes, or a pass-off with the offensive line. Those things are all things that take that most time for running backs.”


3. Rookies then versus now


Zimmer has been in the NFL a long time and has seen the league change in various ways.


What are the biggest differences he sees in rookies and young players today versus those he worked with in Dallas in 1994?


“They don’t have to go through two-a-days in full pads right off the get-go every single day,” Zimmer reflected, referencing changes in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that have altered the look of NFL training camps.


“The biggest thing I do think has changed quite a bit since I first started, [is] guys would eat [fast food] and all that stuff,” Zimmer pointed out. “These guys are pretty careful about what they put in their bodies and the nutrition aspect of things. The weightlifting, all the different things that they do now is, I think, much more sophisticated – the sleep, all the recovery things that they do is much more sophisticated.”
 
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