Vikings, 49ers Hold Joint Practice Ahead of Preseason Match-up Saturday

Lance returns to home state, Cousins off COVID List

EAGAN, Minn. — Ahead of their preseason match-up on Saturday, the Minnesota Vikings are hosting the San Francisco 49ers for joint practices at the TCO Performance Center. Former Bison Trey Lance is back in his home state while Kirk Cousins returns from COVID.

Cousins was out for five days after testing positive. He missed the first preseason game against the Raiders, where the majority starters were only getting one series. “You like that” Kirk was back, completing the first 11 passes.

On the other side, Lance won’t play in the closest contest to Bison Nation after coming off a near perfect performance in his season debut against the Packers going 4 of 6 including a 76 yard touchdown pass in a Niners win. The coaches will see everything they need to in these scrimmages.

“Just being more consistent. He gets a little better at everything which is what you need to do as a rookie coming in especially the lack of experience Trey had,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said. “You throw everything at him and sometimes he gets one down. You throw in some new stuff and it’s a step back. That’s been the process through all of last year and into this year. As I keep saying, the more he plays and the more reps he gets, the better he’ll get.”

“I was commenting to my wife that if I had to miss five days and were to be strategic about which five, you probably picked a pretty good five,” Cousins said. “The Thursday practice would’ve been great to be a part of. Friday was lighter. Saturday was a travel day. Sunday, at most, would’ve been a half dozen plays and then Monday was an off day so it worked out pretty well from that standpoint.”

Both teams will scrimmage again Thursday with walk-throughs on Friday. You can watch the game Saturday at 6 on KVRR.