Joint practices with the Patriots today and tomorrow

[purplefaithful]

Metellus, Nailor injured; six others sit

Safety Josh Metellus is dealing with a sore left shoulder that will require further testing, according to head coach Kevin O’Connell, after he hit the ground hard while trying to cover a deep touchdown throw from Maye to receiver Kayshon Boutte at the end of practice.

Receiver Jalen Nailor will also needs further testing on his left hand, which he “dinged” during practice, O’Connell said. Nailor exited a goal-line passing drill to be evaluated by medical staff. He returned to the sideline with his left hand wrapped, but did not practice again.

Six others did not practice Thursday: receiver Justin Jefferson, edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, safety Harrison Smith, left tackle Christian Darrisaw, fullback C.J. Ham and defensive tackle Levi Drake Rodriguez.

Jefferson missed a 13th straight practice due to the left hamstring strain suffered July 24 in the first week of training camp.

Ready for the season yet?
Edge rusher Jonathan Greenard said these joint practice sessions had an every-down intensity of “I’m going to destroy you — within the parameters of the game,” but some of that passion spilled over into brief scuffles during the second and final practice day between the Vikings and Patriots.

Receiver Lucky Jackson practiced with a ripped jersey after his block for Jordan Addison during a receiver screen led to him locking up with a Patriots defender out of bounds; pushing and shoving ensued. Linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. was among the other Vikings players involved in brief tussles that were contained.

“Whenever you got pads on like this and you’re going against another grown man who’s fighting for his job to keep food on the table and get after his next paycheck, there’s going to be some of that,” Greenard said.

The Vikings defense appeared to win their situational drill at the end of practice.

The situation: down 27-21 with one minute left from midfield.

Patriots rookie left tackle Will Campbell had a false start while preparing to block Greenard. Edge rusher Dallas Turner then registered a sack from the right side when he ran by and tapped Maye.

Maye responded with a deep ball to Boutte for the situation-winning score.

Strib

[Zanary]

KAM...call Carolina, trade to get Thielen back....

[Canthony]

KAM...call Carolina, trade to get Thielen back....

He is 35 and washed up

[Viking1987isback]

Gabe Davis is steal unsigned injury plaged year last year only 26  was a beast for Buffalo  before last year  signed a big deal with titans then hurt and bad qb  play hurt his play last year

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I also beleive kj Osborne is still a free agent

[DeepFreeze05]

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[JR44]

Mason looks super quick through the hole and with some power, excited to see what he brings to the offense, think he will definitely improve our short yardage game which has really needed some help.

[comet52]

Walking off the field Metellus told Siefert he would be fine.  Take it for what it's worth.

[RS_Express]

Will Ragatz
@WillRagatz
J.J. McCarthy on this Donovan Jackson play:

"I absolutely love it. Us Michigan guys, we get a little skeptical of the mentality and the tough guy-ness of Ohio State, but he absolutely proved it. It was a sight to see, and I just love how fired up he got after that, too. He's gonna be a great player."

Love it LOL.  McCarthy keeps needling Jackson, who then takes it out on opponents 

[MaroonBells]

More from the Pats perspective...

Red flags abound for Mike Vrabel, Patriots defense after struggles in Minnesota

By Chad Graff
Aug. 14, 2025Updated 11:15 pm UTC

EAGAN, Minn. — Mike Vrabel came out of the New England Patriots’ first joint practice in Minnesota mostly optimistic.
Sure, the offense struggled as the O-line got worked and receivers struggled to get open, but second-year quarterback Drake Maye kept his cool against the league’s most complex defense and put his team in the right spots while leaning on rookie TreVeyon Henderson for big plays.

“It’s easy to go into a blender when you’re seeing a bunch of this stuff and scrambling and turning one less-than-favorable play into a real s— storm,” Vrabel said. “I didn’t see that (from Maye).”

Besides, despite the offensive struggles, Vrabel could walk away from Wednesday’s practice in a decent mood because the other side of the ball was so good.

Based on the first three weeks of practice, the Patriots will have to lean on their defense. That’s where they spent the most money this offseason to revamp the roster. That’s where more talent resides. That’s supposed to be their strength, buying time for the offense to sort things out with two rookies on the left side of the line and a young quarterback learning a new scheme.

