Vikings GM Rick Spielman goes from the hot seat to collecting honors

[Guest]

Rick Sucks...   =) :p

But being 13-3 is nice.  =)

So Kudos to Rick for not fucking it up...  

[Guest]

@"minny65" said:
Rick had a great off season so I am not surprised that he is in the running for GM awards.

Reiff, Remmers, and Case were huge upgrades and bargains as free agents.  Murray proved to be a good and needed signing when Cook went down.  

We also extended a couple of our own young stars highlighted by a huge payoff in Theilan who is costing around 5 million for a top WR. 

So he did excellent in signing free agents and also resigning/extending our own.

Then you add the draft where he moved up for two instant starters in Cook and Elflein.  Rick knows what he wants and is not afraid to move up or down and play the draft with the best of them. 

Rick has been one of the Top GM's for a few years now and has built a solid roster with the help of his first HC hire Zimmer.  This roster is young, talented and should give us a solid 5 year window of NFC North dominance (2 out of the last 3 baby!) and playoff football. 

It is great time to be a Viking fan - Thanks Rick! 

What I keep coming back to is the ballsy move he made in trading our #1 pick to Philly for Bradford and then rendering that lost 1st rounder moot by drafting Dalvin Cook in the 2nd round, Elflein in the 3rd. Sure, there was some luck involved in those players dropping, but Cook was a 1st round talent and Elflein a 2nd.

Now, Bradford didn't quite work out, but that's part of the game. What impressed me was that he recognized that the team was in its window and he didn't want to saddle such a team with a hold-serve QB like Josh McCown or Mark Sanchez or Geno Smith, as many in the media (and on this board) were suggesting. He recognized that Bradford was a very talented QB whose true ability was masked by injuries and poor supporting casts, and he was right. Yes, the injury history was part of the package, but it's clear he was right about the talent. 

Another great move was bringing in Keenum to compete for the 2nd slot despite having a pretty good looking young QB in Heinicke. Then you add what he did with Sloter (trust me, folks, people in Denver are still burned about that and talk about it on a weekly basis)....Rick is a very good GM who is gaining confidence every year, and getting better at what he does. 

[Guest]

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"Purplewhizz" said:
He was a little lucky that Kalil decided to sign elsewhere because he did try to sign him.  Can’t complain overall though.

You try to sign a lot of players,  bUT the value that you put on them is often more indicative of your true interest than the mere matter of the attenpt.  If rick really wanted Kalil he would still be here.  The fact that he isn't is imo pretty telling.

We don't know the contract that was offered to Kalil.  Likely was a short term stop gap type of contract and as most players tend to do, they bet on themselves and look for a longer term contract.

Trying to sign Kalil isn't a problem.  We needed someone at LT as TJ wasn't the answer, Hill still needs some seasoning and the other top LTs were signing elsewhere for stupid money.  Will the prospect Hill as the possible long term, I doubt they gave Kalil much of an offer, that is why he went elsewhere. 

Thankfully Rick found Reiff who has been an incredible signing.

And no Rick wasn't on any hot seat unless you count the empty minds of the negative minnesota press speculating with malice that if only the Vikings were to suck bad this year, they would have opportunities to write so many negative articles as chuckle with glee.

[Guest]

yeah, sometimes it's not who you sign, it's who you don't.  Addition by subtraction...some of which were minor (Alex Boone), and some that were significant (previously mentioned)

[Guest]

I think Kalil was a by-product of OL coaching and scheme as well, ON TOP of his lack of skill. Yes, he's terrible, but if you look at the overall improvement of the OL this year it points to Sparano's blocking schemes and players that fit that scheme better than the clusterf*ck that was around before. Elflein was huuuuge and is integral to opening up the playbook with his athleticism. 

I think what we see is Rick finally being able to get in sync with the coaching staff and bring in people to develop a system, and fit people into that system. Ever wonder why teams like the Patriots can bring people who fail on every other team in (with a few notable exceptions) and make them into stars? They bring players in to fit the system and have gotten so good at it, that they rarely miss these days.  

I forsee this developing here and the system finally locking into place. Even if we lose our OC in the offseason, expect another to come on that runs a similar setup. 

[Guest]

@"Al (The Lochstar) Heurung" said:
I think Kalil was a by-product of OL coaching and scheme as well, ON TOP of his lack of skill. Yes, he's terrible, but if you look at the overall improvement of the OL this year it points to Sparano's blocking schemes and players that fit that scheme better than the clusterf*ck that was around before. Elflein was huuuuge and is integral to opening up the playbook with his athleticism. 

