Five extra points: Vikings’ other first-round pick makes an impression vs. Raiders

Rookie first-round pick Dallas Turner spent his first third down with the Vikings being held by 10-year veteran left tackle Andrus Peat in Saturday’s 24-23 preseason victory over the Raiders at U.S. Bank Stadium.

“A lot of my vets told me how holding was going to be worse in the NFL than college,” Turner said. “They were right.”

Turner spent his second third down dipping his left shoulder underneath Peat’s reach and notching a 10-yard sack on third-and-goal from the 3-yard line.

“He couldn’t get that low,” Turner said of his best snap of any kind since joining the Vikings.

Turner is listed at 247 and looks lighter. “My weight fluctuates ever since high school,” he said. “I went from 260 to 225 one year. I’ll definitely be adding pounds before next year.”

He doesn’t think setting the edge in the run game will be a problem because of how he was taught the game at Alabama. He might be wrong at his current weight. On one play Saturday, former Vikings running back Alexander Mattison had an easy 7-yard run to Turner’s side after a 205-pound receiver, DJ Turner, drove the Vikings rookie 5 yards inside.

On the other end of the ballyhooed edge-rushing spectrum is Bo Richter, a lifetime overachiever and undrafted rookie from Air Force. He’s listed at 6-1, but that seems generous from a 5-11½ sportswriter’s eye-to-eye view.

“Ha,” Richter said. “I don’t feel my size or my [lack of] length and all these metrics people use ever holds me back.”

Well, he showed that on his first defensive snap as a Viking. He opened the second half with a 9-yard sack, beating the left tackle to the inside and blasting through the running back. “I always got taught in college that if you [rush] inside, you better win,” Richter said. “I saw it and I took it.”

At worst, Richter is a practice squad player worth developing. And he might be better than that. “I never count myself out,” he said. We shouldn’t either.

The walk-off field goal by rookie kicker Will Reichard was impressive, but there was more bad than good when it came to the Vikings special teams. These eyes noticed how badly the coverage units missed NaJee Thompson, the undrafted lightning bolt who became last year’s top special teams player and leader in tackles. Coach Kevin O’Connell had finished his postgame news conference when asked what’s up with Thompson, who remains on the physically-unable-to-perform list.

“He had a knee [injury] in the offseason and has kind of been dealing with that,” O’Connell said. “He got it fixed and we’re trying to put together a plan that hopefully we can get him right around the third preseason game in Philly. We need him. You can feel it without him in there.”

Yep. The Raiders had punt returns of 23 and 18 yards, and kick returns of 35 and 28 yards.

Those who forgot Kene Nwangwu is one of the NFL’s fastest players were reminded on his 48-yard touchdown run. “The right guard and the right tackle, man, they opened a big hole,” Nwangwu said. “I saw the safety playing deep and just pressed it like a kick return and hit the sideline.”

A former second-team All-Pro returner with three career kick return touchdowns, Nwangwu fell out of the running back rotation last year when he missed eight of the first nine games because of a back injury. Hard to believe a guy with this kind of speed has only 27 career carries in three years.

That could change. Ty Chandler is the presumed No. 2 back behind starter Aaron Jones. Maybe we should reconsider that presumption or at least consider it an ongoing battle with Nwangwu averaging 10.4 yards on five carries. Meanwhile, Nwangwu didn’t take any kick returns but was taking mental notes on the new kickoff rules for when the regular season starts.

“I think it could be easier to break one,” he said. “When you figure it out and get past that first level, it’s just a foot race after that. When healthy, I’m one of the fastest guys in the league.”

Tyrese Robinson. Probably not a name you expected to hear muttered after Saturday’s game. He was the right guard Nwangwu was referring to on that 48-yard touchdown run. The 317-pounder replaced starter Ed Ingram on the third series and played the rest of the game. Played very well, too. He’s an undrafted player from 2021 who’s on his third team without rising above the practice squad. He’s still a little raw. Still has some work to do on his body. But he plays with power and is bigger than Ingram, who played two series when the other starting linemen played only one.

With Dalton Risner injured the past week and not in uniform Saturday, the presumption is Ingram has won the right guard job. But until the third-year pro establishes some consistency, his job can’t be considered safe. Robinson pancaked a defender on one of his early snaps, made no glaring mistakes and executed perfectly on Nwangwu’s touchdown, sealing the inside with blocks on the nose tackle and up to the middle linebacker.

“[Center] Michael Jurgens made a good call and we had a perfect combination up to the backer,” Robinson said. “Kene found the crease and was gone.”