As a brand-new head coach, Mike Zimmer is allowed to have a few more early team practices and training sessions than established coaches under the NFL’s bargaining agreement. The first mini-camp was held this week, from Tuesday to Thursday, and even the veteran players were approaching it like the first day on the job:
Matt Cassel has been around the NFL block a few times in his 10 seasons as a quarterback. Not much surprises him anymore, and yet he found himself unable to sleep the night before the Vikings minicamp this week.
“I was excited, jittery,” he said.
Chad Greenway felt those same butterflies. The veteran linebacker compared it to being a rookie or college freshman again.
“It was straight-up nerves,” he said.
Captain Munnerlyn arrived in town as a key offseason acquisition who’s supposed to help fix a shipwrecked defense, and even he felt a weird uneasiness.
“With a new coach, it’s a clean slate for everybody,” he said. “That means every position is open. Except for the running back position.”
Good call. We’ll go out on a limb and suggest that Adrian Peterson probably didn’t need to impress the new coaching staff in order to keep his job. But everyone else convened at Winter Park this week with an overarching sense of anxiety not normally evident at a routine offseason workout.
Imagine your first day with a new boss, one who’s known for his no-nonsense personality and brutal honesty. And salty language.
“You’re on edge and trying to make a good first impression,” Greenway said. “You know the draft is coming in a week. They’ll probably make some decisions based off of this camp.”
If Mike Zimmer’s first on-field introduction made players nervous and uncomfortable, that’s a good thing. This organization had become too lethargic under the previous regime. The atmosphere at Winter Park became stale as losses piled up last season.
