Mike Zimmer tells us some things about the preseason opener

What were they? Let’s find out

We are a little more than 72 hours away from watching the Minnesota Vikings take to the football field for the first time since January, and for the first time in front of fans at U.S. Bank Stadium since the 2019 regular season finale. That’s pretty awesome, right?

During his press conference on Wednesday, Mike Zimmer passed along some things for us to know about Saturday’s contest against the Denver Broncos. Here they are, in no particular order.

• It doesn’t sound like first-round pick Christian Darrisaw is going to play in Saturday’s contest. Darrisaw has been dealing with a groin injury all throughout camp and has been limited in his snaps with the first team. Based on the depth chart that the team put out yesterday, it would appear that Rashod Hill will continue to start at that spot and we’ll see UDFA Evin Ksiezarczyk get the bulk of the work when the starters are finished.
• Also among those unlikely to play is quarterback Kellen Mond. Mond, as we know, was Patient Zero in the COVID outbreak that sidelined three-fourths of the Vikings quarterback room last week, and he’s not quite up to speed yet according to Zimmer. That probably means a lot of time for Jake Browning, who has likely already nailed down the backup job.
• As far as the kicking battle is concerned, Greg Joseph will be handling all of the kicking duties on Saturday. His competition, Riley Patterson, started camp on the Physically Unable to Perform List and has only been active for a few practices. If Patterson stays healthy, maybe he’ll get the next game to himself. We’ll have to see.

There was no solid indication from Zimmer as to how much the starters were going to play on Saturday afternoon. If it’s anything like past preseasons, the first-team will get a series or two and then give way to the reserves.

Remember, the game will be shown LIVE on the NFL Network, with kickoff at 3:00 PM Central time. We’ll be right here watching the whole thing with you and, hey, we’ll probably even have an Open Thread just to make sure that we remember how to do that sort of thing. After all, it’s the preseason for us, too.