But the second joint practice this week threatened to strip the confidence that came from the defense’s recent momentum. In short, the second of two sessions with the Vikings yielded the Patriots’ worst practice of the summer.

Yes, the offense struggled again. Maye was pressured so often, it might’ve been easier to chart the few dropbacks that came with a clean pocket. The unit was mostly forced to dink and dunk its way around since the O-line didn’t block well and the receivers struggled to get open — and, in DeMario Douglas’ case, dropped passes.

The New England offense should be better in 2025, but Wednesday's joint practice with the Vikings showed it's not going to happen overnight.

But that’s not the real concern coming out of the last two days. The offense was expected to struggle against the complex and talented Vikings group that Brian Flores oversees.

Instead, the real worry is the way the defense played Thursday. J.J. McCarthy, Minnesota’s young quarterback who had struggled against his own defense, suddenly looked like a star against New England. In full team drills, he completed 17 of 20 passes for six touchdowns.

And that wasn’t all. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell shouted out his team’s success in the running game, too.

As we’ve said multiple times in recent days, it’s unwise to put too much stock into any one practice. But since the league-wide trend began of de-emphasizing preseason games, these joint practices have become the best checkpoint for how a team is faring as the season approaches.

On Wednesday, the Patriots put pressure on McCarthy and disrupted him to the point that it mostly shut down the Vikings offense. On Thursday, however, McCarthy had plenty of time in the pocket.

That might be what we get from the New England pass rush this season: some solid days where things click, but not enough talent across the board to be consistently good.

In the secondary, the Pats were beaten all over the field. Tight end T.J. Hockenson was a matchup nightmare and frequently beat cornerback Marcus Jones. Receiver Jordan Addison gave them fits. The Vikings even hit their running backs for some nice gains. Sure, the Pats were without Christian Gonzalez, but the Vikings were without Justin Jefferson.

Beyond that, it’ll be interesting to see what New England does at safety. Jabrill Peppers was absent from Thursday’s practice, but even then, Kyle Dugger didn’t crack the starting lineup. The 29-year-old safety who could once make a case as being the best player on the team is now buried on the depth chart. Jaylinn Hawkins and fourth-round pick Craig Woodson seem to be ahead of Dugger for playing time. Peppers is too.

Sixteen months after the Patriots signed Dugger to a four-year extension, that contract has already aged poorly. And there’s not a lot that the Pats can do to get out of it this year. If they cut him, they’d incur more than $14 million in dead money with just $1 million in cap savings. And it’s not like they need additional cap space right now.

What does Dugger need to do better? “I think just making sure that he’s where he needs to be and understanding the coverage concepts and everything we do,” Vrabel said.

If the Patriots coaches don’t think he’s one of their best options, fine. But the defense can’t play like it did on Thursday.

After ranking last in the NFL in sacks a year ago, the franchise’s decision-makers understood they couldn’t completely fix the pass rush in one offseason. So their plan was to get better on the interior. Let Milton Williams and Christian Barmore go to work there and hope to get something out of the patchwork of edge rushers.

This offseason, though, the Vikings invested in the interior of their O-line (they got rid of Garrett Bradbury, now the Patriots’ starting center), and that unit showed up on Thursday against New England’s interior rush.

With little pressure, McCarthy had plenty of time to pick apart the defense. And in fairness to him, some of his throws were impressive. But the Patriots also made it way too easy on him.

This isn’t the end of the world for the Patriots defense. O’Connell runs one of the best offensive schemes in the NFL. Their O-line is good. Their running backs are good. Their pass catchers are good, even without Jefferson. So this was always going to be a tough challenge, even if McCarthy hadn’t looked great entering these practices.

But with an offense that is probably going to be up and down, the Patriots need to rely on their defense. And to do that, they need a lot more than what they put on the field Thursday.

[purplefaithful]

Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy ends joint practices with Patriots on high note: ‘A lot more accurate’

McCarthy, who will not play in Saturday’s preseason game against the Patriots, completed 13 straight throws at one point during Thursday’s final joint practice.

Quarterback J.J. McCarthy was all smiles after Thursday’s joint practice between the Vikings and Patriots when, at one point, he completed 13 passes in a row, including four straight touchdown throws during a full-team, goal-line session.

