All Things 2024 Minnesota Vikings Off-Season Thread

Donate To GopherHole
GopherWeatherGuy said:
This is why the Vikings need to move on from Cousins and draft a rookie QB.

The recipe for success is to find an elite QB on a rookie contract and spend money around him while he's developing on that contract, and hopefully win a Super Bowl.

Then when you have to pay that QB, you hope he covers flaws on the rest of the team since you can't spend as much money, and you continue to win.

It's extremely difficult to do, but that's how you have to try and do it.
Click to expand...
Yeah I don't disagree. It's the right formula to win, I just don't like it.
 

kg21 said:
20/31 for 267 with a 1 pick and 1 td. A qb rating of 88. 45 of those yards when the ball bounced off Detroits facemask.

If Cousins had those numbers, and of course the Vikings would have lost............they'd be all over him.

Pretty average if you ask me.
Click to expand...

If you're looking at the numbers as a whole, maybe, sure. But he was absolutely MONEY when they needed him, with the game on the line, trailing. 2nd Half:

13-for-16 passing, 174 yards and a TD

And Shanahan has been absolutely shitty when trailing in the second half in his coaching career.
 

Gophers1992 said:
And historically kickers with accuracy issues are known for improving in the playoffs?

Reality is Josh Reynolds should have caught that pass on the first attempt anyway. But for some reason we're acting like those field goals were automatic when the Lions had one of the worst kickers in the league.
Click to expand...

That's not correct.

Their kicker for a majority of the season was not good. That's why they made a change in the middle of December to Badgeley. From that point on, Badgeley was

7-for-7 on FG's. 100%
22-for-24 on XP

Perfect conditions, under 50 yards. And we can at least be honest, the quality of his kicker had nothing to do with Campbell going for it. He's been going for it on 4th down all season
 

Goff was 3-13 w/39 QBR when pressured; I knew he had it In him.

Purdy had a career high in rushing as well. He made the plays when needed.
 
Last edited:

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
If you're looking at the numbers as a whole, maybe, sure. But he was absolutely MONEY when they needed him, with the game on the line, trailing. 2nd Half:

13-for-16 passing, 174 yards and a TD

And Shanahan has been absolutely shitty when trailing in the second half in his coaching career.
Click to expand...
All correct, but I'm not MLPS. I watched the entire game. He was brutal in the first half and lights out in the second half.

That all comes out to an average game to me.

Again, Cousins with the same numbers would have lost in the playoffs and we'd be crying to draft a qb.

Cousins was 31 of 39 against the Giants last year with 2 TD's and O picks. He was pretty much lights out, but we lost. And, oh my gosh, his last pass.

I thought Purdy was pedestrian yesterday and bad against the packers. My point is he wins playoff games and is in the super bowl. You can go to the Super Bowl with Cousins. All you need is some luck and a few bounces.
 


GopherWeatherGuy said:
This is why the Vikings need to move on from Cousins and draft a rookie QB.

The recipe for success is to find an elite QB on a rookie contract and spend money around him while he's developing on that contract, and hopefully win a Super Bowl.

Then when you have to pay that QB, you hope he covers flaws on the rest of the team since you can't spend as much money, and you continue to win.

It's extremely difficult to do, but that's how you have to try and do it.
Click to expand...
It's also why Green Bay's "sit him for 3 years" formula isn't that great anymore. They have Love under a somewhat reasonable contract. But he's not cheap, and in a couple years he's going to be very expensive. They kind of already missed the window.
 


Wait. Some of you think Cousins will not 45 mill a year to play football. 50 is market price and 45 mill is if he gives the vikes a discount.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
50 years ago today, the Steelers had four picks and drafted -

Swann
Stallworth
Webster
Lambert

All HOFers - likely the best draft ever.
Click to expand...
I miss the good old days where you could name every player, no free agency and absolute dominant teams. If you drafted well, you had a great team for years.

The steelers drafted well for years. It was another of those legendary teams the Vikings unfortunately ran into in the Super Bowl.

Lambert had no teeth and would kill anything that moved. Mel Blount would take anyone out who crossed the middle and tell them to never come back in here. He'd take his forearm and hit them in the head with it. Football was so brutal back then

I could always name their front four. LC Greenwood(cool name) mean Joe, Dwight White, Ernie Holmes.........just awesome times.
 
