Vikings Insider: Lighter drills a product of two factors

Although nobody realized it, Brad Childress set the tone for the type of training camp he wanted to conduct a day before his team practiced for the first time this summer.

Instead of having players participate in a grueling drill that required them to run from the goal line to the 50-yard line and back 16 times, the Vikings coach elected to have them attend meetings and ready themselves for the start of three weeks in Mankato.

This was a major departure from Childress' first season in 2006, when players had to run the half-gassers, and even a change from 2007 when 34 completed the drill the day before practice opened.

As the Vikings completed the non-Winter Park portion of workouts Thursday, they did so having been in full pads four times out of a possible 30 practices, including a joint practice against Kansas City in River Falls, Wis.

Could this have been the same coach who conducted full-pads practices on 12 consecutive days only two years earlier?

Childress' approach created a good story line and led him to (we think) jokingly invite a media member to participate in a run-intensive 9-on-7 drill to see just how "easy" it was to take a hit at this camp. It wasn't as if players didn't get in hitting wearing shorts and shoulder pads, but clearly Childress didn't feel the need to make any type of statement.

Why?

The answer appears twofold: 1) By capping rosters at 80 and eliminating the six exemptions teams had received for players they sent to now-defunct NFL Europa, it became necessary to ease up on guys. 2) Childress has reached a comfort level with his players -- especially the veterans -- and is confident they will police each other when it comes to conditioning and accomplishing what needs to get done.

"Optimal performance comes from me setting the framework and parameters and allowing them to take ownership and lead," he said of the second point. "I'll give you the instruction. I'll lead you from the standpoint of, 'Here's what it is, here's what we're going to do.' And there has to be a trust involved as well.

"That they are going to give you what they want, what they need and that you're not going to grind them into pulp. And that they're going to, in turn, make it internal. It isn't going to be a deal where I've got to beat 30 guys over the head with a baseball bat."

The 80-man roster limit has been a touchy NFL subject, with Commissioner Roger Goodell reportedly telling teams to stop complaining about the issue. "As long as everybody is playing by the same rules -- 80 is 80 and it is a finite number," Childress said. "But everybody has the same rules."

The way Childress ran camp started to get more attention after the Vikings' 34-17 preseason loss to Seattle, where they fumbled five times. The notion that the turnovers might have been avoided by having more tackle-to-the-ground work in practices did not sit well with Childress.

"It's like there hasn't been any hitting or there hasn't been any balls on the ground here or that nobody has been subjected to any conditioning or football-like movements," he said. "That's just not accurate to even insinuate the fumbles are because we haven't tackled to the ground. Those guys get whacked in that inside drill and we have had live goal-line, short-yardage [drills]."

Safety Darren Sharper, who was around for Childress' first camp, dismissed the importance of being in full gear.

"That doesn't make a difference," Sharper said. "Putting the pants on, most of the time when you have those on there's only going to be a couple of times that you tackle to the ground. So having the shoulder pads on you're still banging around a little bit so you're getting that physical presence in practice.

"I know the guys felt like this camp they haven't been beaten down. We feel as though we've got in great work. Guys have been tired, guys have been sore but also we're practicing at a good pace. Guys are excited about what that's going to help us do this year."

Judd Zulgad • jzulgad@startribune.com