Before the Vikings drafted Sharrif Floyd last year, the former Florida Gator defensive tackle was supposed to go in the top five of the draft. That’s what all the mock drafts said, anyway.
Floyd slipped all the way to the Vikings at 23, and his rookie campaign didn’t prove his doubters wrong. This year could be different.
According to the Pioneer Press, Floyd stopped eating meat in March and by the time training camp arrived he was down to 300 pounds. Before making the change, Floyd said he “thought pork made the world go around,” WCCO reported.
“I just feel lighter,” said Floyd, who now tips the scales at 300 pounds. “I feel healthier. I feel like I can last a lot longer in the games and stuff like that. I feel great all-around as a player.”
Floyd went through a similar change in weight before last season. Pro Football Talk says the now-23-year-old weighed 297 pounds at the NFL Combine before ballooning to 330 pounds during his rookie season.
Defensive coordinator George Edwards told John Holler from VikingUpdate.com that the “light has come on” for Floyd, and it was clear as day in last week’s preseason victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
“I think it’s something he has been working on,” Edwards told Holler. “I think you felt his presence more inside last week as far as the push inside. We thought that was his best performance as far as going out and pushing the pocket. We’ve seen it out here in practice numerous times, but coming out of that first ball game to the second, you really felt him a lot more with his inside presence in the pass rush.”
It shouldn’t be difficult for Floyd to top his rookie season. All he’ll need to do is top 19 tackles, 2.5 sacks and two passes defensed.
