With Vikings preseason games in the rearview, ‘a lot of hard decisions’ on cutdown day loom

NASHVILLE — How is Vikings quarterback Max Brosmer planning to distract himself until roster cuts are done Tuesday?

Corn on the cob and Pronto Pups at the Minnesota State Fair, of course.

“Best [fair] in the country,” the former Gophers QB from Georgia said Friday night. “I’m gonna bring some guys who haven’t been to the Minnesota State Fair. That will be good for us to kind of get our minds off of it a little bit. The rest isn’t in our hands anymore.”

For Brosmer and his teammates, particularly those young and undrafted like himself, distraction is just about all they can do in the four days between their preseason finale loss to the Titans and the 3 p.m. Tuesday deadline for roster cuts.

For Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell and General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, there’s no time for deep-fried food and carnival rides.

Cutting a 91-man roster to 53 is no simple task and ends for many talented players with a conversation O’Connell himself knows too well from his own playing days. He sees those conversations as his job, as difficult as they can be.

“It’s my obligation to make sure they not only get the well-deserved time from hearing from me and how much I appreciate them, but also some of the best conversations I had in my football journey were during some of those tough moments where a coach took the time to tell me how I can improve, things I did well, things I need to really work on and focus on‚" O’Connell said.

He’s shown promise this preseason and is spoken highly of by coaches and teammates, but it would be a bold choice for the Vikings to place an undrafted rookie at No. 2 behind J.J. McCarthy, who has little experience himself.

The Vikings could, however, opt to keep Brosmer as the third QB and release Brett Rypien.

There are similar questions elsewhere: Zavier Scott vs. Ty Chandler for No. 3 running back. Does Myles Price get a roster spot to be punt returner, even though he hasn’t climbed the receiving depth chart?

O’Connell said Friday night that Scott has “absolutely done enough to warrant real conversation” before adding that Chandler has “had a really good camp, too.”

And on defense, will any young guys stick in the secondary? Who will the Vikings keep in a stacked front seven?

About 24 hours before that, defensive coordinator Brian Flores spoke about the depth of this camp’s defensive line room, which includes free-agent acquisitions Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen from this spring.

Still, the move came as a shock to many, as Phillips was a team captain and the first free agent O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah signed upon taking over the organization.

The conversation was perhaps among the hardest O’Connell will have in the upcoming days, and he said moves of that nature are ones he doesn’t take lightly or without guarantee that he can properly send the player off.

O’Connell said he knows Phillips will “have the same impact” on the new culture being installed for the Jets under head coach Aaron Glenn and GM Darren Mougey as he did in Minnesota’s locker room.

“It hurt,” second-year defensive lineman Levi Drake Rodriguez said of Phillips’ departure. “That’s my boy. Love him to death, but I know the Lord has a great plan for him. He’s made an impact on and off the field. Just can’t wait to see what he does in the near future.”

Amid reports that the Vikings are interested in re-acquiring Adam Thielen, Adofo-Mensah kept things vague during an appearance on KFAN’s game broadcast in the third quarter Friday. But he did say he’s inquiring about receivers for a potential outside addition.

Despite the loss and the fact that, for some players, Friday night was their last spent in the Vikings’ locker room, the mood postgame wasn’t downtrodden.

It didn’t feel like the “awkward time” Brosmer said older players warned him about.

Players were still hanging around in the locker room about 45 minutes after the final whistle, taking their time packing up for the flight home and laughing as they did so.

Maybe they were hanging around just to savor it, like Brosmer plans to do with his corn on the cob.

“We’ve got a lot of hard decisions to make.”