Last edited:




kg21 said:
All correct, but I'm not MLPS. I watched the entire game. He was brutal in the first half and lights out in the second half.

That all comes out to an average game to me.

Again, Cousins with the same numbers would have lost in the playoffs and we'd be crying to draft a qb.

Cousins was 31 of 39 against the Giants last year with 2 TD's and O picks. He was pretty much lights out, but we lost. And, oh my gosh, his last pass.

I thought Purdy was pedestrian yesterday and bad against the packers. My point is he wins playoff games and is in the super bowl. You can go to the Super Bowl with Cousins. All you need is some luck and a few bounces.
Click to expand...

with all due respect, you can't just look at the QB in isolation. The QB is part of a team. in isolation, Purdy may not be as good as some other QB's, but he plays in a 49ers system that - I believe - knows how to get the most out of his skills and hide some of his weaknesses. Considering the talent level of the players around him, the 49ers can 'get by' with a Purdy at QB. other teams that don't have the same skill players and system in place could not get by with a Purdy-level QB.

the Vikings IMHO do not have anything close to the same level of talent around the QB or - yes, I'll say it - the same level of coaching. Put Purdy with the Vikings and they would struggle. Put Cousins with the 49ers and they might win a Super Bowl. That does not mean Cousins is a great QB - it means that most QB's would look better playing with the 49ers roster, system and coaches.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
50 years ago today, the Steelers had four picks and drafted -

Swann
Stallworth
Webster
Lambert

All HOFers - likely the best draft ever.
Click to expand...
I wish the NFL Draft was still on Jan 28th annually. I could do without combines, pro days and draft mockers for the next 2.5 months.

Somehow the Steelers figured out who to pick without all that junk.
 

Ope3 said:
I wish the NFL Draft was still on Jan 28th annually. I could do without combines, pro days and draft mockers for the next 2.5 months.

Somehow the Steelers figured out who to pick without all that junk.
Click to expand...
The previous year or the following they drafted Ham and Blount in the same draft.

I’m trying to remember the name of their FO guy - I thought he had some ancillary Vikes connection.
 
Last edited:



kg21 said:
I miss the good old days where you could name every player, no free agency and absolute dominant teams. If you drafted well, you had a great team for years.

The steelers drafted well for years. It was another of those legendary teams the Vikings unfortunately ran into in the Super Bowl.

Lambert had no teeth and would kill anything that moved. Mel Blount would take anyone out who crossed the middle and tell them to never come back in here. He'd take his forearm and hit them in the head with it. Football was so brutal back then

I could always name their front four. LC Greenwood(cool name) mean Joe, Dwight White, Ernie Holmes.........just awesome times.
Click to expand...
My favorite sports dynasty of all time.

Dwight White HOF sports name.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
with all due respect, you can't just look at the QB in isolation. The QB is part of a team. in isolation, Purdy may not be as good as some other QB's, but he plays in a 49ers system that - I believe - knows how to get the most out of his skills and hide some of his weaknesses. Considering the talent level of the players around him, the 49ers can 'get by' with a Purdy at QB. other teams that don't have the same skill players and system in place could not get by with a Purdy-level QB.

the Vikings IMHO do not have anything close to the same level of talent around the QB or - yes, I'll say it - the same level of coaching. Put Purdy with the Vikings and they would struggle. Put Cousins with the 49ers and they might win a Super Bowl. That does not mean Cousins is a great QB - it means that most QB's would look better playing with the 49ers roster, system and coaches.
Click to expand...

I get what you mean, but I'm sorry, this just isn't that true. Sure, the system has to match the strengths, but this is the same system in which Nick Mullens or Trey Lance looked like absolute shit quarterbacks.

The Purdy hate is just laughable; white kid drafted last in the draft, can't be any good. It took almost the entire season for him to get a sniff at MVP odds and one subpar game and that fell right back down.

Watch the games, watch his eye level, his footwork in the pocket. Eyes are always UP, they never drop down to the level of the rush. The plays he made in the second half yesterday, there aren't that many QB's making those plays. It's all about the eye level, and Purdy is one cool customer.

