When the Minnesota Vikings are done for the day, Visanthe Shiancoe takes a seat on the artificial grass beneath the dim roof of their practice facility.

His helmet still strapped on, Shiancoe faces away from assistant coach Jimmie Johnson, who starts hurling football after football at the team’s top tight end. Shiancoe turns back over his shoulder, contorts his body and uses his peripheral vision to make catches at the most awkward of angles.

The unorthodox drill continues until the fieldhouse is all but empty.

This is the kind of extra work Shiancoe has put in to finally flourish as a reliable target for Minnesota. After signing a five-year contract as a free agent in 2007, Shiancoe was a borderline flop best remembered that season for his drops.

Once he grasped the offense, a much different scheme than what he learned over four years with the New York Giants, Shiancoe began to settle in. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound product of small-school Morgan State has given the Vikings the speed, strength and sure hands they wanted when they got this late-blooming hard worker from the Baltimore area.

Shiancoe this season caught a career-high 56 passes for 566 yards, a slight dip from 2008, and set the Vikings single-season record for tight ends with 11 touchdowns.