Bryant McKinnie began training camp on the PUP list. Artis Hicks took his spot at left tackle, while Anthony Herrera played right guard. Upon McKinnie's return, Hicks moved to right guard, and Herrera moved to the second team offense. On Monday, the musical chairs game continued with Herrera moving back to starting right guard, and Hicks being demoted to second team offense. Today, both players saw time with the first team offense.

"I don't think either one of them has a head up, that's why it's a competition," said Brad Childress. "I'm just looking for a level of consistency that I can trust and I can know what I'm going to get, and like what I'm going to get."

Childress' offensive scheme requires offensive linemen to be quick and versatile, sometimes brushing two or three defenders on one play. While Hicks is a line-up-and-smash-you-in-the-mouth-type guy, Herrera shows more quickness.

"Artis is more comfortable from a left handed stance," said Childress. "Herrera is probably a more gifted athlete, in terms of his feet and his movement when he pulls. Artis is probably a little bit more of a powerful man. He's probably ten pounds heavier than Herrera. They both bring different things to the table."

The other significant story from camp on Tuesday was the return of WR Billy McMullen. He had been on the PUP list with a leg injury, but returned this morning to take reps with the second team offense. With young receivers such as Chandler Williams and Aundrae Allison impressing coaches early on, McMullen has some catching up to do.

"I wouldn't see him being behind systematically at all," said Childress, "but it's another thing, recalibrating his speed from an injury. They're trying to rehab that injury, your cardio has a chance to go down, because that injury wasn't an injury like some of these other guys, where you seen them moving back and forth on the field. By nature, a receiver is going to run, run, run, run, run, so his cardio can't quite be there. His timing, speed of the game, the ball getting out, all those things, carrying pads… It'll take him a little bit to ramp up, but it's good to see his face back out there today."

The Vikings will hold a 45-minute walk through practice in shorts this afternoon, focusing primarily on the two-minute drill.

Practice Notes

- Players who returned: Billy McMullen, Ben Leber, Sidney Rice, Jason Glenn

- Players held out: Aundrae Allison, Erasmus James, Adrian Peterson, Ronyell Whitaker, Mewelde Moore, John Kerr, Wendell Mathis.

- After practice, Brad Childress said Erasmus James is very close to rejoining the team. He apparently has no physical issues with his knee, but instead is trying to work back into playing condition.

- Adrian Peterson was held out because of his sore hip. Childress said it's a day-to-day thing at this point. Peterson went through warm-ups this morning in shorts, while the other players wore full pads.

- Unlike last week, today's weather is cloudy, wet and extremely humid.

9:35… 11-on-11

- On the second play, Tarvaris Jackson overthrew Bobby Wade, who had a step on Antoine Winfield, 40 yards downfield. Jackson came back on the next play and hit Troy Williamson on a crossing route, moving right to left. Jackson had ALL DAY to throw.

- Artis Hicks and Anthony Herrera are officially battling for the RG position.

- Brooks Bollinger found Billy McMullen over the middle for seven yards. Welcome to training camp, Billy.

- Ryan Cook jumped early and made the run of shame to the far goalpost. Despite his occasional hiccup, Cook remains on the first team offense.

- Tarvaris Jackson threw a perfect deep ball to Bobby Wade, who was 40 yards downfield again. Wade had a couple steps on Charles Gordon, but the ball bounced off his hands. An absolutely perfect deep pass.

- Dovonte Edwards jumped a route on Jackson to deflect a pass. A couple plays later, Cedric Griffin jumped in front of Martin Nance for a near interception on a ball thrown by Brooks Bollinger. Nance tipped the ball away while Griffin was bobbling.

- Ray Edwards also made a nice play to deflect a ball thrown by Brooks Bollinger.

- In between the solid defensive plays, the offense is doing a nice job moving the ball in 5 yard increments. The first round of 11-on-11 provided great back and forth action between the offense and the defense.

9:45… 7-on-7, goal line and special teams

- The action took place on the far end of field two, with players obstructing the view. Difficult to see the action.