I think what we see is Rick finally being able to get in sync with the coaching staff and bring in people to develop a system, and fit people into that system. Ever wonder why teams like the Patriots can bring people who fail on every other team in (with a few notable exceptions) and make them into stars? They bring players in to fit the system and have gotten so good at it, that they rarely miss these days.  

I forsee this developing here and the system finally locking into place. Even if we lose our OC in the offseason, expect another to come on that runs a similar setup. 

Kalil's issue wasn't skill, but good old want to.  I can only image the dedication and love for the game it takes to be a top NFL guy.  He didn't seem to have that, with his constant excuses to cover up his lack of preparation and off-season work.  The off-season grind and then the mental preparation and time spent in film study weeds out the merely talented from the talented and dedicated.

But to your point about Rick and the O-Line.  It is obvious Zimmer has been able to communicate what type of players he wanted for defense.  But I wonder about offense, especially at the line positions.  We had Norv who obviously didn't mess well with Zimmer as time wore on.  Zim brought in Sparano to try and change the culture, but we still had some that didn't fit in that room.  Boone's mouth fit, but not his play.  Kalil's lack of dedication didn't win him any friends.  So two big paychecks were largely fluff.  Once the offensive scheme changed and those 2 guys were gone, they attitude changed.  Zimmer mentioned wanting a tougher type of tackle when we signed Remmers and Reiff.

So I think it is a combination.  Scheme change.  Culture change.  Maybe because of the scheme, Sparano was able to ask for draftees that fit better.  I think there was likely a mixed message with Norv and Sparano.  Davidson didn't seem to know what he wanted evident by the years of mediocrity.

Now they know what they want, Rick can find it for them.  And with Reiff they changed the attitude with the highest paid guy.  Elflein is so much better than Berger as well, so that makes the whole unit better.

[Guest]

Watching Kalil in training camp... skill was a huge part lol.

The rest I agree with though  

[Guest]

By offering him a minumum contract which he was sure Kalil wouldnt accept he guarenteed a high round compensation pick curtesy of the Panthers.  Smart play Rick!

[Guest]

Is there a link to this “Rick offered small $$$ to Kalil” thing we’re running with?   Cuz I can’t find anything yet...  

Kalil would probably still be a Viking if the Panthers didn’t overpay for him.   I’ve seen a rumored 3 year 28 million deal talked about...  So to Rick... Kalil was worth a little over 9 million a year,,, if those numbers are correct.  If a team didn’t step up he’d be here and the Vikings, more than likely, wouldn’t be playing this weekend because we didn’t have Kalil’s older brother to kick his lazy ass.  

[Guest]

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"minny65" said:
Rick had a great off season so I am not surprised that he is in the running for GM awards.

Reiff, Remmers, and Case were huge upgrades and bargains as free agents.  Murray proved to be a good and needed signing when Cook went down.  

We also extended a couple of our own young stars highlighted by a huge payoff in Theilan who is costing around 5 million for a top WR. 

So he did excellent in signing free agents and also resigning/extending our own.

Then you add the draft where he moved up for two instant starters in Cook and Elflein.  Rick knows what he wants and is not afraid to move up or down and play the draft with the best of them. 

Rick has been one of the Top GM's for a few years now and has built a solid roster with the help of his first HC hire Zimmer.  This roster is young, talented and should give us a solid 5 year window of NFC North dominance (2 out of the last 3 baby!) and playoff football. 

It is great time to be a Viking fan - Thanks Rick! 

What I keep coming back to is the ballsy move he made in trading our #1 pick to Philly for Bradford and then rendering that lost 1st rounder moot by drafting Dalvin Cook in the 2nd round, Elflein in the 3rd. Sure, there was some luck involved in those players dropping, but Cook was a 1st round talent and Elflein a 2nd.

Now, Bradford didn't quite work out, but that's part of the game. What impressed me was that he recognized that the team was in its window and he didn't want to saddle such a team with a hold-serve QB like Josh McCown or Mark Sanchez or Geno Smith, as many in the media (and on this board) were suggesting. He recognized that Bradford was a very talented QB whose true ability was masked by injuries and poor supporting casts, and he was right. Yes, the injury history was part of the package, but it's clear he was right about the talent. 

Another great move was bringing in Keenum to compete for the 2nd slot despite having a pretty good looking young QB in Heinicke. Then you add what he did with Sloter (trust me, folks, people in Denver are still burned about that and talk about it on a weekly basis)....Rick is a very good GM who is gaining confidence every year, and getting better at what he does. 

Agree strongly with this. How many of us get out of college start a job and are at the top of our game? We all learn as we go. We gain expierence and contacts. Rick is no different. He has gotten better with time. Does he miss a player judgement call here and there? Yes. It is an inexact science. Rick working with Zim and his position coaches has us going in the right direction.