Sendejo

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Amen Rip---Give me above average players at some positions but make sure they're attentive  to our(Coach's) gameplan and willing to buyin so they funnel the plays to where you want not just reactive to what the O wants.   

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He's ok and that has seemed to be fine thus far. But lets not confuse him for good, because he's not that. The team looked as recently as last year to replace him. 

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I've not been a big fan of Sendejo's but he is playing better this year. One game he defended 2 passes in the end zone. He is more involved in pass coverage than he ever was before. He is not, and will never be, a star. But he is not the glaring weakness he had been.

But it would be nice to get a stud safety to pair with Smith. This defense would be truly scary.

And Waynes is coming along,too. He has improved over the course of this season. Mac was pretty good this Sunday. I thought the P.I. call was a bad call. He does seem to struggle playing nickle.

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@dadevike said:
I've not been a big fan of Sendejo's but he is playing better this year. One game he defended 2 passes in the end zone. He is more involved in pass coverage than he ever was before. He is not, and will never be, a star. But he is not the glaring weakness he had been.

But it would be nice to get a stud safety to pair with Smith. This defense would be truly scary.

And Waynes is coming along,too. He has improved over the course of this season. Mac was pretty good this Sunday. I thought the P.I. call was a bad call. He does seem to struggle playing nickle.

Can't remember who said it, maybe Newman, but he said that playing nickle is a very difficult task.  There is so much going on, so many responsibilities with run support, motion, the different routes.  It isn't surprising a second year guy is struggling to pick it all up in Zimmer's complex D.  But to me, he is playing that position, getting noticeably better, breaking up passes (one turned into an INT for Rhodes) and seems to have the trust of the coaches.  That tells me he is capable of becoming a very good player.

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@greediron said:

@dadevike said:
I've not been a big fan of Sendejo's but he is playing better this year. One game he defended 2 passes in the end zone. He is more involved in pass coverage than he ever was before. He is not, and will never be, a star. But he is not the glaring weakness he had been.

But it would be nice to get a stud safety to pair with Smith. This defense would be truly scary.

And Waynes is coming along,too. He has improved over the course of this season. Mac was pretty good this Sunday. I thought the P.I. call was a bad call. He does seem to struggle playing nickle.

Can't remember who said it, maybe Newman, but he said that playing nickle is a very difficult task.  There is so much going on, so many responsibilities with run support, motion, the different routes.  It isn't surprising a second year guy is struggling to pick it all up in Zimmer's complex D.  But to me, he is playing that position, getting noticeably better, breaking up passes (one turned into an INT for Rhodes) and seems to have the trust of the coaches.  That tells me he is capable of becoming a very good player.

playing slot is a bitch... on the outside all you have to do is really disrupt the inside move and then use the sideline as an extra defender to make it very tough for a QB to fit the ball in.  in the slot there is so much more to worry about as you dont have the advantage of the sideline to take route options away from the offense.  

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@greediron said:

@dadevike said:
I've not been a big fan of Sendejo's but he is playing better this year. One game he defended 2 passes in the end zone. He is more involved in pass coverage than he ever was before. He is not, and will never be, a star. But he is not the glaring weakness he had been.

But it would be nice to get a stud safety to pair with Smith. This defense would be truly scary.

And Waynes is coming along,too. He has improved over the course of this season. Mac was pretty good this Sunday. I thought the P.I. call was a bad call. He does seem to struggle playing nickle.

Can't remember who said it, maybe Newman, but he said that playing nickle is a very difficult task.  There is so much going on, so many responsibilities with run support, motion, the different routes.  It isn't surprising a second year guy is struggling to pick it all up in Zimmer's complex D.  But to me, he is playing that position, getting noticeably better, breaking up passes (one turned into an INT for Rhodes) and seems to have the trust of the coaches.  That tells me he is capable of becoming a very good player.

It's as simple as this: how often doing you hear Alexander's name called during the game?

Not often. He's playing well and probably ahead of where Waynes was in his second year...

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For the record guys, I was not saying that Sendejo should be mentioned in the same breath as Pro Bowlers.  I'm saying that he has upped his game and has become a solid, more reliable cog in one of the top NFL defenses this year.  It's an improvement over two years ago that has become noticeable to me.  

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@Montana Tom said:
For the record guys, I was not saying that Sendejo should be mentioned in the same breath as Pro Bowlers.  I'm saying that he has upped his game and has become a solid, more reliable cog in one of the top NFL defenses this year.  It's an improvement over two years ago that has become noticeable to me.  

He is deserving of a mention by way of appreciation. He has been bashed in the past and rightly so. But his play is markedly better this year. And it has not gone unnoticed.

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Sendejo is having a very good year. Anyone saying otherwise is really holding on to some sort of sour grapes. Guy is playing very well. Frankly he has been for two years now. Our entire defense is playing very well or we wouldn't be ranked 2nd defense in the league.

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Reading back through my post but can't seem to find anywhere that I said the Team needed an All-Pro at every position. I know why, because i didn't.

What I very specifically said was that to get to being a truly Elite Defense you need better than League Average at damn near every position on the field.

And no,.being ranked #2 on Defense does not make them Elite. There isn't an Elite Defense this year. Really there isn't one most years. The Broncos had one a little while back, but FA took some of their teeth away.

So I look at that Broncos D or the Ravens D from that Super Bowl run and ask myself which Players on this Vikings Defense would fit right in and which would immediately be a downgrade.

Why? Because I bet your bottom dollar that Mike Zimmer is also thinking about having a truly Elite Defense. That is what he's always striving for (besides a Super Bowl win).

And he's damn close. Smith, Rhodes, Barr, Kendricks, Griffen, Joseph, Hunter. Still plenty of growing yet to come for Waynes and Alexander.

Bur Sendejo is what he is. And in no way, shape or form do I want him covering Gronk or any of the Patriots factory-generated RBs that are so lethal as pass catchers. And they're going to find a way to catch him covering a WR sooner or later.

Look, I love Lunch Pail Players. But Safeties are becoming a lot like CBs in terms of needing good to great coverage skills. Sendejo doesn't have that. He's certainly improved against the run, being where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be, and making plays on the ball like he's done in the endzone.

But if you truly believe he won't get picked on in coverage as Minnesota moves deeper into the Playoffs....