2018 Minnesota Vikings In-Season Thread

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GophersInIowa said:
He’s looked good so far.

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I'm reminded of a lot of grumblings in the offseason (definitely elsewhere, maybe even here) to the effect of "why are they drafting a project on the OL, we need to win NOW with this roster." It's almost as if professional talent evaluators know better than a bunch of random rubes on a message board.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I'm reminded of a lot of grumblings in the offseason (definitely elsewhere, maybe even here) to the effect of "why are they drafting a project on the OL, we need to win NOW with this roster." It's almost as if professional talent evaluators know better than a bunch of random rubes on a message board.
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Yeah, this is the same crew that drafted Willie Beavers, so I'm not sure just how deft of OL talent evaluators we have here.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I'm reminded of a lot of grumblings in the offseason (definitely elsewhere, maybe even here) to the effect of "why are they drafting a project on the OL, we need to win NOW with this roster." It's almost as if professional talent evaluators know better than a bunch of random rubes on a message board.
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I think it was more the fact that the O-line was a pressing need on a team in win-now mode and we drafted a guy who everyone seemed to agree was a project who shouldn't play much in year 1.
 

howeda7 said:
I think it was more the fact that the O-line was a pressing need on a team in win-now mode and we drafted a guy who everyone seemed to agree was a project who shouldn't play much in year 1.
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Yes, thank you for restating what I just said. That is what "everyone" said, and they were wrong.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Yes, thank you for restating what I just said. That is what "everyone" said, and they were wrong.
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The only point is that no one said the evaluators were wrong about his talent.
 


Still would have preferred they draft Hernandez over Hughes, even before the injury.

Seemed like the obvious pick at the time and now is graded as the #9 OG in the league according to Pro Football Focus and by far the best rookie. Was temporality up to #5 a few weeks ago.
 

die hard gopher said:
Still would have preferred they draft Hernandez over Hughes, even before the injury.

Seemed like the obvious pick at the time and now is graded as the #9 OG in the league according to Pro Football Focus and by far the best rookie. Was temporality up to #5 a few weeks ago.
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Ouch that hurts. That's who I wanted as well.......
 


STrib: Vikings GM Rick Spielman says Everson Griffen in 'good spot now'

Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman said Tuesday defensive end Everson Griffen is in a “very good spot now” two weeks into his return to the team after a five-week absence to address a mental health issue that led to two police incidents in September.

“Everson has done everything he’s been asked to do by the professional medical people he’s working with and beyond,” Spielman said. “Everson is in a very good spot now. But it’s not OK today — it’s an ongoing thing. Everson is hellbent on being a success story. But I want to make sure as an organization we put all the pieces in place to make sure that he has the best chance of success.”

While declining to be specific, Spielman said the Vikings have “a pretty good program in place” for players and other employees who need treatment for mental health concerns.

“I’ll just say ownership is going to provide the resources necessary, but at times it has to be the person, too, who has to be willing to go get the help,” Spielman said. “And the resources are available.”

http://www.startribune.com/vikings-gm-rick-spielman-says-everson-griffen-in-good-spot-now/499868291/

Skol Vikes!!
 



Vikings signed Ammeer Abdullah and waived Roc Thomas.

Hopefully we can sign Roc to the practice squad.
 


per RandBall: It's a week of statement games for Minnesota teams

Welcome to the Tuesday edition of The Cooler, where sometimes a broad label fits nicely. Let’s get to it:

*This is an interesting week in local sports, and I don’t mean that in the way that your Minnesota mom says “interesting” to describe a young man’s Fortnite face tattoo she just saw at the grocery story.

Dare I say five different teams have STATEMENT GAMES — those nebulous contests that basically count the same in the standings but have more contextual meaning than others — this week.

*And finally Sunday, perhaps the biggest of them all: Vikings at Bears. This game got moved to primetime on Sunday Night, and for good reason. I keep waiting for the Bears to be frauds — something we talked about on this week’s Access Vikings podcast — and the body of contrary evidence continues to mount. Given the schedules for both teams the rest of the way, I’d say there’s a good chance the winner Sunday ends up winning the division.

http://www.startribune.com/its-a-week-of-statement-games-for-minnesota-teams/500386001/

Skol Vikes!!
 

Sid Hartman: Vikings' salary cap helped by late picks

The Vikings’ salary cap currently sits at $189 million, with about $2.3 million in available cap space for this season. They already have $178 million in salary locked up for 2019.

