Minnesota Vikings
2019 Record: (10-6) 2nd
NFC North
2019 Season Recap:
Offense
Points: 25.4 (8th)
Yards: 353.5 (16th)
Pass Yards: 220.2 (23rd)
Rush Yards: 133.6 (6th)
Defense
Points: 18.9 (6th)
Yards: 341.6 (14th)
Pass Yards: 233.6 (15th)
Rush Yards: 108.0 (13th)
At the start of the 2019 off-season, we were enthralled with the
possibilities of what the Minnesota Vikings could become. While most had
negative reviews of Kirk Cousins believing he couldn’t win in big time
situations, we still had high hopes he could turn out yet another solid
campaign. The return of their star running back Dalvin Cook also provided an
uplift in our belief, and was seen on the field for most of 2019.
As the season prolonged, it was shocking to witness the Vikings
pass attack take a step back – Cousins witnessed a mammoth reduction in pass
attempts losing 162 over the course of the season. Having more reliance on the
run game while trying to create less turnovers, the full potential of this
offense was never reached in our opinion. Losing Adam Thielen for six games to
an injured hamstring, he never looked right even when he stepped back onto the
field of play. Nevertheless, the full offensive explosion was never realized
but Minnesota was still able to muster more than enough to again reach the
postseason.
Being underdogs on wildcard weekend facing the New Orleans Saints,
a great scheme was put in place and carried the team to victory. While some did
question the overtime touchdown reception by Kyle Rudolph claiming it was
offensive pass interference – the stage was set to travel to San Francisco and
face off against the 49ers. Unfortunately, the same outcome wasn’t realized in
the divisional round as the 49ers handled Minnesota rather easily with defense
and a strong run game.
Even as we would’ve liked to have witnessed something of a
progression from the 2018 season, the Vikings looked uninspired at times on
offense which eventually led to their demise. We still believe this club could
be much better and will have to be with Cousins entering the final year of his
big money contract.
2020 Offseason
WorkBook:
The Offense
Starting this review with Kirk Cousins
as he enters his ninth NFL campaign – this could be a make or break season if
he hopes to return to Minnesota. Regardless on what many feel he is as a
passer, Cousins has played very well throwing for over 4000-yards in four of
his five seasons as a starting quarterback. The greatest knock on his play has
been turnovers and the lack of clutch behavior to take a team on his back to
be victorious. Either way, we still will throw loads of support his way and
hope this offensive system will integrate more of a pass attacking mindset for
the 2020 season.
Diving right into the running back room
and their unquestionable star Dalvin Cook – how could we not be excited for the
potential once again. Cook managed his best year on record which lifted him to
compete for the prize of being one of the leagues best runners. However,
durability continues to be a concern as he lost two more games to injury and
concluded the year playing at far less than 100-percent. The Vikings clearly
realized they need supportive pieces in this room and that came from their
rookie Alexander Mattison and Mike Boone for relief. Mattison showed a good
level of skill and should remain as the change of pace back in this offense. No
matter how we cut it, this offense will again go through Cook and we sure hope
his body can hold up.
In terms of the pass catchers on this
team, Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs are still the primary targets and should
also remain the standard for 2020. As mentioned above, injuries derailed the
overall outlook for this group when Thielen was lost and never seemed to regain
full health after his return. Using patch made solutions to help keep this pass
attack moving – nothing overly credible was seen with Bisi Johnson and Laquon Tredwell
filling in. The loss of Chad Beebe to injury should also be highlighted as he
would’ve seen that expanded role and impending production. Needless to say, we
would like to see more supportive talent added to this group this off-season to
supplant any more lost time while keeping up with execution.
Looking ahead to the tight end position,
perhaps we see something of a change to employ both Rudolph and Irv Smith with
more regularity. Many clubs in the NFL are moving to that multi tight end set
to create those mismatches on the field. If Smith can continue his progression
in his run blocking, both players could remain on the field at the same time
for a number of situations.
This offense does have many of the right
pieces in place and could go over the top with a couple key additions. If this
is Cousins last season with the team – you have to believe they will go all out
in hopes to compete for it all.
The Defense
Taking a look back at the defensive of side of things, we were
somewhat disappointed with the overall performance of this group which should’ve
been elite. Holding many top end players housed all over this unit, they only
managed to secure one top 10 finish in the rankings (points allowed). Last
years version definitely set the bar extremely high, but don’t get us wrong -
there was a lot to like from what this group did in 2019.
Beginning with the defensive line which is absolutely loaded with
skill and ability, they helped secure a whopping 48 sacks of opposing quarterbacks.
Led by Danielle Hunter and Everson Griffen – the two accounted for 22.5 sacks themselves
which is impressive in itself. The surprise from this line came from productivity
of Ifeadi Odenigbo who adding another seven sacks for this defense. All teaming
up while gaining assistance from Linval Joseph, this room is literally stacked.
