Vikings' raging bull rusher needs to control his temper

MANKATO - A few players were pushing and shoving Saturday night when, suddenly but predictably, a certain Vikings hothead arrived on the scene, throwing haymakers and landing most of them. Ray Edwards, central to the team's hopes for an improved pass rush, had just exploded with enough aggression to get himself ejected from a regular-season game.

Luckily for the Vikings, it was only a glorified practice against Kansas City. In one night, however, Edwards displayed his tremendous upside as a pass rusher as well as the short fuse that could extinguish the Vikings pass rush this season.

"Tempers flared and things happened," Edwards said Monday.

"I was just protecting a teammate. ... Off the field, I'm the most calm and collected guy you'll ever meet. You've got to have that switch in our profession for the simple fact of just how violent it is. You definitely need that switch."

Edwards, whom the Vikings installed as their starting right end this spring, jawed with Chiefs players several times Saturday night in River Falls, Wis. In between, he disrupted quarterback Brodie Croyle repeatedly.

The practice ended with Tyson ... er, Edwards ... throwing multiple punches at offensive lineman Kyle Turley. It was one of several fights Edwards, who at 22 is younger than many Vikings rookies, has found since arriving last season.

"He's always fired up on the field," nose tackle Pat Williams said. "That's just Ray. You've got to calm Ray down in a game. He gets mad quick, so we try to calm him down, tell him it's all right. But he's got an attitude about it. Whether you're in practice or in a game, if he's on the field, he's mad."

By the time he returned to the field Monday morning, Edwards had spoken with defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier and defensive line coach Karl Dunbar about the brawl. Edwards has no plans to curb his aggression -- "Nah," he said -- but is learning where to draw the line.

"[The anger] is part of what makes him good," Frazier said, "but at the same time you have to control your emotions. There are going to be things said to you, things done to you, and we have talked to him about being able to walk away from situations. It got pretty testy out there. You like the fact that he is a tough guy when he has to be, but you've just got to be smart. In those situations you run the risk of getting kicked out of the game, and we can't afford to lose him.

"He's very important to our future."

Indeed, Edwards has produced an eye-opening training camp, solidifying a starting role no matter when presumed starter Erasmus James returns from knee surgery. If Edwards maintains his current approach, the Vikings say he can be a 10-sack player.

His pure strength was on display last week, when he bull-rushed left tackle Bryant McKinnie 5 yards into the backfield and into quarterback Brooks Bollinger. Monday, Edwards drove tight end Visanthe Shiancoe to the ground while fighting off a block. Later, he showed his speed by stringing out tailback Chester Taylor on an outside run.

Edwards displayed only glimpses of those skills last season after the Vikings took a flyer on him in the fourth round. Although he had first-round talent, Edwards slipped to the draft's second day because of reported problems with the Purdue coaching staff, issues that ultimately led to him leaving the team as a junior.

He finished with three sacks as a rookie while missing one game for disciplinary reasons. But Edwards worked out religiously in the team's offseason program -- "It seemed like every day I was there, he was there," coach Brad Childress said -- and supplemented the work with a trip to the renowned Athlete's Performance facility in Tempe, Ariz.

"I'm just looking at this as my opportunity to show what I can do," Edwards said. "I'm definitely trying to put my résumé on tape.

"I'm trying to make a name for myself."

Kevin Seifert • kseifert@startribune.com