The Vikings defensive line took a blow Thursday night when James Lynch tore his ACL ending his season and now testing the depth of the position group.

New to the Vikings’ d-line is veteran Dean Lowry, who played the last six seasons with Green Bay. Last season, Lowry started 12 of 15 games for the Packers and totaled 43 tackles, one-half sack, and five quarterback hits. He recorded a career-high 5.0 sacks during the 2021 season.

***Click the video box above to hear comments from Dean Lowry, Akayleb Evans and C.J. Ham***

“With Coach Flores, he demands perfection with our defense,” Lowry said to the media after Saturday’s practice. “A lot of attention to detail, physical and every day there is high expectations.”

The Vikings defensive secondary continues to improve. Second year cornerback Akayleb Evans is making strides and taking some reps with the starting defense in training camp, while learning a new defensive scheme under new defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

“It’s our system, you what I mean? He gives us the floor,” Evans said about learning Flores’ system. “It makes us feel like we have a part of it.”

Evans is learning his second defensive system in as many seasons.

Offensively, the Vikings have a veteran at fullback, C.J. Ham.

Ham is entering his entering his seventh season in the NFL, all have been with the Vikings.

“It’s been great. What is nice is it’s not new this year, right?” said Ham about having Kevin O’Connell as a head coach for a second season. “It’s our second year with KOC, we’re all out here competing and having fun.”

Ham signed a two year contract extension with Minnesota this offseason.

(The Minnesota Vikings contributed information to this article.)