Tag: K.J. Osborn

Vikings special teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf talks about the punt returning

Minnesota Vikings punt returner K.J. Osborn has averaged 1.5 yards per return on punts in 2020. Vikings special teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf recently talked about it.

The Vikings have been good on offense and improved on defense during the team’s three-game win streak.

Of course, that win streak was snapped last game against the Cowboys, mostly due to a poor defensive performance. But whether the Vikings are winning or losing as of late, one thing has been consistent: the special teams has been chaotic.

An aspect of that has to do with the punt returning. The Vikings got off to a bad start last game when K.J. Osborn muffed a punt after Minnesota stopped Dallas on its opening offensive drive.

The Vikings recovered, but it yet again revealed a problem: Minnesota has not cut it on special teams lately. Osborn has averaged 1.5 yards per punt return this season.

Vikings special teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf recently talked about the punt returning. He said that he can’t speak for Osborn, but he feels like the rookie is frustrated at the moment.

“I’m happy with K.J., I really am,” Maalouf said, via the Vikings Twitter account. “He wants to make a play. Sometimes, I think he forces it a little bit. I sound like a broken record probably, but the bottom line is: he hasn’t had a preseason, he hasn’t had a ton of reps, either. I can probably count on one hand how many true reps he’s had on punt return to actually advance a ball.”

The Vikings are not getting a lot of punt return yardage out of their special teams unit, but that’s not all on Osborn. It will be interesting to see if the Vikings end up making any changes in order to rectify their issues in that area. If not, I’m not so sure that the punt returning will improve for the team.

Stock up, stock down from the Vikings’ loss to the Cowboys

Here is the stock up, stock down report from the Vikings-Cowboys game on Sunday.

Minnesota was the favorite to win against Dallas and why wouldn’t it be?

The Vikings were on a three-game winning streak heading into the game. The Cowboys were 2-7 at the time and lost their starting quarterback, Dak Prescott, to injury.

Enter Andy Dalton, who did just enough as the new starting quarterback to deliver a win for Dallas. The Vikings defense gave up too many big plays to allow the team to come back.

The game ended with a lackluster offensive drive from the Vikings and Dallas pulled off the upset.

Here is the stock up, stock down from the game:

The good, the bad and the ugly from the Vikings’ loss to the Cowboys

Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from the Minnesota Vikings’ game vs. the Dallas Cowboys.

For the last several weeks, the hardest part of doing the good, the bad and the ugly was finding something bad.

Sure, Minnesota was sometimes winning ugly, but for the most part, the Vikings were exceeding expectations. That made it hard to focus on the negatives.

Now, after the loss to the Cowboys at U.S. Bank Stadium Sunday, it will be hard to focus on the positive. The pass defense didn’t always look bad, for instance, but the group gave up pretty important big plays, especially at the end.

So here it is. This is the good, the bad and the ugly from the Vikings’ loss:

Vikings vs. Cowboys: See the top photos from the first half

These are the top photos from the Minnesota Vikings vs. Dallas Cowboys Week 11 game.

Despite, poor starts to the season for both teams, there are pretty big playoff implications for this game.

Minnesota has fought its way into contention for a wild card spot, while Dallas’ division is so bad it still has a shot at the postseason.

For Minnesota, special teams mishaps continued when K.J. Osborn fumbled on a punt return. The Vikings got a bit of a lucky break, though, considering they recovered the ball.

Dallas stripped the football from Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins in the first quarter. That led to a Cowboys scoring drive, capped off by a touchdown courtesy of Ezekiel Elliott, who scored on a screen pass.

It’s a close game. Down 16-7, Minnesota has more work to do if it wants to make it four consecutive wins. Here are the best photos from the first half of the game:

Vikings injury report: Four out, one doubtful

Uh, oh. The Minnesota Vikings will have to try and get a victory without some key players on Sunday.

If the Vikings want to get a win on Sunday, the team will have to do so without their top running back.

Dalvin Cook, the NFL’s leading rusher, has been ruled out for the Week 6 game against the Falcons. Cook suffered a groin injury in the Week 5 loss to the Seahawks. He was ruled questionable to return for that game. He ended up coming back, playing one snap before leaving.

Cook is a huge loss, but the Vikings have some of the best running back depth in the NFL with Alexander Mattison and Mike Boone.

Cook isn’t the only offensive starter who will not play in the Atlanta game. Guard Dru Samia is also out. Samia has struggled as the starting right guard, but I’m not so sure his replacement is going to be any better right now.

Cornerback Kris Boyd, who plays on special teams as well, is also ruled out.

The final player ruled out is K.J. Osborn, the team’s return man. Cornerback Holton Hill is listed as doubtful for the game.

A strong candidate to take the Vikings’ punt and kick returning job emerges

Vikings Wire has yet another update in the Minnesota Vikings’ punt and kick returner competition.

We have yet another update in the Vikings’ punt and kick returner competition.

Recently, there were reports of the position being trimmed down to four candidates: Ameer Abdullah, Chad Beebe, Bisi Johnson and K.J. Osborn reps at punt returner in practice.

Now, there are signs pointing to one player winning both of the jobs. As reported by Dane Mizutani of the Pioneer Press, K.J. Osborn was the only player who returned kickoffs and punts on Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Here’s what Mizutani wrote:

“It appears the Vikings are going to let him showcase his skills right from the get-go. While that likely means Osborn is a lock to make the roster, it could mean someone like Ameer Abdullah is on the bubble. He was the primary kick returner last season.”

Osborn thrived in the return game at Miami and now it seems like he could have a big special teams role for Minnesota as a rookie.

As Mizutani pointed out, that does not bode well for Abdullah. Vikings Wire listed him as a player who should be considered for the protected practice squad. Here’s why.

Vikings punt returner update

Vikings punt returner was trimmed down to four returners in practice recently.

The Vikings were reportedly utilizing seven punt returners earlier in training camp.

Recently, that number has been trimmed down to just four players, according to Vikings team reporter Eric Smith. Minnesota has been giving Ameer Abdullah, Chad Beebe, Bisi Johnson and K.J. Osborn reps at punt returner in practice.

Also per Smith, the Vikings did team drills in punt return. Beebe and Johnson were back deep for those drills.

Abdullah, Osborn, Alexander Hollins, Jeff Gladney, Tajae Sharpe, Tony Brooks-James and Dan Chisena took reps at the gunner spots.

Before this Chad Graff of The Athletic reported that Quartney Davis, Mike Hughes, Sharpe, Osborn, Abdullah, Beebe and Johnson were receiving punts.

That means Hughes, Davis and Sharpe could be out of the punt return job unless anything changes. The punt returner position will be interesting to watch now that longtime return man Marcus Sherels is no longer on the roster. It appears to still be a relatively open competition.

Who will return punts for the Vikings in 2020?

The Minnesota Vikings’ punt return job is one of the more enticing battles in the team’s 2020 NFL training camp.

The Vikings might no longer have longtime return man Marcus Sherels on roster anymore, but Minnesota still has a plethora of options for punt returner.

As reported by Chad Graff of The Athletic, the team has been going with seven different players in training camp: K.J. Osborn, Quartney Davis, Mike Hughes, Ameer Abdullah, Chad Beebe, Tajae Sharpe and Bisi Johnson.

Graff also mentioned who he thinks has the clearest path to the starting punt returner job: Osborn.

“He was drafted in the fifth round specifically because of his ability there,” Graff said. “But if he doesn’t show enough as a wide receiver, perhaps the Vikings would look elsewhere.”

Abdullah has been a serviceable return man in the past, but like Osborn, he might be too low on the depth chart at his other position — running back, in Abdullah’s case — to make the team. Nothing is defined just yet, though.

“That’s a tough deal,” Maalouf told The Athletic of evaluating the Vikings punt returners. “I think it’s important that we create the environment around him where we put as much stress on him as possible, whether it’s catching punts from a JUGS (machine) or catching punts from Britton (Colquitt). … Now we’ve got to start adding the elements. It’s not the same as preseason games but it’s up to us, as coaches, to kind of create that environment where we’re going to see how they react.”

Ranking Vikings rookies in terms of importance

Here are some Vikings rookies ranked in order of their importance for the 2020 NFL season.

After the Vikings saw key contributors from past seasons leave the team, Minnesota underwent a retooling of its roster.

The Vikings replaced many of the veterans with rookies who will have to adjust to the NFL level without the benefit of a conventional offseason.

Vikings Wire went about ranking six rookies in terms of how important they are to the team’s success in 2020. This won’t be a list that just goes in order of draft position. However, the Vikings drafted positional needs early, so expect to see high picks high up on the list.

There are some interesting late-round rookies and undrafted free agents who might become big contributors for the Vikings, though.

Here is the Vikings rookie class, ranked in order of importance for next season:

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7

Vikings rookie roundup: List of draftees who have reportedly agreed to terms

The Minnesota Vikings reportedly agreed to terms with a good number of players in the team’s draft class recently.

Minnesota drafted a record-breaking 15 players in the 2020 NFL Draft. Despite that high total, the Vikings had reportedly agreed to terms with very few of their draftees — until Wednesday.

Before Wednesday, the only rookie in the team’s draft class who had reportedly signed was seventh-round quarterback Nate Stanley, a player out of Iowa, but since then, plenty of players have reached agreements, according to reports.

Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press reported that nine rookies in Minnesota’s draft class have at least agreed to terms.

Here is the full list of players so far: