All Things 2020 Minnesota Vikings In-Season Thread

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WilliamsArenaGuy said:
I know. They still count it if there is a clear recovery. That's the rule.
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appreciate the response; I just can’t watch the NFL. Their rules have just become too stupid for words. Baffling how they can’t recognize the contradiction between that ruling and a whole host of others.
 

With the Falcons shutting down their team facilities due to positive Covid tests, I am going out on a limb and guess the game on Sunday will be postponed.
 

Ope3 said:
With the Falcons shutting down their team facilities due to positive Covid tests, I am going out on a limb and guess the game on Sunday will be postponed.
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I don't know what they've been doing in other instances. It appears to be a single positive test for a personnel official. I'm assuming they'll be testing/contact tracing today to figure out if it's spread further than that. With rapid testing, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. One would imagine they won't have to postpone for a single personnel official.

The Atlanta Falcons shut down their facility Thursday morning after a member of their organization tested positive for COVID-19.

The Falcons, citing "an abundance of caution," announced that their operations Thursday would be conducted virtually.

A league official told ESPN's Adam Schefter that the positive test was for a Falcons personnel official, not a player.
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https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id...ns-shut-facility-4-positive-coronavirus-tests
 

Ope3 said:
With the Falcons shutting down their team facilities due to positive Covid tests, I am going out on a limb and guess the game on Sunday will be postponed.
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I'd say they'll move it to Monday, but there's already two games. Perhaps more Tuesday night football. At least the Vikings have a bye after this.
 

forever a gopher said:
I don't know what they've been doing in other instances. It appears to be a single positive test for a personnel official. I'm assuming they'll be testing/contact tracing today to figure out if it's spread further than that. With rapid testing, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. One would imagine they won't have to postpone for a single personnel official.



https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30119829/sources-atlanta-falcons-shut-facility-4-positive-coronavirus-tests
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If it's just 1 case, then yes there would be a chance the game will go on as scheduled. I was under the impression it was 4 cases as I heard on ESPN Radio this morning, and is even in the title web address link you provided.

Things change.
 


Ope3 said:
If it's just 1 case, then yes there would be a chance the game will go on as scheduled. I was under the impression it was 4 cases as I heard on ESPN Radio this morning, and is even in the title web address link you provided.

Things change.
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Interesting, I didn't notice that. Regardless, I would assume it'll depend on who it is (if it is in fact 4). Like I said, I would have to imagine with rapid testing this could be figured out quickly. There's already two Monday night games scheduled this week- maybe they can set a record and go with three?!?
 


No announcement yet of delay? Saturday is travel day, right? So I guess they can still make a decision tomorrow morning.
 

Cook ruled out for Sunday...or whatever day it is.
 



Bad Gopher said:
Cook ruled out for Sunday...or whatever day it is.
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I mean, if we can't beat the Falcons, at home, even without Cook ... then we probably should pack it in.

Saw STrib article was giving the possibility of Cleveland making his first start at guard, with Samia having an injured wrist.
 

MplsGopher said:
I mean, if we can't beat the Falcons, at home, even without Cook ... then we probably should pack it in.

Saw STrib article was giving the possibility of Cleveland making his first start at guard, with Samia having an injured wrist.
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Beware of the teams who just had a coach fired; those with talent (and the Falcons have talent) often come out firing. (like the Texans last week)
 

The Hy Vee store in my town has the new Kirk Cousins cereal-

Cousins' Cinna-MINN Crunch. (seriously - this is a real thing. Cousins has a breakfast cereal as a charity venture).

I understand the first three quarters of the box are ok, but when you get to the last quarter of the box, the cereal starts to crumble.
 




Thankfully, the Vike’s aren’t televised here in Seattle, so I don’t have to watch whatever crap they’re doing against the Falcons.

What are the odds Zimmer finishes the season? Normally, I don’t like mid-season firings, but this has all the makings for it, and a house cleaning.
 

The sad thing is-
Cousins has a $30-million cap hit if they let him go this year. They're stuck with him probably at least until 2020 - when the cap hit goes down to $10-million.

Zimmer and Spielman just got contract extensions. The Wilfs are not going to can both of them after given them extensions.

In other words, the head Coach, GM and Starting QB who gave us this dumpster fire will be around for at least another two years.

On the flip side - this could be the Gophers' chance to become the top football team in the Twin Cities.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The Hy Vee store in my town has the new Kirk Cousins cereal-

Cousins' Cinna-MINN Crunch. (seriously - this is a real thing. Cousins has a breakfast cereal as a charity venture).

