Quote: @Jor-El said:He's 28, barely a year younger than Rhodes, who people see as past his prime. Maybe he'll be effective until he's 35, safety is not CB...but since he didn't play much before 2018, I think people believe he's an under-25 kid.
I just think he's a luxury on this team, and he is not an elite athlete so reminds me of guys like Byron Maxwell, who look good on a good defense but not elsewhere. A team that gives him something like $50M for 4 years will look like one of the stupid ones in 2 years if they cut him to save cap space.
Why does it matter if Harris is 25 or 28? I don't think Rhodes decline is age related... I think it's injuries have caught up to him and he's not taking care of the mental side of his game. It seems like every off-season, it's either Gray or Zimmer talking about bringing out the boxing gloves and working on his technique... a guy who's been in the league as long as Rhodes has shouldn't be in that situation.
Now back to the topic at hand, we have a couple high priced veterans who are on the wrong side of 30... it would be a much better use of our cap space to keep a guy who is still in his prime and has shown to be one of the top safeties in the NFL than any of those players. As Maroon pointed out above, the safety position has become much more important in recent years. Why? NFL passing games have evolved and you need a safety that can cover these athletic TEs, get deep in coverage, and also play a bit of nickel... oh yeah, and they still have to tackle.
Is it a bit of a luxury? Yes... but what's the point of keeping a lesser player like Waynes for similar money? Then we have two over-priced CBs who's production doesn't match their salary.
Like every year there will be some surprise cuts and some not so surprised cuts. Along with a few restructured contracts, these efforts to free up more cash to sign or extend the players the Vikings want to keep.
Guess which team led the NFL through the regular season in Forced Incompletions? Wait for it....
Your 2019 Minnesota Vikings! Number #1 with 73 Forced Incompletions.
Guess which team was 4th in Turnovers generated? Yep, Minnesota! And who tied for the lead in Interceptions in the regular season? Anthony Harris.
Harris and Smith do so much to erase the crap play from Rhodes, who was near Bottom 10 in the League, and Wayne's, who barely cracked the Top 50 at his position.
Harris and Smith. Not the other way around. Anthony has factually become the better Coverage Safety, which has allowed Zimmer to continue to keep Harrison around the LOS.
How about some more facts? The Vikings played Zone Shell on about 70% of their snaps this year. So much for the notion that Mike needs sticky Man Coverage CBs who can figure his uber-complex scheme that takes years to learn.
And it gets weirder. The Coverage Scheme they played in the most? Cover 2 at roughly 21% of their snaps. Wait, what? But I thought Zimmer hated Cover 2 and could get CBs from 711 to play that scheme.
Well, that was true. 5 years ago. He's constantly evolving. When misdirection and pick routes and bunch sets became the rage Mike wisely noted how many Defenses were switching to Zone to combat it. Zone is also usually more effective against the kiddie QBs proliferating the League now as they just don't have the experience to know where the natural holes are in Zones that guys like Brady, Brees and Rodgers know at a near-instinctual level from all their years picking it apart.
And guess what part 5? Minnesota allowed the 4th lowest Passer Rating in the League when playing Cover 2.
Having an Elite Eraser at the back of your Zone is what has helped make it so effective. Harris is so canny at figuring out which hole a QB is looking to exploit on which play.
If Harris leaves its Smith at the back of that Zone. I'm not sure he's as instinctive as Harris in anticipating where a QB will attack the Zone but even if he was he doesn't have the athleticism to do anything about any more. And Sendejo would just be running around like a headless chicken back there endangering everyone around him.
Look. Zimmer probably doesn't want to play that much Zone. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with his inability to trust Rhodes and Waynes in Man. But the fact is the Defense was 5th in Points Allowed. And 4th in Turnovers. It may Bend a lot more than in years past, but it wasn't Breaking.
