Rookie Cameron Dantzler's training-camp plays with Vikings going viralIt's not every day an NFL team tweets out a video of its starting quarterback being intercepted by a rookie third-round draft pick.Kirk Cousins faked to his right, rolled left, spotted an open Bisi Johnson and launched the deep ball that would confirm rookie cornerback Cam Dantzler as the social media sensation of Week 1 of Vikings training camp.
Congratulations, Cam. It’s not every day an NFL team
tweets out a video of its starting quarterback being intercepted by a rookie third-round draft pick. Especially when that quarterback is of the franchise-caliber ilk and getting $40 million guaranteed this season.
“No, I didn’t see [the tweet],” Cousins said. “But he made an outstanding play. Really, the entire defensive backfield has played well. … They’ve just had good discipline and been really sticky in [coverage].”
Called “The Needle” because, well, he looks like one at 6-2 and 188 pounds, Dantzler undercut Johnson’s route and then showed off his vertical prowess to go “Up! Up! Up!” as the team’s tweet touted.
The Purple-paid tweeters put an exclamation on things by adding Dantzler’s Twitter handle,
@camdantzler3, followed by two domineering emoji faces that had steam coming out of their noses.
Cousins might have had steam coming from his ears by then.
The Needle had just popped him — sorry — for a second time in the first two days in full pads. The interception came last Tuesday. A day earlier, Dantzler made an even more impressive play that caused receiver Adam Thielen to tell coach Mike Zimmer, “27 is gonna be really good!”
A week later, Dantzler took the majority of Monday’s first-team nickel reps ahead of first-round pick Jeff Gladney. He was lined up at left corner, where he was a week earlier when he made the play of camp against Thielen.
Thielen had gotten his release on a go route. But Dantzler blanketed him the whole way.
Cousins launched a nice ball that was heading for Thielen’s fingertips. Until Dantzler’s right arm kept going up, up, up and swatted the ball away with unusual ease.
“[Thielen] always jokes around about me and my long arms,” Dantzler said.
He finished that play by tumbling to the ground, rolling onto his backside and signaling incomplete.
“I like my young corners,” Zimmer said of a batch of players led in experience by Mike Hughes, who’s 23 with five starts.
The Vikings, according to Zimmer, loved Dantzler’s coverage skills at Mississippi State. And why not? According to Pro Football Focus, Dantzler gave up just 21 yards passing in the games against Alabama and LSU.
“The only thing we didn’t like about him was his 40 time at the combine,” Zimmer said of the 4.64-second showing. “Then when he ran a good time at his pro day [4.38], we got more intrigued.”
Besides what Zimmer calls “great length and size and long arms,” Dantzler also has been “a pleasant surprise as far as the discipline with which he plays and understanding what we’re trying to do concept-wise,” the coach said.
In other words, Dantzler has been immediately receptive to Zimmer’s coaching. Other new corners, including 2016 second-round pick Mackensie Alexander, have struggled under the head coach whose signature strength is working with defensive backs.
“[Dantzler] is really trying to do everything right,” Zimmer said. “If we tell him to step with his left foot, typically he does that. … He just seems to be able to take it from the meeting room to the walk-through to the practice.”
And he’s humble.
Asked what he thought when he was retweeting the Vikings’ video of his interception, Dantzler said: “I got to give the credit to the coaches. They put me in a great position to make a play. … Just me doing my read, doing my 1-11,” a Vikings coaching mantra that harps one guy doing his job as part of an 11-man unit.
Asked about negating the team’s star receiver on a deep ball the day before, Dantzler ended up giving a big chunk of the credit to Thielen.
“Me and him talk almost every day about coverages,” Dantzler said. “What to do and what not to do. He’s one of the top five receivers in the league so I thank him each and every day for getting me better.”
Among those reacting to the clips last week were Eagles veteran corner Darius Slay, tweeting “Yes Sir!!” to his fellow Mississippi State Bulldog; and former NFL receiver Chad Johnson, who tweeted:
“I hear you making noise all the way from Miami. Stay locked in!”
https://www.startribune.com/rookie-dantz...572211912/
