Minnesota Vikings: 3 players who will be must-see TV in preseason

3. Ihmir Smith-Marsette, WR

One of the more underrated playmakers in college football the past couple of seasons, Ihmir Smith-Marsette was sort of lost in the shuffle this past year with a deep class of wide receivers coming out in the 2021 class.

Smith-Marsette did a little bit of everything as a member of the Iowa Hawkeyes, taking the primary kickoff return duties as well as playing wide receiver and getting a number of looks out of the backfield on jet sweeps as a ball carrier.

Smith-Marsette was heavily involved in the Hawkeyes’ offensive gameplan, but a lack of really consistent quarterback play in his time there likely factored into his lower draft status.

On a team with some significant questions about wide receiver depth, Smith-Marsette has been able to show some nice things for the Minnesota Vikings at camp and he may be in line for a bigger role in the 2021 offense than originally anticipated.

Many of the concepts he ran with Brian Ferentz at Iowa will translate over well with Klint Kubiak and his scheme, and Smith-Marsette is a natural in the return game.

He should get a lot of playing time in the preseason as the Vikings look to replace Bisi Johnson who suffered a season-ending ACL injury.