Staying Sharpe: New Vikings receiver follows Diggs departure

 To fill a glaring hole at wide receiver opened by the departure of Stefon Diggs, the Minnesota Vikings have turned first to Tajaé Sharpe.

Whenever NFL teams are able to gather for practice, Sharpe should at least have a head start on offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak's playbook.

“That’s always a good thing when you don’t have to kind of completely start from scratch as far as learning the offense if you hear certain words and certain terms that may be familiar to you,” Sharpe said Thursday on a conference call with reporters.

“With Diggs being traded, having kind of a void to fill at the receiver position, I felt like I had the opportunity to come in here and compete for a starting spot, and that's all that you can ask for,” said Sharpe, a fifth-round draft pick out of Massachusetts in 2016 whose most productive season in the league came as a rookie with 41 receptions for 522 yards.

Last year, Sharpe averaged a career-best 9.4 yards per target.

“He does a great job of delivering the football to his receivers. He was probably the best deep ball thrower in the league last year, so I'm excited about that,” Sharpe said.

“Just finding little ways to keep my game sharp and just stay on my toes,” he said, "so when everything does clear up I’ll be ready to go.’’