They are putting too many eggs in one basket. If they have a repeat of last year it will Zimmer and Spleiman shown the door not Cousins. Maybe we are wrong and they win 11 plus games. But this is same team that thought Dru Samia could play...
Always a good read :) , however, resigning Dozier is not an uplifting addition to a position he, in cooperation with Samia, made into the laughing stock of the NFL in 2020. The only lineman that should have been considered a member of the opposing defense for the number of times he was beaten, bull-rushed, forklifted, and simply thrown to the side...
The focus on defense has gone into the absurd. How do they propose to win a game with half the O-line missing? Are Tomlinsson and Hunter going to play left guard and left tackle as well? lol.
The way this is going you can bet if Paye and Darrisaw are both available at 14, Zimmer will force the issue to get Paye and state we can get the rest of the O-line in rounds 3 and 4. If they do not improve the O-line from where it currently is at I'm expecting the record to be 8 and 9 or worse. If Darrisaw is added and a body that can play guard, I would change that prognostication.
Zimmer's approach is so self-serving and not team serving its incredible. Consider the following:
1. Zimmer's move to hire Kubiac who has no experience as an OC, will default to whatever Zimmer wants (e.g. run, run, run) and Zimmer already believes the Offense is good enough. That fact causes the team to be less likely to trade Cousins because a new OC strapped with a new QB he is unfamiliar with weakens the offense and would force Zimmer to consider a different approach which he is not willing to do. Zimmer seems to believe all he needs is a cobbled-together O-line ranked 25 or so and his defense will do the rest.
2. I don't think Zimmer believes in Cousins, particularly after the rough start to last season and the problems related to sacks, hurries, and fumbles he causes himself. Zimmer believes good defense shores up Cousins' weaknesses because those weaknesses will matter less if the other team can't score as frequently. Zimmer seems to view the O-line as not regressed which would have to be part of the formula if the defense is actually expected to shore up Cousin's poor production games. Zimmer significantly underestimates the play of Rief who they no longer have at left tackle in that equation. If the LT sucks, the D is not going to be able to compensate.
3. Who is going to challenge Zimmer's focus on the Defense? Speilman? Rick is all in on Zimmer and his job depends on Zimmer making good. Even if he opposed Zimmer, would you have confidence in Speilman picking a quality Guard or LT based on his track record? The only thing Speilman is worse at is QB selection.
Love the team but Zimmer's eye damage must have exclusively been in the eye used to consider the offense a relevant part of an NFL football team.
I am becoming convinced that this team can go as far as the OL can take them. However, I am also slowly becoming convinced that this OL will again be bottom 10. An unpleasant set of convictions to have.
Also, Austin Blythe only signed a deal worth 990k guaranteed that is worth up to 1.75M - it is demoralizing that the Vikings couldn't beat that. It is certainly possible if not likely that Blythe (who is young - only 28) wanted a one year deal with a team that had a strong interior (he would likely play next to Thuney and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif) so that he would look good and could reset his value for another big contract, but still money talks, and it feels like would could have easily tripled his guaranteed money.
Beyond this, I can tell that Coller thinks that our most likely option at LT is Cleveland. Why is that? The draft is setting up so perfectly for the Vikings to take a LT, from the draft being so LT heavy, to the Vikings basically never drafting a DE high, to there being so many high rated players that are scheme fits... To be clear I don't find the position bad, I feel like I am just unaware of the evidence that would indicate that the Vikings would do that.
That said, I feel like the Vikings decisions regarding the OL have never had any connection to what the evidence said or what logic suggested, so perhaps trying to be reasonable about this is a fools errand...
I think he's the most likely candidate because I'd guess they take a pass rusher over tackle in the draft. But if they do go with LT, of course that means they don't believe in him as a tackle. I'm definitely not sure because... as we know... this team is unpredictable on the OL
Also - here's a fairly wild stat - ever since Spielman has been with the Vikings (since 2006), the Vikings have never used a single 1st or 2nd round pick on a DE, and have only spent two third round picks on a DE (though it is worth mentioning that both of those with Zimmer's first two years). Now obviously the first few years when RS was part of that "triumvirate of authority" or whatever can be thrown out, but still it seems like RS might be of the mind that you don't need to use massive draft capital to get elite pass rushing.
I could see that. I guess I don't view drafting a tackle as an indictment on Cleveland, but instead an endorsement of what Cleveland was able to do last year as a guard, which is far more valuable now than in years past given the modern surge of interior rushing. I wouldn't particularly like it, but I could also see them drafting another in-between guy like Alijah Vera-Tucker and saying that between him and Cleveland that one will be guard and another will be tackle, and they'll figure out which is which in camp.
