Another hot, humid morning in Mankato, another Vikings walk-thru practice at Minnesota State University. The Vikings practice for an hour Thursday morning and continued to work on a lot of special teams schemes.
The team concentrated on middle returns for much of practice and coach Mike Priefer, who is in his second season in charge of special teams for the Vikings, said things are coming along. The team decided to switch practice sessions this year, having walk-thrus in the morning and padded practices in the afternoons and Priefer said that allows him to accomplish a little more.
"We have a meeting before the morning practice to go over what we're going to do and then we implement it during the walk-thru," he said. "That way it's still fresh in their minds. In the afternoon we have more a live practice and we can continue to work on things."
Free-agent signee Geoff Schwartz is finally healthy and has been taking some snaps with the No. 1 unit at left guard. He is battling Brandon Fusco for the starting spot and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave said Schwartz is looking better now that he's no longer nursing an injury.
Third-year quarterback Joe Webb has kind of become the forgotten man now that Christian Ponder has taken over the starting spot but he's been holding his own in practice. Musgrave said he has no qualms about inserting Webb into a game if something happens to Ponder.
"He has pretty good touch and he's improved his anticipation," Musgrave said of Webb. "He can throw the ball before the receiver gets out of his break. Like all the players he's just working on his consistency."
This year's third-round draft choice, Josh Robinson, is still nursing a hamstring injury he suffered on the first day of training camp. The cornerback returned to practice Wednesday but did very little work.
The rookie is not only expected to contribute in the defensive backfield this year but coach Priefer is hoping he'll play a large role on special teams. The training staff wants to take it slow with Robinson so he doesn't suffer any setbacks.
Percy Harvin has set some goals for the 2012 season but none of them are personal.
"Better than 3-13," he said. "That's it. I just want to win more games than three and get in these playoffs and see where we can go."
The sprained MCL suffered by tight end John Carlson on Tuesday has opened the door for some other players to show their stuff. Starter Kyle Rudolph is already getting more reps, but so are Mickey Schuler, Rhett Ellison and Allen Reisner.
Ellison might have a leg-up on the other back-ups because he has additional experience as an H-back in college at USC. That was the role Jimmy Kleinsasser had with the Vikings before he retired.
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