After joint practices for two days earlier this week, the San Francisco 49ers and Minnesota Vikings are currently playing at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Just an hour and a half before game time, the Vikings announced that 27 of their 85 players on the roster would not play.
In turn, the 49ers also announced that they would also not be playing 27 players.
Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo and Kirk Cousins all missed the game, meaning it was an opportunity for the backup quarterbacks for both sides to get meaningful reps.
The first half left us with some strong takeaways. Here were the three takeaways from the first half.
Kellen Mond is Still a Work in Progress
The Kellen Mond experience can’t be described any better than what we saw on the first drive.
He looked like a much more confident version of himself. Mond felt at ease navigating the pocket and scrambled to pass in finding Olabisi Johnson for a first down.
While the good was there, the bad inevitably showed itself. He threw an ugly interception where it didn’t look like he could step up and it appeared as if his arm got affected as well.
Even so, he still looked better than Mannion who missed a dig on third down by a country mile. I need to see more from Mond to give him the backup QB job, but he’s capable.
Ed Ingram is the Starting RG
The Vikings have been searching for a consistent starter at right guard for seemingly a decade. At pick 59 in the 2022 NFL draft, they might have found their guy.
Ingram played extremely well last week against the Las Vegas Raiders last Sunday and continued to do so.
Early on, Ingram looked dominant. He was finding work and looked really powerful. On one rep, he looked head and shoulders better than his contemporaries.
Find the one starting offensive lineman: pic.twitter.com/PRoghgGSc2
— Nick Olson (@NickOlsonNFL) August 20, 2022
He did have a rep against Javon Kinlaw in which Ingram allowed a sack. There were a lot of factors that need to be accounted for.
Rough rep from Ingram, but the protection call looked subpar. No way he should have set himself that far right at the beginning of the rep pic.twitter.com/wu5jw3bwDY
— Tyler Forness (@TheRealForno) August 20, 2022
First off, the amount of space between Kinlaw and the other DT should have had Ingram begin the rep more towards the inside, so I believe the protection call should have been better. Second, Mond had plenty of time to throw. That’s not all on Ingram.
Considering his counterpart Jesse Davis looked awful last week, Ingram is well on his way.
The Vikings Need to Sign a Punt Returner
The punt return job is one that is up for grabs and nobody seems to want it.
K.J. Osborn was originally drafted in 2020 to be that guy, but he struggled massively, as the Vikings had an abysmal year returning punts, accumulating only 69 yards over the course of the season.
During the preseason, Ihmir Smith-Marsette was the guy that the franchise seemingly wanted to win the job. Unfortunately, he has struggled both catching and holding onto the football. He had a fumble on a return in the second quarter that turned into a field goal.
With nobody on the roster seemingly ready to take that spot, the Vikings might be smart to look on the free agent market.
Quick Hitters
-Ty Chandler continues to impress. He has 99th percentile speed and 98th percentile burst, but what really shows is his physical running style and vision have helped him show out this preseason.
-T.Y. McGill with two more sacks today, bringing him to 4.0 during the preseason. He is making a run not just for Mr. Mankato, but also to be a key rotational piece on the defensive line. McGill has won with both power and finesse.
-I have criticized D.J. Wonnum quite a bit for not having a pass rush plan, but he has shown a couple of pass rush moves. It hasn’t been consistent, but great to see.
