Just plain not good...

[purplefaithful]

Donatell's defense was a disaster in Year 1. There's no other way to frame it. Players often looked out of position and slow to react.
That the Vikings won 13 games despite fielding one of the league's worst defenses was like running a marathon with a sofa strapped to your back.
"It's very, very important that we look at it from a standpoint of the 'why,'" O'Connell said. "Why did it happen?"
While it's true that he has become the convenient target, Donatell does need to be replaced. But his job status is drawing attention away from another sobering answer to the "why."
Their talent is just not that good.
Anyone who watched the New York Giants offense zoom around the field in Sunday's 31-24 wild-card playoff loss could not miss the discrepancy in talent on display.
The Vikings defense is old, slow and lacks dynamic playmakers in their prime.
That decaying process has unfolded over years and has left the new front office a messy situation that cannot be fixed in one offseason.
In 2015, then-GM Rick Spielman selected cornerback Trae Waynes, linebacker Eric Kendricks and defensive end Danielle Hunter with his first three draft picks. That was a home run draft for the defense.
Since then, soggy toast.
In the seven drafts since 2015, the Vikings have drafted 36 defensive players. Not one of those 36 players had an impact that can be classified as a premier difference-maker.
Only 14 of those 36 players remain on the roster. And only one was a full-time starter this season, safety Camryn Bynum.
One.
Cornerback Cameron Dantzler was a part-time starter. The rest are backups and special teams players.
The 2022 draft class deserves an incomplete grade because three of the defensive picks — Lewis Cine, Andrew Booth and Akayleb Evans — suffered injuries that caused them to miss all or a significant part of the season. Nobody knows whether any of those three will turn into viable starters, so for now, they remain unknowns.
Moral of the story: Talent is a problem. As much of a problem as the coordinator.
Repeated swings-and-misses in the draft have forced the Vikings to rely on aging veterans past their best years. This leaves one wondering how exactly General Manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is going to fix this broken defense.
Ask yourself this: Which players make up the next wave of young talent that will provide the foundation for an improved defense? Adofo-Mensah talks optimistically about his young core but that's based on projections right now. On hope.
Adofo-Mensah is not in position to buy his way out of problems because bloated contracts for a handful of veterans have hindered salary cap flexibility. That delicate dance will continue in the short term.
Justin Jefferson is closing in on a mega payday, perhaps as soon as this offseason. He's going to command a salary akin to established quarterbacks. The market for top-tier wide receivers has exploded in recent years, and a $30 million annual salary is going to be a starting point for Jefferson.
That reality falls in the same space on Adofo-Mensah's timeline for creating a succession plan at quarterback, knowing Kirk Cousins' future beyond next season must be addressed.
Constructing a roster with those big-ticket items on his to-do list while navigating a complicated salary cap situation underscores the importance of Adofo-Mensah proving himself in the draft process.
The team simply cannot afford more empty drafts, especially for defensive players. Their defense needs to become younger and faster and reliant on more starters who are playing on their rookie contracts.
Meeting those needs won't be a quick or easy fix. Replacing the coordinator would be a start, but problems run deeper than just that.
https://www.startribune.com/ed-donatell-minnesota-vikings-a-flop-but-poor-drafting-drained-the-defense-chip-scoggins/600244565/

[Guest]

Thought just crossed my mind, was the D in this bad of shape from the beginning.  They only signed the DC for a year knowing it was going to be a dumpster fire.  And a 13 and 4 was just over performance, and makes it look more lopsided than their beginning of the season assessment.  If the record was 9 and 8 or 10 and 7 would the feeling be better?

[Guest]

Do what it takes to get better. The new regime sees things now clearly after a year of being around everyone. Set the strategy now, whatever that is. They were right to try this 'competitive rebuild', it got to 13 wins and a home playoff game. Great. Now what? That's what I'm interested in seeing. They need to move or negotiate some of this big cap money.