I understand the first three quarters of the box are ok, but when you get to the last quarter of the box, the cereal starts to crumble.
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Post of the day!
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The sad thing is-
Cousins has a $30-million cap hit if they let him go this year. They're stuck with him probably at least until 2020 - when the cap hit goes down to $10-million.

Zimmer and Spielman just got contract extensions. The Wilfs are not going to can both of them after given them extensions.

In other words, the head Coach, GM and Starting QB who gave us this dumpster fire will be around for at least another two years.

On the flip side - this could be the Gophers' chance to become the top football team in the Twin Cities.
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Barreiro talked about just this on his Kfan show this morning.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The sad thing is-
Cousins has a $30-million cap hit if they let him go this year. They're stuck with him probably at least until 2020 - when the cap hit goes down to $10-million.

Zimmer and Spielman just got contract extensions. The Wilfs are not going to can both of them after given them extensions.

In other words, the head Coach, GM and Starting QB who gave us this dumpster fire will be around for at least another two years.

On the flip side - this could be the Gophers' chance to become the top football team in the Twin Cities.
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The extensions were one year paper extensions. I don't think either of them is safe. If you can get Kyle Shanahan to swap Jimmy G for Cousins and a draft pick, do it. Do it now.
 

SON, thank you for the info. It is sad they spent themselves into a hole.
 

[QUOTE="short ornery norwegian said:
The sad thing is-
Cousins has a $30-million cap hit if they let him go this year. They're stuck with him probably at least until 2020 - when the cap hit goes down to $10-million.

Zimmer and Spielman just got contract extensions. The Wilfs are not going to can both of them after given them extensions.

In other words, the head Coach, GM and Starting QB who gave us this dumpster fire will be around for at least another two years.

On the flip side - this could be the Gophers' chance to become the top football team in the Twin Cities.
Click to expand...
Cousins is here through 2021. Spielman and Zim are most definitely not safe. I hate to do so (seeing as they fleeced taxpayers out of $500million), but you do need to admit that the Wilfs will seemingly do whatever it takes monetarily to make this team a winner. If it means eating a years salary on the coach and GM, I have no doubt they’ll do it.

Tank and draft a legitimately good QB. Get a new GM.If this happens, this season will be a success.
 

So many issues with the Vikings. The Kirk Cousins extension was an abomination the minute it was signed. There was simply zero reason to commit to Kirk in that manner. To make matters worse, the cap room they created by signing Kirk was not really used (they ended up keeping Harris on a Franchise tag) and they traded Diggs almost immediately after. Essentially, the Vikings were only half-way in on this season while committing to Cousins full stop. This was Spielman's biggest failure as GM. Beyond Cousins, he's shown an inability to identify offensive line talent, kickers and punters, and has really struggled to find talent after the 3rd round after the Diggs draft bonanza class. He somehow overpaid for Cook as well who has never played a full season yet signed a contract on par (or better than) Derrick Henry signed earlier this year.

As for Zimmer, his defense has always been better in his mind and in cumulative stats than in reality. Last year every starter on the defense with the exception of the 3 technique and the Free Safety was either highly paid for their position or a first or second round draft pick and many fell in to both those categories. This year was an opporunity for Zimmer to show his coaching chops with significantly less talent to work with. Zimmer then has taken to demand his team "run the ball" (even bizarrely mentioned it postgame today) so they can rely on his defense. When was the last time his defense truly shut down a good offense over 60 minutes. Lost in the debacle of last Sunday was Zimmer's defense allowing Seattle to go 94 yards in like 1:30 without ever having to use their one timeout to stop the clock. The reality is you better be Belichick on defense and occassionally put together a masterpiece if you are going to demand your offense be conservative (and Belichick doesn't demand that). The amount of 2nd and long runs this team calls is obscene and it's especially a ridiculous style for a team that knows it will play a minimum of 9 games a year in perfect indoor conditions.

Back to Cousins. If you are ready to move on, do you trust Spielman to make that quarterback choice? I certainly do not. If you are comfortable with that, how would you feel about Zimmer being his head coach? Look how he talked about Case in the media or how he ran the rookie kicker out of town. If both those things don't frighten you, it also doesn't make a lot of sense to take a big time QB prospect who has likely been playing primarily in the shotgun/pistol and put him in to this offense where the QB is often under center. None of those scenarios are ideal for a drafted QB to succeed and even in the best scenario it's always been a crapshoot in trying to find "the guy".
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The sad thing is-
Cousins has a $30-million cap hit if they let him go this year. They're stuck with him probably at least until 2020 - when the cap hit goes down to $10-million.

Zimmer and Spielman just got contract extensions. The Wilfs are not going to can both of them after given them extensions.

In other words, the head Coach, GM and Starting QB who gave us this dumpster fire will be around for at least another two years.

On the flip side - this could be the Gophers' chance to become the top football team in the Twin Cities.
Click to expand...
$41M in dead cap if they cut him this off-season. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/minnesota-vikings/kirk-cousins-9915/

Either he will be the starter in 2021 or if we use our top draft pick on QB, then that player will start at least part of the 2021 with Cousins benched.

It's all but guaranteed.
 

Thing is .... do you trust Spielman with our top draft pick on a QB ???
 

howeda7 said:
The extensions were one year paper extensions. I don't think either of them is safe. If you can get Kyle Shanahan to swap Jimmy G for Cousins and a draft pick, do it. Do it now.
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Hahahaha, fat chance now. 9ers just beat the Rams, JG: 23-33 268 3-0

Why in god's name would they trade for the NFL interception leader?? No.
 

For Cousin's picks yesterday:
- first was legit bad. He said it, he knows it. Was as bad a decision as his pick vs Seattle.
- second was probably a bad decision, but it was incredibly unlucky that the guy held on to it. 9 out of 10 times, it's just a bad throw but not a pick. Stuck between his legs to hold onto it.
- third had nothing to do with Cousins, ball was swatted as it was released
 

forever a gopher said:
Cousins is here through 2021. Spielman and Zim are most definitely not safe. I hate to do so (seeing as they fleeced taxpayers out of $500million), but you do need to admit that the Wilfs will seemingly do whatever it takes monetarily to make this team a winner. If it means eating a years salary on the coach and GM, I have no doubt they’ll do it.

Tank and draft a legitimately good QB. Get a new GM.If this happens, this season will be a success.
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Yeah ... seems like the good teams draft QBs until they find a winner, then pay them to stay.

I'm sure there have been plenty, I don't know off the top of my head. But would be interesting to see who has won lately, or especially who is winning now, with a free-agent QB that they didn't draft themselves.
 

EG#9 said:
So many issues with the Vikings. The Kirk Cousins extension was an abomination the minute it was signed. There was simply zero reason to commit to Kirk in that manner. To make matters worse, the cap room they created by signing Kirk was not really used (they ended up keeping Harris on a Franchise tag) and they traded Diggs almost immediately after. Essentially, the Vikings were only half-way in on this season while committing to Cousins full stop. This was Spielman's biggest failure as GM. Beyond Cousins, he's shown an inability to identify offensive line talent, kickers and punters, and has really struggled to find talent after the 3rd round after the Diggs draft bonanza class. He somehow overpaid for Cook as well who has never played a full season yet signed a contract on par (or better than) Derrick Henry signed earlier this year.

As for Zimmer, his defense has always been better in his mind and in cumulative stats than in reality. Last year every starter on the defense with the exception of the 3 technique and the Free Safety was either highly paid for their position or a first or second round draft pick and many fell in to both those categories. This year was an opporunity for Zimmer to show his coaching chops with significantly less talent to work with. Zimmer then has taken to demand his team "run the ball" (even bizarrely mentioned it postgame today) so they can rely on his defense. When was the last time his defense truly shut down a good offense over 60 minutes. Lost in the debacle of last Sunday was Zimmer's defense allowing Seattle to go 94 yards in like 1:30 without ever having to use their one timeout to stop the clock. The reality is you better be Belichick on defense and occassionally put together a masterpiece if you are going to demand your offense be conservative (and Belichick doesn't demand that). The amount of 2nd and long runs this team calls is obscene and it's especially a ridiculous style for a team that knows it will play a minimum of 9 games a year in perfect indoor conditions.

Back to Cousins. If you are ready to move on, do you trust Spielman to make that quarterback choice? I certainly do not. If you are comfortable with that, how would you feel about Zimmer being his head coach? Look how he talked about Case in the media or how he ran the rookie kicker out of town. If both those things don't frighten you, it also doesn't make a lot of sense to take a big time QB prospect who has likely been playing primarily in the shotgun/pistol and put him in to this offense where the QB is often under center. None of those scenarios are ideal for a drafted QB to succeed and even in the best scenario it's always been a crapshoot in trying to find "the guy".
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I agree with a lot of this.

I thought the main point of the Cousins extension was to move money out of this year's cap into a later year, or something like that. But seems like the money was mostly spent on Cook.

Cook might be a game changer. He is definitely great ... when he is healthy. Maybe he wasn't healthy the first two weeks, but I swear they kept giving it to Mattison on the 3rd down.