The front office knows that if they’re going to continue to sign players such as Kirk Cousins, Danielle Hunter, Stefon Diggs and Xavier Rhodes to big contracts, they’re going to have to continue to make successful picks late in the draft.

Looking back to the Vikings’ 2016 draft, there were two productive seventh-round selections.

They used the 227th overall pick, which they acquired from Miami by trading the No. 186 pick for No. 196 and No. 227, to grab Vanderbilt linebacker Stephen Weatherly.

Then with their own pick at No. 244, the Vikings grabbed Clemson safety Jayron Kearse.

Weatherly — who is earning $630,000 this season on a four-year, $2.34 million deal — has taken the second-most snaps of any defensive end on the team, behind only Hunter.

He stepped in when Everson Griffen left the team for five games to address mental health issues, and Weatherly has compiled three sacks (second most on the team), eight quarterback hits, 22 tackles and a forced fumble during the Vikings’ 5-3-1 start.

Kearse, who is making $630,000 this season on a four-year, $2.4 million deal, is seeing the most playing time in his career, especially in nickel packages and stepping in when Andrew Sendejo was injured. He’s played one-fourth of the defensive snaps and about half of the snaps on special teams, where he is tied for seventh in the NFL with eight special-teams tackles. He has 19 tackles through nine games, equaling the total tackles from his first two seasons.

General Manager Rick Spielman said the draft success of Weatherly and Kearse goes back to a team philosophy of trying to get as many picks as possible.

“We have always been trying to get as many draft picks as we can in the third day, because I think the more chances you have, or the more players you’re taking those rounds, you have a better chance of potentially hitting on those guys,” he said. “As long as we stay true to our principles on what we’re looking for in players and what type of character we’re looking for on players, I have no doubt if we bring guys in here — especially in the later rounds — that check all the boxes for us, this coaching staff is going to develop them.”

http://www.startribune.com/vikings-salary-cap-helped-by-late-picks/500647081/

Skol Vikes!!
 



I wonder if the Vikings will ask Griffen to renegotiate his contract? $11.6 million this year. Turns 31 in December. Weatherly is a pretty decent cheap DE. Would love to use that money on better offensive linemen.
 

per Sid:

JOTTINGS

• Dalvin Cook looked fantastic two weeks ago against the Lions when he ran for 89 yards and caught four passes for 20 yards. Offensive coordinator John DeFilippo said Cook is full-go for Sunday against Chicago. How is Cook feeling? “Around this time last year I was on the couch, wishing I could compete and be out there,” he said. “Now that I’m here, I have to take full advantage.”

• DeFilippo was coaching in Oakland when the Raiders drafted Khalil Mack fifth in 2014. How does he view the No. 1 Bears defense? “I know [Mack] up close and personal, how good he is and how good his skill set is,” he said. “We have our hands full.”

• Since center Pat Elflein returned to the lineup the Vikings are averaging 104.5 yards rushing per game.

• A loss to Chicago will put the Vikings 1½ games behind the Bears in the NFC North with six games to go. Has head coach Mike Zimmer seen a different sense of urgency from his squad? “I think there is still a long ways to go,” he said. “I haven’t noticed any difference in the way they are. They are not uptight or anything like that.”

• Vikings special teams coach Mike Preifer on Bears punt returner Tarik Cohen. “I’ve had him in my brain for a couple of weeks,” Preifer said. “Great punt returner, probably the best we have faced this year. We have to protect. We have to get off blocks. Our gunner has to show up.”

• The Bears are first in the NFL in the turnover battle as they have forced 24 turnovers while committing just 11. The Vikings are tied for 16th with a margin of plus-1.

• The combined record of the teams the Bears have beaten this season: 19-38.

http://www.startribune.com/eric-kal...ve-questions-for-gophers-athletics/500760581/

Skol Vikes!!
 

BleedGopher said:
per Sid:

JOTTINGS
• The Bears are first in the NFL in the turnover battle as they have forced 24 turnovers while committing just 11. The Vikings are tied for 16th with a margin of plus-1.

• The combined record of the teams the Bears have beaten this season: 19-38.

http://www.startribune.com/eric-kal...ve-questions-for-gophers-athletics/500760581/

Skol Vikes!!
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Regarding turnovers, I’ve heard quite a stat this last week. Essentially, the discussion was that causing fumbles is a skill but recovering them is somewhat random, nearly a 50-50 proposition.

I may be butchering the stat but it was something like in the Vikings games there have been 51 fumbles and the Vikings have only come up with 11 of them or something, by far the lowest in the league.

The Bears are also coming up with INT’s at an alarming rate; after averaging like 8 in each of the last two years I think they said they have 16 already.

Two turnover stats that are just highly unlikely to be sustained by either team. The Vikings are the better team and they have better players. Period. They need to sweep the Bears this season.
 


I'm completely disinterested in this game already. It's so easy to tell who has the better OL.
 

This is one of the worst halves of football I've seen from the Vikings in a long time. Wow what a crappy half.

Skol Vikes!!
 

If the Gophers defense was giving up obvious screen and draw plays like the Vikes are- we'd be calling for Zimmers head


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

The entire interior line is bad. Elflein and Compton are especially terrible. Neither should start on an NFL team.
 


It’s pretty hard to win games consistently with this O line and the lack of a running game.

Zimmer adjusted pretty well after half to the Bears offense. It would have been nice if that could have happened a little earlier.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
The entire interior line is bad. Elflein and Compton are especially terrible. Neither should start on an NFL team.
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The first three picks need to be OL in the draft next year. Instead we’ll probably draft a few more DBs.
 

Probably have to go 5-1 to win the Division and 4-2 to make the play-offs. I think we can still do the later, but I'm not sure it will be enough.
 

Chip: Vikings effort vs. Bears not worthy of prime time

Good teams seize that situation. They put aside everything that transpired before then and recognize that this is their moment to pounce.

The Vikings did the bare minimum with their chances. And then Cousins threw an interception in crunch time.

With so much at stake, this was viewed as a statement game for both teams. The Bears’ statement resonated loud and clear. So did the Vikings’.

http://www.startribune.com/vikings-effort-vs-bears-not-worthy-of-prime-time/500800391/

Skol Vikes!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Chip: Vikings effort vs. Bears not worthy of prime time

Good teams seize that situation. They put aside everything that transpired before then and recognize that this is their moment to pounce.

The Vikings did the bare minimum with their chances. And then Cousins threw an interception in crunch time.

With so much at stake, this was viewed as a statement game for both teams. The Bears’ statement resonated loud and clear. So did the Vikings’.

http://www.startribune.com/vikings-effort-vs-bears-not-worthy-of-prime-time/500800391/

Skol Vikes!!
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Geez, he's acting like we lost at home to the Bills or something.

This is a pretty harsh take from Chip, particularly given that it's very difficult to win on the road in the NFL - even more so when you're playing a really good team. We were underdogs to the Bears, as we should have been. This season has gone mostly the way it should, with the notable exception of the aforementioned Bills loss. That's the one that really screwed the pooch on this season. Aside from that horrific blunder, we have 3 losses - to the Saints, Rams, and Bears, pretty easily the 3 best teams in the NFC right now. If we can sneak out of Foxboro with a win (evening out the Bills loss), we have a good shot at running the table. That still puts us in play to win the division or at worst be a wild card.

This isn't what most fans expected from this season, but the schedule is brutal and left no room for error.
 

The Bears have a far better offensive line. They protected their QB and opened holes for the RB. In contrast, as usual, Cousins was under pressure on most every snap and there are few holes for the RBs to run through. The Viking's failure to address the offensive line situation is likely going to be the undoing of a team with Super Bowl talent in every other area.
 

It's too bad the vikings couldn't have listened to any serious fan, the national media, or pro football focus about how bad this o-line was last year and how bad it was going to be this year. It's really not the front offices fault as they didn't have the information!
 

march madness said:
It's too bad the vikings couldn't have listened to any serious fan, the national media, or pro football focus about how bad this o-line was last year and how bad it was going to be this year. It's really not the front offices fault as they didn't have the information!
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Upgrading the offensive line isn't exactly as easy as it sounds. There are NOT 160 starting quality offensive linemen in the NFL, it's a weakness for a good number of NFL teams. Not saying they couldn't have done more to address the issue but there aren't enough quality linemen to go around; getting 1 or 2 of the better ones to sign with your team isn't that easy.

Their window hasn't closed just yet, it'll be interesting to see what they do this coming offseason, both in the draft and in FA
 

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