Zimmer Preparing for 'Normal' But Mindful of Possible Adjustments

Viktor

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Mar 19, 2019
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The Vikings are scheduled to host the Texans and Seahawks for their preseason home games. Minnesota held joint practices with Jacksonville before hosting the Jaguars during the 2018 preseason. Houston and Seattle, however, are on Minnesota's regular-season schedule, and it would be hard to fathom teams wanting to give any kind of direct scouting report, even if they could perhaps glean information in return.


Zimmer explained his current mindset when asked if teams might be more or less likely to schedule joint practices.


"Before all of this happened, I had a couple of teams call and ask if we would want to practice together," he said. "I've thought about it a little bit. The problem I foresee in having the joint practices is you may not be able to get your guys up to speed fast enough for what they have to do, as opposed to worrying about another player.


"If it gets down to it, I can see there might be, again, depending on how much time we have during training camp or before the games, or all of those things, I could possibly see having maybe a one-day practice against a team," Zimmer added. "I don't know that I want to spend two or three days when you're trying to get your team ready to play."


Zimmer said the virtual meetings are going well but added that the rookies are behind, which isn't an uncommon sentiment this time of year. The biggest discrepancy is a lack of opportunity to make on-field corrections, a valuable part of developing young players and helping them transition.


Zimmer also is staying informed of plans through communication with Vikings Vice President of Sports Medicine/Head Athletic Trainer Eric Sugarman.


"Eric Sugarman is the head of a committee, so he fills me in all the time on where they're at and what they're thinking and what they're hoping for," Zimmer said. "I let him talk to the team a fair amount. I just tell them, 'The better we prepare ourselves to understand what we may have to go through, and what we have to do initially, especially early, it may end up giving us an advantage in how we can go out and go play.' "
 
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