Re-signing Harris has to be Priority #1 for the Defense. With him back and seeing as how the dreaded Zone that I've badmouthed so much has actually helped keep the Defense relevant, I see no reason why Minnesota can't add an aging vet or two and jettison Rhodes and Waynes, who are now 711 Corners. Be nice to keep Mac too. Keep Anthony Harris, draft a 3T, sign a CB or 2 and this Defense will likely be Top 5 in Points Allowed. Again. And as long as the Offense continues to improve that should be good enough.
Astute post.
We don't need to spend the #25 on a CB, we can just run to the 7/11...
Quote: @purplefaithful said:
@ JimmyinSD said:
@"BarrNone55" said:
We are paying two WRs top dollars while attempting the third least amount of passes. That's fiscally irresponsible.
And getting ready to make that QB one of the highest paid in the league ( according to schefter ) it's like they are trying to give the impression that the threat of a dominant passing game will open up the run, but then why would we need a top dollar RB?
Really? There is buzz they're going to extend KC?
I read it on another board this weekend that schefter was talking about it on a pregame or something, and I heard mention of it on one of the KFan shows yesterday. (maybe common man?)
Quote: @JimmyinSD said:
And getting ready to make that QB one of the highest paid in the league ( according to schefter ) it's like they are trying to give the impression that the threat of a dominant passing game will open up the run, but then why would we need a top dollar RB?
If this is true, it really doesn't matter who we resign or don't, we are going to be doomed to beating the bad teams and losing to the good teams for the length of that contract, just as we have done the last two years. 7-31 and it is not going to change, not sure why anyone would want to continue to go down that road.
You have to answer how much playing next to Smith played into Harris being who he was last year? We can likely afford 2 high priced DBs. So you pick em. Where should we drop the coin?
Is anyone else nervous about having virtually no one back for our DBs this year?
The Hughes neck injury is huge. Do we even consider him as playing for the Vikings again?
XR needs to be cut
Waynes, Alexander, Kearse and Harris are all FAs.
Whats that leave? An injured Hughes, an aging Smith and a druggy Holton Hill
Quote: @AGRforever said:
You have to answer how much playing next to Smith played into Harris being who he was last year? We can likely afford 2 high priced DBs. So you pick em. Where should we drop the coin?
Is anyone else nervous about having virtually no one back for our DBs this year?
The Hughes neck injury is huge. Do we even consider him as playing for the Vikings again?
XR needs to be cut
Waynes, Alexander, Kearse and Harris are all FAs.
Whats that leave? An injured Hughes, an aging Smith and a druggy Holton Hill
This question probably deserves its own topic... but with Waynes and Alexander being FAs, I wonder if that makes Rhodes pretty safe to return? Maybe at a reduced rate after a strategic restructure? It would be tough to cut him outright if we aren't able to sign either one. There is no guarantee either will re-sign and we aren't using the franchise tag on those guys.
I'm not even sure Waynes is worth the money he would command on the open market, but Alexander might be. Either way, if we lose those two and cut Rhodes... that leaves us with an injury question mark (Hughes), a walking suspension case (Hill), and an over-achieving late round pick (Boyd) as our top CBs. That is worst case Ontario right there. Yikes.
Figuring out a way to resign Anthony Harris needs to be the #1 or #2 priority on the Vikes offseason Agenda. One can make a case for releasing/trading guys to free up cap space as the #1 priority. Harris and Smith back there are so valuable, and Harris is that much more when Harry blitzes. Lock up Harris and get rid of 3-4 high price guys to sign some younger FA while hopefully drafting some quality players. The tide is turning on some of the Vikes better players, how we address it this offseason will determine the next 2-3 years...IMO.
I would say they should not pay Harris anything north of 10 mil. I think he fits into the Adrian Amos contract category which was a 4 year 36 mil deal. Probably include some hefty incentives like they did with Thielen. He still has only started 31 games. If that is not good enough then I would have to let him go.
I would look to bring in Tre Boston who has not been getting paid what he thought he deserved the last couple of years. They might be able to get him for about 6 mil per year.
Or they can give Kearse a deal around 3 to 4 mil per year and let him start. And they obviously will add a safety or two in the draft.
The #1 free agent they should target is Joe Thuney LG from the Patriots.
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