DAILY CLIPS SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2020 LOCAL NEWS: Sunday, July 12, 2020 Star Tribune Fall football forecast: Maybe the NFL plays By Jim Souhan https://www.startribune.com/souhan-fall-football-forecast-sees-maybe-the-nfl-playing/571730082/ The Athletic Vikings Training Camp Guide — WRs: All eyes on Adam Thielen By Arif Hasan https://theathletic.com/1921399/2020/07/11/vikings-training-camp-guide-wrs-all-eyes-on-adam-thielen-heading-into- season/ NATIONAL NEWS: Sunday, July 12, 2020 CBS Sports Every NFL team's best player who is not enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, yet By Bryan DeArdo https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/every-nfl-teams-best-player-who-is-not-enshrined-in-the-pro-football-hall-of- fame-yet/ PUBLICATION: Star Tribune DATE: 7/12/20 Fall football forecast: Maybe the NFL plays By Jim Souhan During his time as a Vikings executive, Kevin Warren became known for honesty and caution. So when Warren, the newish commissioner of the Big Ten, said this week that his conference might not play football this fall, you should have heard alarm bells. In the past couple of weeks, the Big Ten canceled nonconference games, the Dallas schools superintendent expressed doubt that there will be high school football in Texas, the NFL canceled two weeks of preseason games, Houston Texans star J.J. Watt said he wouldn’t play this season if he has to wear a face shield, Bucs left tackle Donovan Smith said playing “does not seem like a risk worth taking,” the NFL Players Association expressed a preference for canceling the rest of the preseason, the NFL asked for 35% of players’ salaries to be placed in escrow to help manage league costs and the league banned socializing on the field after games. In other sports, key players have opted out or considered doing so, with San Francisco Giants star catcher Buster Posey declining to play. Warren’s words and those of Dallas superintendent Michael Hinojosa might be the most alarming to football fans and anyone else trying to decide how seriously to take the coronavirus. The Big Ten Conference, Big Ten schools and the Big Ten Network will lose a massive amount of money if football isn’t played. And to understand the importance of prep football in Texas, you can watch “Friday Night Lights” or just think of hockey in our state and spread it out over a space that is 229% larger than Minnesota. Football is even bigger in Texas than hockey is in Minnesota. All of these developments raise two questions: Will there be football this fall? Should there be football this fall? There are three categories of football to address. The first is nonrevenue football — youth leagues, middle schools, high schools, smaller colleges. These are teams that can’t afford to place their players in a bubble. A high school player not only could spread the virus to his teammates, he could carry the virus home to his family. For football teams with no major financial incentive to play, why would you take the risk of getting people sick, and perhaps getting sued? The second category is revenue-producing college teams. They could be better prepared to keep their players within some kind of functional bubble, and they have financial incentive to play, but can they ask players to risk their health for an institution that refuses to pay them? The third category is the NFL. NFL players get paid and are represented by a union. They are adults who can accept the risks of playing during a pandemic. But should they play? And should they be asked to? The NFL is simultaneously telling its players that they can smash headfirst into each other for 60 minutes but it’s not safe to exchange jerseys after time expires. It feels like we’re on our way to cancellations at every level of football below the NFL. The NFL has never cared much about player safety, so the question is whether players will object to playing, and how many would have to opt out for the league to cancel or postpone the season. Had America handled the pandemic more intelligently, the football season would not be in doubt. With cases spiking all over the country, the sports world is merely reflecting America’s state of crisis. If the virus were a hoax or a passing concern, NFL teams, all of which are owned by billionaire businesspeople, would be playing their full schedules and making their full profits. They have been forced to react to the virus because the virus, if you want to put it in sporting terms, is beating America in a historic blowout. In Vikings terms, right now it’s Virus 41, America donut. Want sports? Wear a mask. Practice social distancing. Care about someone other than yourself, even if that someone is a player on your favorite NFL team. PUBLICATION: The Athletic DATE: 7/12/20 Vikings Training Camp Guide — WRs: All eyes on Adam Thielen By Arif Hasan (Editor’s note: This is part of a series of position-by-position articles breaking down every player on the Vikings roster as we build up to the start of training camp later this month. We’ve already covered the quarterbacks and running backs. Next up, the wide receivers. Still to come: Tight ends, offensive line, defensive line, linebackers, cornerbacks and safeties.) For a quarterback that seems to either thrive or drop off based on the strength of the supporting cast around him, Kirk Cousins might be more interested than most passers in the state of his receiving corps. Unfortunately, with their top receiver from 2019 traded away — and a good probability of seeing more receivers on the field than last year — the pickings may be slim for Cousins. That said, there’s a high degree of uncertainty, which means any pessimism can be countered by equally well- evidenced optimism. No receiver featuring for the Vikings in 2020 will have taken over 600 snaps last year, but there’s good reason to believe that their previous receptions leader and first-round pick can immediately return the corps to form. At the same time, relying on a player coming off of injury and potentially leaving his prime to work with a rookie to bring the position to its previous heights might be asking a bit much. It could be the case that the wide receiver corps exceeds expectations while simultaneously failing to provide enough support to vault the passing game to the next level. On the other hand, the Vikings just need a repeat performance from Adam Thielen and a first-round effort from their first-round receiver to catapult Cousins into Pro Bowl contention. Adam Thielen With a phenomenal 2018 behind him, Thielen’s 2019 was nothing short of disappointing if only because injuries prevented him from seeing the field. Now forced into a role as the workhorse of the passing offense with no proven stars to relieve the pressure, the microscope will be focused directly on Thielen and his ability to beat opposing corners. With an offense that might be a bit more focused on throwing the ball than last year, how Thielen performs might dictate how the team performs. Strengths: Thielen is a remarkable route-runner — does a great job setting up defensive backs for one or two routes and then running a different, third one. He engages in that kind of deception without compromising dropback or route timing. Route fakes include head, shoulder, hip and foot movement. He’s extremely effective with stop-and-go moves that create significant space and the ability to vary route speed enhances the potential to deceive defensive backs. He boasts above-average NFL speed and agility with no weak route in his route tree. Can win on deep, intermediate or short throws on the sideline or over the middle. Fantastic body control, allows him to prevent catches from becoming contested by boxing out defensive backs at the catch point. Sideline maven. Strong hands — low drop rate and one of the best contested-catch artists in the NFL. Thielen does a great job reading defenses and adjusting routes to accommodate that — finds space against zone very well and manipulates defensive back leverage at a high level. Really fantastic release off the line of scrimmage, his single-best trait and perhaps better than any other player in the NFL, and as a result can win against press and off coverage. Deception works at the release, throughout the route and at the catch point, even flashing “late hands” to prevent defensive backs from contesting the ball. Weaknesses: The injury concern is magnified by age. While Thielen isn’t old by receiver standards, he’s likely hitting the back end of his prime as he’ll enter the season at 30 years old. Given the recurring nature of back injuries — sustained in 2018 and a factor in the NFC Championship game against the Eagles — along with the repeated hamstring injuries throughout the 2019 season, there’s reason to believe that Thielen will be an injury risk going forward and may not be available for multiple 16-game seasons. Even if healthy, the injuries could result in a loss of physical prowess, something we saw for brief moments of the 2019 season when he returned from injury the first time. Despite above-average athletic traits, Thielen has no overwhelming physical trait, whether that’s speed, quickness, explosive capability or strength — meaning he can’t really be a “matchups” receiver. Fluid but not a ton of suddenness in cuts — separation completely reliant on technical skill.