Otherwise, it sounds like the difference is that I am expecting the Vikings to act how they have previously (loving mid-round DEs and typically having perhaps too much faith in developing them), and you are expecting the Vikings to prioritize pass rushing in a way that they never have before, which is reasonable given that their approach has been less successful in the last few years. For better or worse it feels to me like Zimmer is trying to repeat the exact same thing he did when he first came here in 2014: draft corners high, bring in rush-stuffing DTs, bring in a veteran guy into the secondary who was previously crazy athletic and is still very smart, and trust ascending DEs to continue ascending (which in 2014 included Griffen, who Zimmer signed to what seemed a too-big contract given that Griffen had averaged only 6 sacks a year and had started only 1 game before Zimmer showed up).
When I awoke this morning and saw the news on social media, I chuckled to myself and thought oh, it's April Fools Day that was a good one, surely Rick wouldn't be stupid enough to bring Dozier back. Then I remembered that it's only the 31st and that Rick has a negligent pattern of doing stupid crap like this.
Basement level low, but I've ceased being surprised with Rick's offensive line madness. Now Rick will probably move Dozier to left tackle, shift Cleveland to center, Bradbury to right guard, Hill to left guard, and then resign Brett Jones and keep him on the bench.
Seems like the Vikings overvalue their bottom of the roster players. It's like their afraid of the unknown. Even in situations where the unknown would obviously be better. Rick could have put on a blindfold and pointed a finger on the table on a list of names...he would have done more to improve the team.
I am a Spielman fan but signings like this are just baffling and provide rightful fodder for critics.
I know this sounds wild, but think of the bravado it takes to make this gamble... they don't care about the offensive line BECAUSE the real focus is on skill positions driving down the field. At least that's the pitch I see Kubiak Jr. making to coach Zimmer.
Why worry about about the trenches when you can gloss over Cousins lacking pocket awareness by dinking-dunking defenses to death. If Tom Brady can do it, surely Cousins can emulate a similar style of play. And IF the opposing defense stops rushing for a moment, bombs away!!
I like the idea that they go with Vera-Tucker in the draft. He has position flexibility even though his reach screams guard in the NFL. Also, they could sign Lane Taylor as a lottery ticket guard. I think Cleveland has to move to tackle. His build indicates that he should be better at guard or tackle. The bugaboo of this team is when they face a quality d-line, the interior o-line gets destroyed. At this point, I can't see how this team can advance deep into the playoffs with the o-line that they have.
They are putting too many eggs in one basket. If they have a repeat of last year it will Zimmer and Spleiman shown the door not Cousins. Maybe we are wrong and they win 11 plus games. But this is same team that thought Dru Samia could play...
Dakota Dozier? Dakota Dozier??? WTH!!!! That guy must have some very compromising pictures of Speilman... SMH
Always a good read :) , however, resigning Dozier is not an uplifting addition to a position he, in cooperation with Samia, made into the laughing stock of the NFL in 2020. The only lineman that should have been considered a member of the opposing defense for the number of times he was beaten, bull-rushed, forklifted, and simply thrown to the side...
The focus on defense has gone into the absurd. How do they propose to win a game with half the O-line missing? Are Tomlinsson and Hunter going to play left guard and left tackle as well? lol.
The way this is going you can bet if Paye and Darrisaw are both available at 14, Zimmer will force the issue to get Paye and state we can get the rest of the O-line in rounds 3 and 4. If they do not improve the O-line from where it currently is at I'm expecting the record to be 8 and 9 or worse. If Darrisaw is added and a body that can play guard, I would change that prognostication.
Zimmer's approach is so self-serving and not team serving its incredible. Consider the following:
1. Zimmer's move to hire Kubiac who has no experience as an OC, will default to whatever Zimmer wants (e.g. run, run, run) and Zimmer already believes the Offense is good enough. That fact causes the team to be less likely to trade Cousins because a new OC strapped with a new QB he is unfamiliar with weakens the offense and would force Zimmer to consider a different approach which he is not willing to do. Zimmer seems to believe all he needs is a cobbled-together O-line ranked 25 or so and his defense will do the rest.
2. I don't think Zimmer believes in Cousins, particularly after the rough start to last season and the problems related to sacks, hurries, and fumbles he causes himself. Zimmer believes good defense shores up Cousins' weaknesses because those weaknesses will matter less if the other team can't score as frequently. Zimmer seems to view the O-line as not regressed which would have to be part of the formula if the defense is actually expected to shore up Cousin's poor production games. Zimmer significantly underestimates the play of Rief who they no longer have at left tackle in that equation. If the LT sucks, the D is not going to be able to compensate.
3. Who is going to challenge Zimmer's focus on the Defense? Speilman? Rick is all in on Zimmer and his job depends on Zimmer making good. Even if he opposed Zimmer, would you have confidence in Speilman picking a quality Guard or LT based on his track record? The only thing Speilman is worse at is QB selection.
