02-09-2020, 06:18 PM
Somewhat thought provoking...
It’s hard not to notice that the Minnesota Vikings enter are sitting in a similar spot to the Kansas City Chiefs following the 2016 season, when they decided to draft Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes.
Kansas City went 12-4 with a run-first mentality, strong defense and conservative quarterback play. They ranked 13th in points for, seventh in points against while throwing the seventh fewest passes and turning the ball over the eighth fewest times. Quarterback Alex Smith threw for just 3,502 yards but was the 12th ranked QB by Pro Football Focus, 10th by ESPN’s QBR and had the sixth best completion percentage.
The Chiefs won their division and earned a first-round bye but were beaten by Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers 18-16 in a game in which Smith nearly brought KC back but failed on a 2-point conversion and ultimately threw for an underwhelming 172 yards on 34 throws.
Kansas City decided that Smith, who went 41-20 up until that point with a 92.2 rating with 76 touchdowns to just 28 interceptions, was not their answer long term. At the time, Smith still had two years remaining on a four-year extension that he signed in 2014 but the Chiefs knew he would be seeking another — much more lucrative — extension in the near future. So they Mahomes, watched Smith lead the NFL in QB rating in a solid 10-6 season in 2017 that ended the same way it always ended and passed the torch to the former Texas Tech star.
The ’19 Vikings ranked eighth in points for, fifth in points against and threw the third fewest passes. They saw Cousins rank among the top QBs in the NFL by PFF and quarterback rating and finished the season the way it always ends — with a frustrating playoff loss in which the offense disappears and the quarterback totals 126 yards passing.
It’s impossible to ignore the comparisons. Both the ’16 Chiefs and ’19 Vikings were very strong teams who didn’t quite have the juice to reach the Super Bowl. It wasn’t just the quarterback’s fault but the combination of a large cap hit (Smith’s made up 11.5% of the cap in ’16, Cousins 15.4% in ’19) and a lack of risk taking and/or exceptional athletic play from the QB position made it too tough a challenge to overcome a difficult opponent come playoff time.
During Smith’s time in KC he played five years on excellent squads and won one playoff game. Cousins won his first postseason game against New Orleans in five years as a starter — mostly on very talented teams.
So the answer must be for the Vikings to spend their draft capital to move up to take a quarterback, right? The Chiefs dealt their ’17 first and third round picks and an ’18 pick to move up to No. 10 overall. The Vikings could pull a similar move for one of the top QB prospects in this year’s draft. Maybe that’s Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa or Oregon’s Justin Herbert. It’s hard to know until Tagovailoa’s medical reports on his surgically-repaired hip come back.
https://www.skornorth.com/vikings-2/2020...lex-smith/
It’s hard not to notice that the Minnesota Vikings enter are sitting in a similar spot to the Kansas City Chiefs following the 2016 season, when they decided to draft Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes.
Kansas City went 12-4 with a run-first mentality, strong defense and conservative quarterback play. They ranked 13th in points for, seventh in points against while throwing the seventh fewest passes and turning the ball over the eighth fewest times. Quarterback Alex Smith threw for just 3,502 yards but was the 12th ranked QB by Pro Football Focus, 10th by ESPN’s QBR and had the sixth best completion percentage.
The Chiefs won their division and earned a first-round bye but were beaten by Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers 18-16 in a game in which Smith nearly brought KC back but failed on a 2-point conversion and ultimately threw for an underwhelming 172 yards on 34 throws.
Kansas City decided that Smith, who went 41-20 up until that point with a 92.2 rating with 76 touchdowns to just 28 interceptions, was not their answer long term. At the time, Smith still had two years remaining on a four-year extension that he signed in 2014 but the Chiefs knew he would be seeking another — much more lucrative — extension in the near future. So they Mahomes, watched Smith lead the NFL in QB rating in a solid 10-6 season in 2017 that ended the same way it always ended and passed the torch to the former Texas Tech star.
The ’19 Vikings ranked eighth in points for, fifth in points against and threw the third fewest passes. They saw Cousins rank among the top QBs in the NFL by PFF and quarterback rating and finished the season the way it always ends — with a frustrating playoff loss in which the offense disappears and the quarterback totals 126 yards passing.
It’s impossible to ignore the comparisons. Both the ’16 Chiefs and ’19 Vikings were very strong teams who didn’t quite have the juice to reach the Super Bowl. It wasn’t just the quarterback’s fault but the combination of a large cap hit (Smith’s made up 11.5% of the cap in ’16, Cousins 15.4% in ’19) and a lack of risk taking and/or exceptional athletic play from the QB position made it too tough a challenge to overcome a difficult opponent come playoff time.
During Smith’s time in KC he played five years on excellent squads and won one playoff game. Cousins won his first postseason game against New Orleans in five years as a starter — mostly on very talented teams.
So the answer must be for the Vikings to spend their draft capital to move up to take a quarterback, right? The Chiefs dealt their ’17 first and third round picks and an ’18 pick to move up to No. 10 overall. The Vikings could pull a similar move for one of the top QB prospects in this year’s draft. Maybe that’s Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa or Oregon’s Justin Herbert. It’s hard to know until Tagovailoa’s medical reports on his surgically-repaired hip come back.
https://www.skornorth.com/vikings-2/2020...lex-smith/