With that said, the Vikings know how much trouble they have in terms of the
salary cap and were forced to release Griffen in hopes to bring him back at a
much lower number. If that doesn’t come to fruition, we fully expect the
Vikings to address this problem via the NFL draft.
Moving right along to the line backers which employs two studs in
their own right. Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks once again were team leaders
and proved every ounce of their net worth. Barr elevated his game once again to
reach new career highs which also helped Kendricks do much of the same. These two
were a force while racking up a healthy 189 tackles together. While we would like
to see more depth added to this room, Eric Wilson did an admiral job in the WILL-spot
creating havoc of his own. Needless to say, this group is poised to return and
once again lead the charge for this defense.
When it comes to the defensive backfield of the Vikings, we must
begin with our complete disgust for Xavier Rhodes. To clarify, we are still
giant supporters of what he could do on the field, but perhaps that will turn
into fool’s gold if we don’t move on. Never have we seen a fall from grace for
a player that was literally considered elite and lock down a mere two seasons
ago. Rhodes play was littered with inadequacy as he was burned nearly on a
weekly basis. With that terrible overall play, Minnesota has a difficult
decision to make on if they keep him on the club with his now inflated contract.
Adding to the concern, Trae Waynes has played out his rookie deal
and will be set to hit the open market which could be an issue for this group to
get better in 2020. His play was fairly solid but we wouldn’t condone a massive
raise that he is looking for. This leaves Mike Hughes (if Rhodes is cut), to go
along with super star Harrison Smith as the lone survivors on the secondary.
Being the worst ranked unit of this entire defense in 2019 – we fully expect a
lot of attention placed on this secondary this off-season.
Team Free Agents / Team Salary Cap
Its not that we planned to be overly critical of what the Vikings
are, but more travesty rests when you view their current salary cap. Before
they released Griffin from the roster, Minnesota held a negative cap number and
needed to jump into the positive before the league year begins on March 18th.
Finding just enough to be compliant with league rules, the Vikings hold a very
meek 746-thousand in free space – yes you heard that right.
To make matters even worse, top names that grace their list of
team free agents is staggering. Like we mentioned above, Griffen has been
released already and we can’t envision any situation where they can bring him
back to the fold. Similarly, when discussing Trae Waynes, his market value has
skyrocketed to the tune of around 8.5 million per season, well out of the Vikings
price range.
Continuing down the path of dismay, the player which led this club
in interceptions with six is also looking to head to the open market, and he of
course is Anthony Harris. Based on market trends of valuing a player of his ability
– his price tag would fetch around 13.5-13.8 million dollars per season. Not
stopping there, Mackensie Alexander holds a similar fate to that of Waynes, who
also would covet around 8 million per season. The situation to bring back all
this high-priced talent is absolutely out of the question and finding
replacements with little money will be a giant task.
Part of being successful for a number of years comes with high
salaries and tough choices to make. Attempting to find money on the book in
hopes to garner more funds will have to be done by the front office, cause at this
point, they don’t have enough to sign their rookies from the upcoming draft. While
we’ve heard rumor that Stefon Diggs has been on the trade block, its not out of
the question to see him moved after June 1st. His 14.5-million-dollar
cap hit would almost all be saved post June 1st as dead funds would
drop from nine million to a mere 3 million. This could be a future move to help
ease some cap troubles.
In terms of finding money now, Xavier Rhodes is the obvious choice
to be that cap causality as he would save a healthy 12.9 million with only 4.8
million headed to dead funds – not too bad. Linval Joseph is another top name
on the club that should be considered to be released. Holding a whopping 12.8
million cap hit, he would save the team another 10.4 million with only 2.4
million heading to dead money.
With other moves looking far less appealing – Minnesota could save
18.5 million in just removing Rhodes and Joseph. And by chance if Diggs is
traded post June 1st, an additional 11.5 million could be added. While
the Diggs move wouldn’t make much sense to help reload this roster for 2020,
that subsequent transaction would assist the books for 2021. This will be a
very difficult off-season for general manager Rick Spielman and we don’t envy
him one bit.
The NFL Draft
With the NFL releasing the listing of compensatory picks on March
10th, finally Minnesota receives some good news for the off-season. The
league has given the Vikings three compensatory selections – one extra third
and two extra seventh rounders will be added to their board. In total, the
Vikes will hold 10 draft picks as of today, with two picks in the third and
four in the seventh with no fifth-round pick to their name.
Upon conclusion from last season based on where they finished,
Minnesota will select 25th overall in the first round. With so many
holes after what should transpire from losing all their team free agents, we should
see them move toward picking the best defensive back on the board in the first
round. Following that up with defensive line help should be the formula to restock
the shelves. Having those two third round picks will go a very long way in
finding replacement talent for a team that still should hold very sound promise.
With expectations at an all time high with potentially the final season
of the Kirk Cousins tenure, Minnesota needs to hit on majority of their picks in
this draft or another early exist will be forthcoming.
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