[Guest]

Watching the Giants game I was startled by the lack of communication among the linebackers, cornerbacks and safeties.  The Giants constantly ran patterns that caused our DBs to run onto each other or a failure to properly pass off receivers.  Almost every pass play with a significant run after was due to a DB running into someone or the lack of communication.  That is a lot of poor coaching.  The one thing we heard all year was that Donatell's scheme prevented big plays but that was not the case on Sunday.  It is also the case that the scheme did not fit the best talent on that side of the ball.  The scheme effectively neutered HSmith's instincts and DHunter's rushing ability.  The scheme also didn't keep the Oline from reaching Kendricks who got lost in the wash too many times.  It is really hard to assess talent when the scheme does not play to the talent's strengths.

[Guest]

I called this from the very beginning. Switching to a 3-4 was a mistake, and the hiring of Ed Donatell to run said defense only compounded that huge mistake because he'd been lousy everywhere hes been. Stevie Wonder could have seen this coming, so how KOC did not just bewilders me. 

[Guest]

@"StickyBun" said:
Do what it takes to get better. The new regime sees things now clearly after a year of being around everyone. Set the strategy now, whatever that is. They were right to try this 'competitive rebuild', it got to 13 wins and a home playoff game. Great. Now what? That's what I'm interested in seeing. They need to move or negotiate some of this big cap money.

Per the Zone Coverage article, I like the idea of extending Cousins for Two Years and lowering his cap hit for next season to help free up cap space. Several others also need to be renegotiated or released. Outside of the obvious Scheme and Coordinator change, our only shot to improve this defense is going to be through Free Agency and we need to free up a lot of money to have any shot at landing some of the elite defensive players like a Daron Payne or a Javon Hargrave. Kwesi's ability to find a defensive impact player at #23 will also be key but I'm a little concerned that there may be more value at WR and CB at 23. Guys like IKA will get overdrafted because of his size and quickness and won't be an option for the Vikings.

I haven't seen enough out of Kwesi to have any confidence that he will improve the defense enough to be a contender next year in the NFC while we have a high performing offense in place to challenge for the Conference Title. Hope I'm wrong.  

[Guest]

@"VikingOracle" said:
Watching the Giants game I was startled by the lack of communication among the linebackers, cornerbacks and safeties.  The Giants constantly ran patterns that caused our DBs to run onto each other or a failure to properly pass off receivers.  Almost every pass play with a significant run after was due to a DB running into someone or the lack of communication.  That is a lot of poor coaching.  The one thing we heard all year was that Donatell's scheme prevented big plays but that was not the case on Sunday.  It is also the case that the scheme did not fit the best talent on that side of the ball.  The scheme effectively neutered HSmith's instincts and DHunter's rushing ability.  The scheme also didn't keep the Oline from reaching Kendricks who got lost in the wash too many times.  It is really hard to assess talent when the scheme does not play to the talent's strengths.

Exactly.  Knowing Jones likes to throw in the middle of the field, the "scheme" didn't do anything to shut it down, leaving an outside leverage db chasing a short crosser all the way across the field.

It is one thing to get outcoached or have someone physically beat your players.  But to have no plan to stop what the other offense does is just in-excusable.

And I don't buy the lack of talent.  Harrison Smith is still a dynamic player, EK is a good LB and can run.  Z and Hunter are studs.  Tomlinson, Phillips are solid parts of a D-line.  Yeah we were a bit thin at CB, but Evans and Shelley were surprise contributors.

[Guest]

What? A sky is falling take from Chip Skoggins?  :o

I think the problem is multifold. A mix of too old and too young players, playing in a new, often ill-fitting scheme, for a coordinator who could never adjust to what offenses were doing. It wasn't the most talented defense in the league, but there was more individual talent on the defense than the results would indicate. They just never gelled as a unit. Eleven guys running in eleven different directions. As Kurt Warner pointed out, we had some playing man, some playing zone and nobody was ever in the right place.

And so the whole could never hope to be more than the sum of its parts. 

[Guest]

No one was going to look good in this scheme, this scheme sucks league-wide, but yes we also need a talent infusion.  We consistently invested our draft capital in the offense and mostly ignored the defense with high draft picks except for CB which hasn't panned out.