All Things 2020 Minnesota Vikings In-Season Thread

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I still think the PAT being moved back was incredibly stupid. It just made a player that sees the field for less than 5% of all plays influence the outcome of the game that much more.
 


howeda7 said:
Sign a decent FA in the off-season. No more wasted draft picks.

The Broncos have had basically 3 kickers in the last 26 years {Jason Elam, Matt Prater, Brandon McManus} it should be this hard.
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Carlson was really kind of a unique situation. He underwent a few changes between his last games at Auburn and playing for the Vikings. The Athletic did a really good article on what he did in the several weeks between the Vikings dumping him and the Raiders picking him up. He went back to the film, his old coaches I think, found some things that had ultimately changed in his approach to the ball, etc. It wasn't something as simple as a change of scenery making a big difference. The young man really took it upon himself to dig into the details and find out what was wrong and resurrect his game. Good for him, he's been really solid for the Raiders ever since, at least for the most part.

To GII's point about changing the PAT, the league for whatever reason has taken the approach in the last decade or two to almost penalize the kickers for being so good basically. Changing the spot of the ball after a missed FG from the original LOS to the spot of the ball was essentially done to discourage longer FG's. Moving the PAT is just stupid also. I've actually wondered if they are ever going to narrow the goalposts at some point. The kickers today are just light years better than they were 30 years ago or even less.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I'll never forget two VERY prophetic things that the old barefooter, Rich Karlis, said when he was negotiating his contract with the Vikings, both are still as true today as they were way back then:

1 - There are not 28 (at the time 28 teams in the NFL) good kickers in the NFL

2 - You don't know how important a good kicker is until you don't have one

Ol' Rich nailed it then and it's still true now. Find one and pay him, overpay him if necessary
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Is Rich available for a few weeks? Faud Revez? Donald Iggy-whatshisname? Benny Ricardo? Eddie Murray? Jan Stenerud? I'll take any of them!
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Bieniemy may very well be a GREAT HC candidate but you DO know it's Andy Reid calling the plays, right? Eric B in that respect would be a similar candidate to Matt Nagy in Chicago and Nagy hasn't exactly lit the world on fire.
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Also, 12 men in the huddle in 10' was EB's fault.
 



Ope3 said:
Is Rich available for a few weeks? Faud Revez? Donald Iggy-whatshisname? Benny Ricardo? Eddie Murray? Jan Stenerud? I'll take any of them!
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Lou “The Toe” Groza
 

howeda7 said:
No. He's broken. Time to cut bait. Is there any position in sports more mentally fragile than NFL kickers?
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Baseball pitcher in closer role. BH Kim has his own chapters in psychology textbooks.
 




GophersInIowa said:
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I can't work up any anger toward the zebras on this one. The Vikes stunk in the red zone, couldn't protect Cousins, missed out on 10 pts in the kicking game and let Brady (who had been amongst the worst this year throwing long) burn them deep several times. Well earned defeat.

My other takeaway from watching the Bucs for a full game for the first time this season is that Antoine Winfield Jr is a very fine professional football player. He's on his way to being even better than his old man.
 
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On the QB salary thing -

A lot depends on what happens to the Salary Cap. There have been estimates that the salary cap will go down next year - possibly by as much as $20-million a team.

Teams that are close to or over the cap - like the Vikings - will have to jettison a lot of veteran players or re-work contracts to get under the cap.

so, the question becomes -

do you want to pay Cousins $30-mill - while at the same time dropping veterans to get below the cap?

is it worth having a $30-mill QB - surrounded by rookies and young players - on a team that is not contending for a Super Bowl?

At some point, the Vikings have to draft and develop a QB. they cannot keep grabbing QB's off the scrap heap.
 


The Vikings have essentially excused themselves from the race for the postseason. With 3 games left they are basically competing against the Cardinals. They are 1 game behind the Cardinals and the Cardinals have upcoming home games against the Eagles and the 49ers. They SHOULD get to 9-7 and the Vikings would have to sweep their last 3 just to get to 9-7. Ouch.

So what do we want to see from the Vikings in the last several games?

- Continued development of Ezra Cleveland going towards next year
- Too much to hope for Dakota Dozier to be a Week 1 starter next year? He'll have to be better
- Further improvement on D from both the DL who are filling in currently and in the secondary
- Is it even worth mentioning Kicker?
 



GophersInIowa said:
I still think the PAT being moved back was incredibly stupid. It just made a player that sees the field for less than 5% of all plays influence the outcome of the game that much more.
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I love the rule change. The only thing more boring than the previous PAT rule was making a pitcher throw 4 balls for an intentional walk. Puts more strategy into it and a higher influence to go for 2 pts.

I would like the NCAA to adopt it.
 

Ope3 said:
I love the rule change. The only thing more boring than the previous PAT rule was making a pitcher throw 4 balls for an intentional walk. Puts more strategy into it and a higher influence to go for 2 pts.

I would like the NCAA to adopt it.
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I don't agree with the comparison to the IBB. The % of the time anything happened on IBB's was way way less than the % of the time EP's were missed. I can think of maybe two ever. One wild pitch that advanced runners and once when someone stepped over and swung. Baseball needs to speed up time of game and that was an obvious one.
 

Ope3 said:
I love the rule change. The only thing more boring than the previous PAT rule was making a pitcher throw 4 balls for an intentional walk. Puts more strategy into it and a higher influence to go for 2 pts.

I would like the NCAA to adopt it.
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Just don’t think the performance of someone that steps onto the field maybe a dozen times a game should influence the game that much.
 
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howeda7 said:
I don't agree with the comparison to the IBB. The % of the time anything happened on IBB's was way way less than the % of the time EP's were missed. I can think of maybe two ever. One wild pitch that advanced runners and once when someone stepped over and swung. Baseball needs to speed up time of game and that was an obvious one.
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In the NFL before the rule change, in 2014 the conversion percentage on kicked PATs was 99.3.%. So 1 kick out of 100 would be missed, while that is indeed greater than 0 Wild Pitches (or .0001%, whatever), they are pretty close on the "snooze fest meter". I did state that the 4 pitch intentional walk was indeed even more boring. That was a fantastic rule change as well.
 

howeda7 said:
Sure wish they'd given Jalen Hurts a look in round 2 last year...
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I have to see a whole lot more of Hurts before I'm pining away for him. Cleveland looks like he could be a part of the OL for a long time and besides, Hurts was picked 5 picks before the Vikings took Cleveland.

It sucks that the QB position hasn't been addressed via the draft by the Vikings better than it has but hindsight is 20/20, it's not like they had great opportunities in the first round or two and passed on it. They've always seemed to have bigger holes to fill.
 

The Vikings need another OL, DT, CB, P, and K.

You don't need to draft the P and K. Please don't waste picks on them.

If their top 3 picks can fill the OL, DT, and CB holes, thrn we can be really good next year, especially with Pierce and Hunter back.
 


We played like horse crap at home for three straight weeks against inferior teams. We’re at home.

First game losers have an advantage in a rematch. It’s a rematch.

And Chicago wants revenge. And they’re not out of the playoff picture either.


Zero, I mean zero chance we beat the Bears at home.


There, I said it. Now that means we crush them. DO IT
 

The Athletic, with a good look at NFL GM winning percentage.

NFL General Managers List

Among GM's that have been in charge for their teams' drafts for 5-9 years running, Spielman has the #2 winning percentage among the 10 GM's that meet that criteria. It DOES make note of the Vikings QB woes in the draft though:

2. Rick Spielman (.560): Spielman added the GM title in 2012 after serving as vice president of player personnel since 2006. A case could be made that Spielman’s tenure began in 2006, but former coach Brad Childress held ultimate authority through 2010. The Vikings have a .523 winning percentage since 2006 and a higher one since 2012, despite a 6-7 record this season. Minnesota would surely trade some of its standout success in drafting running backs and wide receivers for better luck with quarterbacks.
 

Starting QBs since 2010:

Brett Favre (S)
Tavaris Jackson (S)
Joe Webb
Christian Ponder (S)
Donovan McNabb (S)
Matt Cassel
Josh Freeman
Teddy Bridgewater (S)
Sam Bradford (S)
Shaun Hill
Case Keenum
Kirk Cousins (S)
Shawn Mannion

Those brought here to be a starter are denoted (S). That’s 7 unique starters in 10 years. Yet the highest draft pick we’ve used in his tenure is the massive overreach that was Ponder. That is the only thing you need to know about his tenure.
 

Bad loss to a bad team. They have a chance to improve by getting the defense back to a top 10 unit next year, but I don't see this version sniffing a Super Bowl.

I'm indifferent to Zimmer being fired. There's a better than 50/50 chance that the new coach will be worse. But I'm not sure the point of trying to keep rolling this rock up a hill either. Since they're stuck with Cousins for next year, may as well give Spielman/Zim/Koobs/Cousins one more shot and then blow them all out if it doesn't work in 2021.
 

What a bleak winter sports season it's going to be. Vikings out of the playoffs. The wolves are the wolves and the gophers performance against the Illini doesn't bode well for the B1G season. I don't follow the Wild. Is there a reason to start this year?
 

Vikings have to use Thielen more than they did today, 2 catches for 11 yards, is not acceptable. Cousins is not the answer and I am not sure that Zimmer is either. Really frustrating to watch the Gophers and the Vikings, play this poorly.
 

jamiche said:
What a bleak winter sports season it's going to be. Vikings out of the playoffs. The wolves are the wolves and the gophers performance against the Illini doesn't bode well for the B1G season. I don't follow the Wild. Is there a reason to start this year?
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um....er... the Twins will probably get one of MLB's ridiculous 8 play-off spots if they just play .500?
 


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