Vikings head coach Brad Childress recently called cornerback Cedric Griffin a “violent” football player.

With added playing time and added weight, fans will get a chance to see just how accurate that statement is.

Griffin, in his second year out of Texas, enters training camp as the probable starter at cornerback alongside Antoine Winfield. He also comes to camp 15 pounds heavier than he was for much of the 2006 season.

Winfield and Fred Smoot began last season on top of the depth chart, but strong play vaulted Griffin to the starting job over Smoot by Week 3. This season he won’t have to wait that long to start because it is his job to lose as Smoot is back in Washington.

“That’s my role right now and until someone comes and takes it from me, I’m just going to try and make the plays for the defense,” Griffin said. “ ... I’m all about competing. If I’m competing better than the next man, then I feel I deserve to start.”

Griffin played in 14 games in 2006, starting seven of them. He totaled 42 tackles, two interceptions and two forced fumbles and earned the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Week award for his performance in Week 14 against Detroit.

As a unit, however, the pass defense struggled mightily in 2006, tying for last in the league after allowing 238.6 yards per game through the air.

“This year we need to a better job,” Griffin said. “The coaches have done a good job coaching us up and getting us better in the mental game. They are preparing us better so we’re not out there doing our own thing.”

Griffin missed the end of last season with a neck injury. Coach Childress said he thought some of it had to do with his light weight combined with his aggressive playing style which affected his body over the course of the season.

“He will wallop you,” Childress said. “But he suffered for it a little bit with that pinched nerve in his neck and I think the thing he did in the offseason is he did a great job of adding some good weight. I don’t see some ill effects from that weight in terms of his covering ability.”

Griffin agreed: “I do like to hit and play run support. It took a toll on my body, but I came back and handled it well.”

Griffin played at 187 to 192 pounds last season and added 15 pounds of muscle in time for training camp.

“There was a couple times (last year) I was kidding around with him that he looked like a pencil neck,” Childress said. “Now he weighed in to start at 204 and he is probably going to play about 200 and it is all muscle mass. He has plated himself up a little bit physically.”

Griffin said he feels good enough in his body to live up to coach’s high praise.

“I feel comfortable with my speed and my weight right now,” he said. “Any time you have a little more muscle on you and still can play fast and play with the same mentality, you are going to be a little more violent out there and that’s my game.”