- On one particular play, Artis Hicks and Matt Birk opened a canyon up the middle for Chester Taylor, who made it to the secondary untouched.

- Believe it or not, backup RG Kyle Cook caught a TD pass today…

10:00… 11-on-11, round 2

- Tarvaris Jackson has been given the chance to roll out on multiple occasions. It's good to see Jackson in the open field with a chance to make plays.

- Brian Robison, Spencer Johnson, Howard Green and Kenechi Udeze shifted over to blow up a screen play from Brooks Bollinger to Artose Pinner.

- Defensive backs coach Joe Woods is hilarious. He's by far the most animated coach on the field today, jumping up and down and running onto the field every time a defender makes a nice play.

- Kevin Williams sought revenge on Tarvaris Jackson. If you recall, during yesterday's practice, Jackson lowered his shoulder and knocked an unsuspecting Williams on his backside. Today, Williams came around on a stunt and shoved Jackson to the ground for a sack. Normally, defenders aren't allowed to touch the QB. But in this case, it's an eye for an eye.

- Brooks Bollinger was sacked by Ray Edwards, who came around LT Chase Johnson. The play continued anyways, and Bollinger threw a pass to Fason over the middle. The ball deflected off Fason's hands, and Rufus Alexander swooped in for the interception.

- Ray Edwards is absolutely bull-rushing backup LTs Chase Johnson and Adam O'Connor.

- Chandler Williams false start, run of shame. After Williams was done running, Brad Childress pulled him aside for a 90 second chat. Needless to say, the chat was extremely one-sided.

10:22… 7-on-7

- Tarvaris Jackson hooked up with Troy Williamson on a 35-yard deep ball down the left side. Williamson was blanketed by Cedric Griffin, but he stuck with the play to make a spectacular, tumbling catch. This is one of the rare times in the first 10 days of training camp that Jackson has hooked up with Williamson on a deep pass.

- Tarvaris Jackson is gradually becoming more and more accurate with his deep passes.

- Tyler Thigpen made a great pass to Justin Surrency. Thigpen pumped faked right, which froze the CB, and hit Surrency on a slant for 10 yards.

- Chuck Gordon made back-to-back pass deflections.

- The defense seems to feed off each other during every play. It always seems as if players are trying to one-up the next guy. The confidence level of the defense is light years ahead of the offense.

- Tarvaris Jackson tried to find Visanthe Shiancoe on the right side, but had to throw the ball away because Chad Greenway knocked Visanthe on his backside before he could get past the 5-yard mark.

10:35… 11-on-11, round 3, 3rd & long.

- Brian Robison reached a hand in the air to deflect Tarvaris Jackson's first pass.

- Troy Williamson made a nice catch in traffic, but Brian Rovison snuck through for what would have been a sack. Regardless, Troy had a very nice morning, making several nice catches with defenders all over him.

- On a screen pass from Brooks Bollinger to Artose Pinner, the offense had numbers, but Chuck Gordon snuck in and blew it up. Gordon has had his best day of training camp today.

- The defense has sent a lot of blitzes, but the offense is doing a nice job responding. RBs are picking up the blitzers, while QBs are getting rid of the ball quickly. Sometimes this results in poor passes, but sometimes it results in a dump off for a big play.

- With the second team offensive line, Anthony Herrera and Marcus Johnson exchanged high fives after a completed pass by Brooks Bollinger. Kenechi Udeze and Alex Guerrero brought heat with a stunt, but Herrera and Johnson communicated well and were not fooled.

- Todd Lowber made a couple catches today, but he'll stand out for a very bad drop. Drew Henson found Lowber wide open on the left side, 10 yards downfield, but Lowber let the ball bounce right off his chest. The crowd let out a collective moan.

- Aundrae Allison, Sidney Rice, Troy Williamson, Bobby Wade, Martin Nance and Billy McMullen all knelt side-by-side near the end of practice. Take a mental picture. It's very likely these could be the six Vikings WRs in 2007.

Email Phil @ PMac@kfan.com