Visanthe Shiancoe: Catching on

Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe swears things will be different for him this season. Ask why, and he rattles off changes he's made to his approach after a disappointing debut with his new team.

"The biggest difference is my mentality," he said. "I take it real serious. I got my mind right and my body right. I have new goals and aspirations this year."

It all sounds good, but Shiancoe must prove it's more than just talk. He needs to show a better return on the investment the Vikings made in him last offseason -- a five-year, $18.2 million contract, including $7 million in guarantees.

The Vikings had hoped Shiancoe would play an important role in their West Coast offense, but his first season fell short of expectations. He caught only 27 passes for 323 yards and one touchdown and was not the receiving threat the team had hoped. Perhaps more concerning was that he also dropped three potential touchdown passes.

"I didn't like the way I felt last year," he said. "I just felt like I needed to make a change. I felt like this was the year that I really stepped it up."

Thus the changes. Shiancoe lost 10 pounds and now weighs 242. He changed his diet, eliminating certain foods.

"No more cheese or ice cream," he said.

Shiancoe, who still spends as much time in the weight room, said the weight loss has made him faster and quicker out of his breaks.

"I feel so different," he said. "My [conditioning] is different. I don't get as tired as quickly. You have to take care of your body. It's not just lifting weights."

Shiancoe also added new wrinkles to his workout routine, including one designed specifically to improve his ball-catching skills. He sticks his hands in a bucket of rice and does a variety of movements -- opening and closing his hands, rotating his wrists. The exercises are meant to build hand strength, which presumably will help him catch passes.

Teammates say Shiancoe dropped fewer passes in training camp, although he did fumble in the team's first preseason game.

"I can probably count on one hand the number of drops he's had [in training camp]," quarterback Tarvaris Jackson said. "He's making big plays. He's making the hard catches. I feel like it's night and day from last year to this year."

Familiarity has something to do with that. Shiancoe should be more comfortable in his second season in coach Brad Childress' system.

"Any time a player comes into this offense it takes them a little time to adjust, especially if you haven't had any history with it," offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell said. "He knows where to go. He knows what we are asking him to do. Then Shank does a great job of taking care of his body, working out hard, improving all the things that we ask him to improve on."

Bevell said he still thinks Shiancoe can play a large role in the offense. The Vikings utilize a lot of underneath routes, hoping that will set up throws downfield. Shiancoe should get his share of opportunities if he can find space and hang on to the ball. He caught four passes for 64 yards in three preseason games.

"The tight end has historically been a big part of [the West Coast system]," Bevell said. "I think we are getting closer to it. We see a lot of balls going to him here in practices, and we'll just have to see how the season plays out with it."

Shiancoe said he's made the necessary changes to have a productive season. Now he just has to prove it.

"I'm really close to my teammates right now," he said. "I don't want to let them down. They have high expectations of me because they see what I can do. I'm night and day when it comes to my mentality from last year."