Love the team but Zimmer's eye damage must have exclusively been in the eye used to consider the offense a relevant part of an NFL football team.
I am becoming convinced that this team can go as far as the OL can take them. However, I am also slowly becoming convinced that this OL will again be bottom 10. An unpleasant set of convictions to have.
Also, Austin Blythe only signed a deal worth 990k guaranteed that is worth up to 1.75M - it is demoralizing that the Vikings couldn't beat that. It is certainly possible if not likely that Blythe (who is young - only 28) wanted a one year deal with a team that had a strong interior (he would likely play next to Thuney and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif) so that he would look good and could reset his value for another big contract, but still money talks, and it feels like would could have easily tripled his guaranteed money.
Beyond this, I can tell that Coller thinks that our most likely option at LT is Cleveland. Why is that? The draft is setting up so perfectly for the Vikings to take a LT, from the draft being so LT heavy, to the Vikings basically never drafting a DE high, to there being so many high rated players that are scheme fits... To be clear I don't find the position bad, I feel like I am just unaware of the evidence that would indicate that the Vikings would do that.
That said, I feel like the Vikings decisions regarding the OL have never had any connection to what the evidence said or what logic suggested, so perhaps trying to be reasonable about this is a fools errand...
I think he's the most likely candidate because I'd guess they take a pass rusher over tackle in the draft. But if they do go with LT, of course that means they don't believe in him as a tackle. I'm definitely not sure because... as we know... this team is unpredictable on the OL
Also - here's a fairly wild stat - ever since Spielman has been with the Vikings (since 2006), the Vikings have never used a single 1st or 2nd round pick on a DE, and have only spent two third round picks on a DE (though it is worth mentioning that both of those with Zimmer's first two years). Now obviously the first few years when RS was part of that "triumvirate of authority" or whatever can be thrown out, but still it seems like RS might be of the mind that you don't need to use massive draft capital to get elite pass rushing.
I could see that. I guess I don't view drafting a tackle as an indictment on Cleveland, but instead an endorsement of what Cleveland was able to do last year as a guard, which is far more valuable now than in years past given the modern surge of interior rushing. I wouldn't particularly like it, but I could also see them drafting another in-between guy like Alijah Vera-Tucker and saying that between him and Cleveland that one will be guard and another will be tackle, and they'll figure out which is which in camp.
Otherwise, it sounds like the difference is that I am expecting the Vikings to act how they have previously (loving mid-round DEs and typically having perhaps too much faith in developing them), and you are expecting the Vikings to prioritize pass rushing in a way that they never have before, which is reasonable given that their approach has been less successful in the last few years. For better or worse it feels to me like Zimmer is trying to repeat the exact same thing he did when he first came here in 2014: draft corners high, bring in rush-stuffing DTs, bring in a veteran guy into the secondary who was previously crazy athletic and is still very smart, and trust ascending DEs to continue ascending (which in 2014 included Griffen, who Zimmer signed to what seemed a too-big contract given that Griffen had averaged only 6 sacks a year and had started only 1 game before Zimmer showed up).
When I awoke this morning and saw the news on social media, I chuckled to myself and thought oh, it's April Fools Day that was a good one, surely Rick wouldn't be stupid enough to bring Dozier back. Then I remembered that it's only the 31st and that Rick has a negligent pattern of doing stupid crap like this.
I'm sensing that the approval rating for this move is low lol
Basement level low, but I've ceased being surprised with Rick's offensive line madness. Now Rick will probably move Dozier to left tackle, shift Cleveland to center, Bradbury to right guard, Hill to left guard, and then resign Brett Jones and keep him on the bench.
Seems like the Vikings overvalue their bottom of the roster players. It's like their afraid of the unknown. Even in situations where the unknown would obviously be better. Rick could have put on a blindfold and pointed a finger on the table on a list of names...he would have done more to improve the team.
I am a Spielman fan but signings like this are just baffling and provide rightful fodder for critics.
I know this sounds wild, but think of the bravado it takes to make this gamble... they don't care about the offensive line BECAUSE the real focus is on skill positions driving down the field. At least that's the pitch I see Kubiak Jr. making to coach Zimmer.
Why worry about about the trenches when you can gloss over Cousins lacking pocket awareness by dinking-dunking defenses to death. If Tom Brady can do it, surely Cousins can emulate a similar style of play. And IF the opposing defense stops rushing for a moment, bombs away!!
I like the idea that they go with Vera-Tucker in the draft. He has position flexibility even though his reach screams guard in the NFL. Also, they could sign Lane Taylor as a lottery ticket guard. I think Cleveland has to move to tackle. His build indicates that he should be better at guard or tackle. The bugaboo of this team is when they face a quality d-line, the interior o-line gets destroyed. At this point, I can't see how this team can advance deep into the playoffs with the o-line that they have.