McCarthy said Thursday was one of his better days of Vikings camp.

The day went so well, he even threw a good incompletion.

His 13-completion streak snapped on a throwaway to stop the clock during the Vikings’ two-minute drill at the end of practice. McCarthy said quarterbacks coach Josh McCown was thrilled with the result, calling it one of McCown’s “favorite plays” of the afternoon because the 22-year-old passer understood what was needed.

“We got seven [defenders] up” at the line, McCarthy said. “I made a protection call, rolled out, threw it away and saved time — little stuff like that is what makes or breaks a two-minute drive and the momentum.”

The plays came together on Thursday for McCarthy, who was efficient in delivering the ball to underneath receivers while hunting for shot plays downfield.

“Felt like the ball placement was there,” McCarthy said.

He added that he was more accurate Thursday than Wednesday, but that there were “still a lot of throws I want back and could put in better spots.”

Coach Kevin O’Connell agreed, although he wasn’t as hard on McCarthy about Wednesday, when he felt the quarterback “had a really good day” against a new defense.

But Thursday was a marked improvement.  “Felt decisive,” O’Connell said of McCarthy. “Incredible amount of conviction in some of the decisions he made, location of the football – a lot to build on.”

McCarthy has focused on specific areas — touch passes, throwing off platform (on the run) — that he was not able to do in the early stages of his recovery from knee surgery last year.

He did both during an impressive goal-line drill with four straight scores: running back Aaron Jones caught a swing pass by the pylon; receiver Jordan Addison snagged a pretty touch pass over multiple Patriots defenders in the back corner of the end zone; McCarthy fled pressure and found receiver Lucky Jackson while on the run; and receiver Thayer Thomas grabbed the last score in the back of the end zone.

“Everything happens faster in the red zone,” O’Connell said, “so there’s going to be some throws where you maybe have to squeeze it in a window. … But then there were also some throws where he threw it up and over guys and found the open grass. … All things we’ve been working on and all things he’s talented and capable of doing.”

“Doing it in this setting should give him some confidence moving forward,” O’Connell added. “At the same time, we have to put this in a little box of what it was and understand how much more the moment will be when you open up on Monday night.”

McCarthy will not play in Saturday’s preseason game against the Patriots, O’Connell said, so Wednesday and Thursday’s practices are most likely the closest he’ll get to game action before the Sept. 8 opener in Chicago.

Quarterback Sam Howell will start against the Patriots, while Brett Rypien and Max Brosmer will also play at some point, O’Connell said.

McCarthy said joint practices were more valuable than a preseason game. O’Connell and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel structured practices to include full-team situational drills revolved around second-and-long, third downs, red zone and two-minute drives.

”You do get exposed to so many different situations,” McCarthy said. Tight end T.J. Hockenson said he’s noticed the young quarterback being a little hard on himself at times about practice reps.

McCarthy, calling himself a “perfectionist,” said that’s another area he’s managing while growing into his role as franchise quarterback.

“That’s something that I’ve been continuing to work on ever since college,” McCarthy said. “I want everything to be perfect out there. That’s just unrealistic. I feel like there’s always ways you can get better, little things like ball placement that you could’ve done more. That’s kind of the psycho in me when [Hockenson] catches a 20-yard high cross and I’m like, ‘Hmm, could’ve been 30.’ But at the end of the day, it’s about staying neutral through those plays.”

A better plan also helped McCarthy in his second day against New England. McCarthy tried looking at the Patriots’ preseason opener for tips about what he might see this week at Vikings headquarters.

“They did not do much of that,” McCarthy said.

Between sessions, O’Connell said coaches did a little bit of game planning off Wednesday’s practice film to put players in better situations on Thursday. Receiver Justin Jefferson also told McCarthy that in the regular season, defenses will be playing Jefferson — and McCarthy — differently because not everyone has one of the best receivers in football.

“I was talking to [Jefferson] in the locker room,” McCarthy said, “telling him the same situation and he’s like, ‘Dude, there’s going to be a lot of teams this year that show one thing on film and when they come play us and play me, they’re going to show a different thing.’ It was just great to get exposed to that early on.”

STRIB