Despite loaded roster, new-look Vikings face multitude of challenges as training camp kicks off

Vikings face tough schedule, high expectations and replacing a beloved assistant.
As the Vikings’ veterans assemble at the team’s practice facility in Eagan on Wednesday for the start of training camp, they should be well aware of how little their 13-3 record a year ago means to their prospects for the 2018 season.
Their coach made sure of that.
“We can’t start at 13-3. We have to start at 0-0,” Mike Zimmer said as the Vikings wrapped up their mandatory minicamp on June 14. “Obviously, it’s a tough schedule. We’re playing both coasts. We’re playing Thursday night in L.A. There are a lot of things we are going to have to overcome. We are going to have to be a good football team in order to do what we want to do.”
Even if the 2018 Vikings are discrete from last year’s team, expectations following this year’s club will not be. Not after the Vikings spent $84 million on quarterback Kirk Cousins in March, and signed Pro Bowl defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson the next day.
Whether it’s fair or not, fans of a team that reached the NFC Championship Game a year ago will be clamoring for it to take the next step in 2018, even as the Vikings’ schedule presents some unique challenges and the conference remains stocked with well-heeled opponents, including the Super Bowl champion Eagles, who hope to have quarterback Carson Wentz recovered from a torn ACL.
The Vikings figure to be among the trendy picks in the NFC as they open camp at the sprawling TCO Performance Center, with a roster that appears as replete with top-end talent as any in the league. As much as their collection of talent — the NFL’s top-ranked defense, a top-10 offense that added Cousins and the return of running back Dalvin Cook — has them poised to compete in the conference, the Vikings also have an unusual number of new faces in important spots for a team that’s so established.
They will continue to indoctrinate Cousins into their offense, which has its third coordinator (John DeFilippo) in as many seasons. Cook, who tore the ACL in his left knee last Oct. 1, is expected to be ready for preseason games, though the Vikings will likely exercise caution with their second-year running back. And even as they grieve the loss of offensive line coach Tony Sparano, who died Sunday of arteriosclerotic heart disease at his home in Eden Prairie, the NFL calendar brings a cold reality: the Vikings have the unfortunate task of replacing the senior member of their offensive coaching staff six weeks before the start of the regular season...

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