EVERY starting franchise QB in the NFL is a "system quarterback". Of course they are. Mahomes is a system QB, Lamar Jackson is a system QB, et al.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
50 years ago today, the Steelers had four picks and drafted -

Swann
Stallworth
Webster
Lambert

All HOFers - likely the best draft ever.
Click to expand...
On PTI today this was in their Happys Section. The same year that they drafted these guys, they signed Donnie Shell as an Undrafted Free Agent. He's also got a bust in Canton, OH.

Quite a rookie class.
 

Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
Good read in The Athletic from Alec Lewis on the Vikings pending Free Agents. Lewis does a great job covering the Vikings on that site. Interesting blurb on Cousins, like him or hate him...

>>Thirty quarterbacks dropped back a minimum of 300 times in 2023. Cousins led them all in adjusted completion percentage, which calculates the percentage of aimed passes thrown on target. He is only 1-3 in the playoffs as a starter, but his opponents in those games averaged 31 points. Cousins, meanwhile, has completed 71 percent of his passes in those games, averaging 258 yards with a 4-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Click to expand...
It’s still all his fault though…….
 

Gophers1992 said:
I didn’t realize anyone likes Clay Travis, left, right or otherwise.
Click to expand...
I'm not joking, I don't recall ever hearing the name Clay Travis until seeing this thread yesterday. Not familiar with him at all.

I would have guessed by the name, that he's a Country musician.
 

Ope3 said:
On PTI today this was in their Happys Section. The same year that they drafted these guys, they signed Donnie Shell as an Undrafted Free Agent. He's also got a bust in Canton, OH.

Quite a rookie class.
Click to expand...
Yes, I liberally borrowed from them😉

I forgot Mr. Shell
 

kg21 said:
All correct, but I'm not MLPS. I watched the entire game. He was brutal in the first half and lights out in the second half.

That all comes out to an average game to me.

Again, Cousins with the same numbers would have lost in the playoffs and we'd be crying to draft a qb.

Cousins was 31 of 39 against the Giants last year with 2 TD's and O picks. He was pretty much lights out, but we lost. And, oh my gosh, his last pass.

I thought Purdy was pedestrian yesterday and bad against the packers. My point is he wins playoff games and is in the super bowl. You can go to the Super Bowl with Cousins. All you need is some luck and a few bounces.
Click to expand...
And an above average defense.
 


Ogee Ogilthorpe said:
I get what you mean, but I'm sorry, this just isn't that true. Sure, the system has to match the strengths, but this is the same system in which Nick Mullens or Trey Lance looked like absolute shit quarterbacks.

The Purdy hate is just laughable; white kid drafted last in the draft, can't be any good. It took almost the entire season for him to get a sniff at MVP odds and one subpar game and that fell right back down.

Watch the games, watch his eye level, his footwork in the pocket. Eyes are always UP, they never drop down to the level of the rush. The plays he made in the second half yesterday, there aren't that many QB's making those plays. It's all about the eye level, and Purdy is one cool customer.

EVERY starting franchise QB in the NFL is a "system quarterback". Of course they are. Mahomes is a system QB, Lamar Jackson is a system QB, et al.
Click to expand...
Oh Jesus. Since when has being white EVER worked against a quarterback? Where do you come up with this stuff?
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
Oh Jesus. Since when has being white EVER worked against a quarterback? Where do you come up with this stuff?
Click to expand...
Nice catch WAG, I didn't catch that initially, but it does land pretty high on the preposterous statement list, doesn't it? Over my lunch, I decided to dig into a bit, with Wikipedia's help, to see what the breakdown on the QB position and race in the current year looked like; not scientific at all and I could have missed a few here and there, but taking a look at any QB associated with teams this past season (including practice squad), here's the breakdown:
White QB's: 71
Non-white QB's: 28

As far as poor Purdy being overlooked in MVP discussion--here's Peter King in week 5! proclaiming him the frontrunner. Following the beatdown of the Cowboys, the 49ers went on a three game slide where Purdy threw 3 TD's and 5 INT's. He bounced back, until he had an abysmal game against Baltimore (0 TD's, 4 INT's) that brought about questions again. I was listening to Bomani Jones' podcast (who I imagine is not Ogee's cup of tea) after the Cowboys playoff flameout and there was discussion with his guest about "well, there must have been a reason that Dak Prescott lasted until the 4th round". Outside of your fellas at Outkick or Whitlock, I can't imagine there's anyone looking at Purdy and seeing how a second year QB playing for a high profile team that's been drafted in the 7th round isn't above asking the critical question, "is he good enough?" regardless of race.
 


