A couple days battling Cleveland's defense is a great entree for the regular season.
"To the blind eye, it just looks like football to everybody," Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell said in Northeast Ohio on Thursday after concluding a second joint practice with the Browns. "But when you're playing this style of defense – where there's no reading or reacting going on along the defensive line – they are one-gap penetrating fronts that really test your ability to be connected on your combinations."
The Vikings were tested up front by All-Pro Cleveland edge rusher Myles Garrett "and the rest of the gang" on running and passing plays over the past 48 hours as they prepare for their second preseason contest, a step closer to the real thing.
It was the perfect test for starting quarterback Sam Darnold under simulated game-day circumstances (at times heated; chock full of back-and-forth competition). He demonstrated his growth within the offense.
"They play really hard. They keep it pretty simple to a degree," Darnold said about Cleveland's defense, which ranked atop the NFL last season in fewest yards allowed. "They do bring some linebacker dogs or nickel blitzes every now and then … and they just kind of let those defensive linemen work."
The Browns defense hastened Darnold's communication at the line. In addition to knowing where to slide protections, judging backend alignments pre-snap and where to go with the football, Darnold had to account for Garrett, who O'Connell lauded as someone capable of wrecking the play every snap.
"I don't think people talk about his instincts enough," O'Connell said of the three-time First-Team All-Pro and 2023 Defensive Player of the Year. "He understands, through his experiences, the types of tools that may be used against him to try to mitigate some of his impact … and [he] can play off of that well."
"[His] practice tape looks a lot like the game tape," added Darnold, who was drafted one year after Garrett and is familiar with his talent. "He works really hard out here and it's apparent, it's obvious to me, why he's so good – it's because he comes out here and works his tail off every single day."
Garrett made Darnold and the Vikings work their tails off, as well.
The Browns front seven stressed Darnold's dispatching with center Garrett Bradbury at the line of scrimmage, but it was valuable experience for the newcomer and returnee.
"We're not going to load up Sam's plate with every possible call for run and pass that we have in our playbook," O'Connell said. "But I think the dialogue and the communication is important because if we're all on the same page, regardless of what the call is … people can react based on what we see post-snap."
O'Connell and Darnold sound as if they're more and more on the same page. They're syncing up.
"I think protection calls are obviously very important … but the priority is definitely the concepts, what coverages the concepts are attacking," Darnold said after Thursday's session, explaining that different protections become an emphasis in game-planning on a week-to-week basis. "[In games] the most important thing is being able to protect yourself against pressure or against a certain look."
The veteran signal-caller, still only several months into his stint on the Vikings (his fourth NFL team in seven seasons), said communication with Bradbury has been great. That's what matters because, as O'Connell mentioned, Bradbury has been integral to the identification of fronts and protection calls.
It's a slightly different setup, for now, than when Kirk Cousins was under center – Bradbury said after the first joint workout that he has more on his plate – because of Darnold's newness in O'Connell's offense.
Darnold said the continuity and experience together of the players shielding him has benefited his progression. Even amidst the action, Bradbury's involvement is more significant. He's assisting Darnold.
"Kirk might have been, 'Hey, I'm feeling [the defense]. I'm gonna switch up the cadence.' Whereas now we're working together on it, like, 'Hey, let's switch up the cadence here. Hey, safety's down. Let's can this.' So it's just we're working together a little bit more, versus just listening to the guy, which is great," Bradbury detailed after Wednesday's practice. "It's good for all of us, because we're kind of on our toes more. We're not just sitting there waiting and listening. We're all kind of engaged a little bit differently."