We played with three rookie CBs yesterday, for a good part of the game. Yeah, don't forget we also drafted Harrison Hand in 2020 (from Temple).

Hughes has to be a bust at this point. He can't stay healthy. Not sure what happened to Holton Hill, maybe he's hurt. Kris Boyd unfortunately hurt this week too (2019 draft pick from Texas).


Given our base seems to be a 4-2-5 now (I know they signed that vet #40, and he comes in occasionally for situations), and Eric Wilson really seems to be having a nice year. So he and Kendricks are good. Our safeties are great, if they never come off the field. Iloka nearly lost us the game vs the Texans.

I like the young DT they drafted this year (white kid out of Baylor). He seems hungry. Was unfortunate Stephan had to come off with an injury, hope he is ok.


Our DEs seem to be ok, but would be nice to get Hunter back.



I don't know. I've been trying to figure out what makes this team so much worse than 2019. I guess all the pieces missing on defense are just too much. Did Diggs really make that much of a difference on offense? Seems like Jefferson is a star, and Theilen and the rest are there. Maybe Cook really does matter that much.
 

MplsGopher said:
I agree with a lot of this.

I thought the main point of the Cousins extension was to move money out of this year's cap into a later year, or something like that. But seems like the money was mostly spent on Cook.

Cook might be a game changer. He is definitely great ... when he is healthy. Maybe he wasn't healthy the first two weeks, but I swear they kept giving it to Mattison on the 3rd down.


We played with three rookie CBs yesterday, for a good part of the game. Yeah, don't forget we also drafted Harrison Hand in 2020 (from Temple).

Hughes has to be a bust at this point. He can't stay healthy. Not sure what happened to Holton Hill, maybe he's hurt. Kris Boyd unfortunately hurt this week too (2019 draft pick from Texas).


Given our base seems to be a 4-2-5 now (I know they signed that vet #40, and he comes in occasionally for situations), and Eric Wilson really seems to be having a nice year. So he and Kendricks are good. Our safeties are great, if they never come off the field. Iloka nearly lost us the game vs the Texans.

I like the young DT they drafted this year (white kid out of Baylor). He seems hungry. Was unfortunate Stephan had to come off with an injury, hope he is ok.


Our DEs seem to be ok, but would be nice to get Hunter back.



I don't know. I've been trying to figure out what makes this team so much worse than 2019. I guess all the pieces missing on defense are just too much. Did Diggs really make that much of a difference on offense? Seems like Jefferson is a star, and Theilen and the rest are there. Maybe Cook really does matter that much.
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Especially why the defense is soooooo much worse. I get it, Hunter and Barr are hurt, Pierce opted out...big losses. But like you said, the safeties are two of the best in the NFL. Kendricks is one of the best linebackers, Ngakoue is good. The corner situation is a mess, but should the whole defense be this bad?

Edit: Plus Zimmer is supposed to be a defensive wizard...I don't know seems like too much is off.
 

tmvander said:
Especially why the defense is soooooo much worse. I get it, Hunter and Barr are hurt, Pierce opted out...big losses. But like you said, the safeties are two of the best in the NFL. Kendricks is one of the best linebackers, Ngakoue is good. The corner situation is a mess, but should the whole defense be this bad?

Edit: Plus Zimmer is supposed to be a defensive wizard...I don't know seems like too much is off.
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Ngakoe has been somewhat underwhelming. I'm not writing him off, as his production in Jax was pretty good. However, up to this point, he hasn't been making big plays. His underproduction with Hunter out, and the Pierce opt-out has been huge. You're left with backups at 3 of 4 DL spots, and those backups are performing like backups. Odenigbo has shown flashes at times. CB's are a mess.
 

MplsGopher said:
Yeah ... seems like the good teams draft QBs until they find a winner, then pay them to stay.

I'm sure there have been plenty, I don't know off the top of my head. But would be interesting to see who has won lately, or especially who is winning now, with a free-agent QB that they didn't draft themselves.
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Just by memory (so I may have missed some), looking through the NFL teams, here are the teams with FA QB's:
- Dolphins (Fitzpatrick) *Tua was drafted high and currently sitting
- Patriots (Newton)
- Colts (Rivers)
- Titans (Tannehill)
- Bears (Foles)
- Vikings (Cousins)
- Panthers (Bridgewater)
- Buccaneers (Brady)
- 49ers (Garrapollo)

Three of these are new in 2020. In 2019, Newton, Brady, and Rivers were with their drafted team, and had been for a long time. Currently, 28% of teams have FA QB's.

*I'm not including Washington, who had their recently drafted QB playing, but pulled him for the backup
 

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