Gophers1992 said:
I don’t like McCarthy enough to take that high. Also Bo Nix at 12 would be hilariously bad.
Click to expand...
It would feel a lot like drafting Ponder two (2) Rounds too early simply to draft a QB. I want us to grab a young QB but not out of desperation.
 

Purdy is a good QB but if you take away the fluky long pass to Aiyuk that should've been picked and instead led to a TD that was the difference in the game, the narrative would be a lot different today.
 

Slim Tubby said:
It would feel a lot like drafting Ponder two (2) Rounds too early simply to draft a QB. I want us to grab a young QB but not out of desperation.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I think McCarthy could end up being the best long term QB in this draft. I would be happy with him at 11. Nix at 12 is way too high, but late first/early 2nd is fine for him. Both are significantly better than Ponder.
 

coolhandgopher said:
Nice catch WAG, I didn't catch that initially, but it does land pretty high on the preposterous statement list, doesn't it? Over my lunch, I decided to dig into a bit, with Wikipedia's help, to see what the breakdown on the QB position and race in the current year looked like; not scientific at all and I could have missed a few here and there, but taking a look at any QB associated with teams this past season (including practice squad), here's the breakdown:
White QB's: 71
Non-white QB's: 28

As far as poor Purdy being overlooked in MVP discussion--here's Peter King in week 5! proclaiming him the frontrunner. Following the beatdown of the Cowboys, the 49ers went on a three game slide where Purdy threw 3 TD's and 5 INT's. He bounced back, until he had an abysmal game against Baltimore (0 TD's, 4 INT's) that brought about questions again. I was listening to Bomani Jones' podcast (who I imagine is not Ogee's cup of tea) after the Cowboys playoff flameout and there was discussion with his guest about "well, there must have been a reason that Dak Prescott lasted until the 4th round". Outside of your fellas at Outkick or Whitlock, I can't imagine there's anyone looking at Purdy and seeing how a second year QB playing for a high profile team that's been drafted in the 7th round isn't above asking the critical question, "is he good enough?" regardless of race.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the thoughtful response, as always, Cool... not worth derailing the entire thread to dive into all of this, although I will say I really liked Bomani Jones about 8-10 years ago before he completely went off the rails. Today, he's largely a raving lunatic. I don't look to Outkick for any real sports content, just purely entertainment, which it delivers.

We can disagree. Purdy has been really, really good for most of his time as the SF starter. Kudos to King for seeing it but for the most part, the national media narrative was very, very late to the party.

No harm in enjoying it for what it is; he's playing the position at an incredibly high level. Purdy is proof yet again of why I'm a HUGE fan of drafting QBs that have been multi-year starters in college or "played a lot of football", as Joe Paterno once said (I think he was talking about Adam Weber before a PSU-Gophers game). And also reason why I probably won't be super excited if the Vikings take a QB who hasn't started for multiple years in college.
 

Spaulding!No! said:
Wait. Some of you think Cousins will not 45 mill a year to play football. 50 is market price and 45 mill is if he gives the vikes a discount.
Click to expand...
From which orifice are you pulling these numbers? $50M would be top 5, $45M would be top 8. Every QB in the top 10 is younger than Cousins, most significantly younger, and the only QB close to his age is Russell Wilson, who is getting pushed out of Denver. And every QB in the top 10 is in the midst of a long-term (4-year+) contract.

If current starters hold, Cousins will be the third-oldest starting QB this fall (1. Rodgers, 2. Tannehill) and Tannehill is older by a month. Nobody is giving Cousins $45M+, nobody is giving Cousins a 4-year deal, nobody is giving a QB coming off a major season-ending injury $45M+, and nobody is giving a 36-year-old QB with 1 career playoff win $45M+.

A 2-year contract in the range of $60-70M, $30-35M per year, would put him right in the center (15-17 range) of starting QBs, and is more than fair given his age, recent injury, and production.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I disagree. I think McCarthy could end up being the best long term QB in this draft. I would be happy with him at 11. Nix at 12 is way too high, but late first/early 2nd is fine for him. Both are significantly better than Ponder.
Click to expand...
If we used anything more than a 5th on Bo Nix it's a waste.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom