Could The Vikings Be Planning On A Hybrid Defense?

1 DT  6 DEs  2LBs and 2 Safeties?

I was thinking we just go by age. The older you are the further you play from the line of scrimmage.

No. They're setting up to play Wide-9. 

@"Geoff Nichols" said: No. They're setting up to play Wide-9. 

@"Geoff Nichols" said: No. They're setting up to play Wide-9. 

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said: No. They're setting up to play Wide-9. 

How would switching to a Wide-9 front alter their decisions on building the D? Does it change what they'd want from DEs and any thoughts on what plan they have for the secondary?

@"Geoff Nichols" said:

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said: No. They're setting up to play Wide-9. 

How would switching to a Wide-9 front alter their decisions on building the D? Does it change what they'd want from DEs and any thoughts on what plan they have for the secondary?

You can still play coverage however you want man or zone, its really a D-line alignment. Instead of trying to line up your guys over the O-lineman you spread the DE's outside the OT. For speed rushers if offers a huge advantage since you're already angled at the QB and don't need to bend the edge as much. You give up some space on the stretch run but with athletic DE's you can work around that. The hard part about leaving your DE's so wide if teams can gash you with the interior run. With a true NT to eat space that isn't as difficult. My hunch is that in the Vikings scenario they will play more of a converted wide-9 where Barr and or Smith can still play off the edge. It is a nice mesh of our defensive scheme of old and what they did last year. 

We'll see how they play on the back-end but I imagine they aren't going to be overly aggressive with man looks with a group of corners with limited experience. 

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said:

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said: No. They're setting up to play Wide-9. 

How would switching to a Wide-9 front alter their decisions on building the D? Does it change what they'd want from DEs and any thoughts on what plan they have for the secondary?

You can still play coverage however you want man or zone, its really a D-line alignment. Instead of trying to line up your guys over the O-lineman you spread the DE's outside the OT. For speed rushers if offers a huge advantage since you're already angled at the QB and don't need to bend the edge as much. You give up some space on the stretch run but with athletic DE's you can work around that. The hard part about leaving your DE's so wide if teams can gash you with the interior run. With a true NT to eat space that isn't as difficult. My hunch is that in the Vikings scenario they will play more of a converted wide-9 where Barr and or Smith can still play off the edge. It is a nice mesh of our defensive scheme of old and what they did last year. 

We'll see how they play on the back-end but I imagine they aren't going to be overly aggressive with man looks with a group of corners with limited experience. 

Hunter sounds like a great fit for that scheme. Do you think Odenigbo would be good enough on the other side presuming that we lose Griffen or is adding another edge rusher seem likely? The converted wide-9 sounds interesting, makes me think of the double A-gap concept in the sense that they could mess with blocking schemes if Barr or Smith are the actual edge and not the DE.

I'm also hoping that a penetrating DT is a high draft priority. That's still a big weakness on the team and now seems like a good time to retool the DL, but a strong DL would go a long way in covering a suspect group of corners.

I am very concerned about cornerback right now. I'd like to see one of the CB spots addressed through FA, so that we have some experience back there and not need to burn two high picks on CB.

Completely unrelated, but I am curious to see if they go WR early or try to trust the depth of the draft. If they do the latter, then they would almost certainly need to trade up from their 2nd, since everyone would know they need a WR. I assume we need a vertical threat to compliment Thielen, though Diggs was obviously more than that.

@"Geoff Nichols" said:

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said:

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said: No. They're setting up to play Wide-9. 

How would switching to a Wide-9 front alter their decisions on building the D? Does it change what they'd want from DEs and any thoughts on what plan they have for the secondary?

You can still play coverage however you want man or zone, its really a D-line alignment. Instead of trying to line up your guys over the O-lineman you spread the DE's outside the OT. For speed rushers if offers a huge advantage since you're already angled at the QB and don't need to bend the edge as much. You give up some space on the stretch run but with athletic DE's you can work around that. The hard part about leaving your DE's so wide if teams can gash you with the interior run. With a true NT to eat space that isn't as difficult. My hunch is that in the Vikings scenario they will play more of a converted wide-9 where Barr and or Smith can still play off the edge. It is a nice mesh of our defensive scheme of old and what they did last year. 

We'll see how they play on the back-end but I imagine they aren't going to be overly aggressive with man looks with a group of corners with limited experience. 

Hunter sounds like a great fit for that scheme. Do you think Odenigbo would be good enough on the other side presuming that we lose Griffen or is adding another edge rusher seem likely? The converted wide-9 sounds interesting, makes me think of the double A-gap concept in the sense that they could mess with blocking schemes if Barr or Smith are the actual edge and not the DE.

I'm also hoping that a penetrating DT is a high draft priority. That's still a big weakness on the team and now seems like a good time to retool the DL, but a strong DL would go a long way in covering a suspect group of corners.

I am very concerned about cornerback right now. I'd like to see one of the CB spots addressed through FA, so that we have some experience back there and not need to burn two high picks on CB.

Completely unrelated, but I am curious to see if they go WR early or try to trust the depth of the draft. If they do the latter, then they would almost certainly need to trade up from their 2nd, since everyone would know they need a WR. I assume we need a vertical threat to compliment Thielen, though Diggs was obviously more than that.

To your latter points, I don't think they're quite done with free agency yet either. Just need to let things cool down so they can grab some bargains. 

But back to the majority of your post, Odenigbo does fit but as more of a weakside run stuffer. Regardless of scheme I don't know if the Vikings will consider Odenigbo a "starter" in the formal sense. He is a swiss army knife who can line up all over. So although he may not start at a specific position he may get the snap count of a starter. 

@"FSUVike" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said:

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said:

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said: No. They're setting up to play Wide-9. 

How would switching to a Wide-9 front alter their decisions on building the D? Does it change what they'd want from DEs and any thoughts on what plan they have for the secondary?

You can still play coverage however you want man or zone, its really a D-line alignment. Instead of trying to line up your guys over the O-lineman you spread the DE's outside the OT. For speed rushers if offers a huge advantage since you're already angled at the QB and don't need to bend the edge as much. You give up some space on the stretch run but with athletic DE's you can work around that. The hard part about leaving your DE's so wide if teams can gash you with the interior run. With a true NT to eat space that isn't as difficult. My hunch is that in the Vikings scenario they will play more of a converted wide-9 where Barr and or Smith can still play off the edge. It is a nice mesh of our defensive scheme of old and what they did last year. 

We'll see how they play on the back-end but I imagine they aren't going to be overly aggressive with man looks with a group of corners with limited experience. 

Hunter sounds like a great fit for that scheme. Do you think Odenigbo would be good enough on the other side presuming that we lose Griffen or is adding another edge rusher seem likely? The converted wide-9 sounds interesting, makes me think of the double A-gap concept in the sense that they could mess with blocking schemes if Barr or Smith are the actual edge and not the DE.

I'm also hoping that a penetrating DT is a high draft priority. That's still a big weakness on the team and now seems like a good time to retool the DL, but a strong DL would go a long way in covering a suspect group of corners.

I am very concerned about cornerback right now. I'd like to see one of the CB spots addressed through FA, so that we have some experience back there and not need to burn two high picks on CB.

Completely unrelated, but I am curious to see if they go WR early or try to trust the depth of the draft. If they do the latter, then they would almost certainly need to trade up from their 2nd, since everyone would know they need a WR. I assume we need a vertical threat to compliment Thielen, though Diggs was obviously more than that.

To your latter points, I don't think they're quite done with free agency yet either. Just need to let things cool down so they can grab some bargains. 

But back to the majority of your post, Odenigbo does fit but as more of a weakside run stuffer. Regardless of scheme I don't know if the Vikings will consider Odenigbo a "starter" in the formal sense. He is a swiss army knife who can line up all over. So although he may not start at a specific position he may get the snap count of a starter. 

Am I reading Spotrac right that the team only has 8.7 million left? I hope not, that's barely enough for a Tier 3 guy and a flyer. 

@"Geoff Nichols" said:

@"FSUVike" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said:

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said:

@"Tyr" said:

@"Geoff Nichols" said: No. They're setting up to play Wide-9. 

How would switching to a Wide-9 front alter their decisions on building the D? Does it change what they'd want from DEs and any thoughts on what plan they have for the secondary?

You can still play coverage however you want man or zone, its really a D-line alignment. Instead of trying to line up your guys over the O-lineman you spread the DE's outside the OT. For speed rushers if offers a huge advantage since you're already angled at the QB and don't need to bend the edge as much. You give up some space on the stretch run but with athletic DE's you can work around that. The hard part about leaving your DE's so wide if teams can gash you with the interior run. With a true NT to eat space that isn't as difficult. My hunch is that in the Vikings scenario they will play more of a converted wide-9 where Barr and or Smith can still play off the edge. It is a nice mesh of our defensive scheme of old and what they did last year. 

We'll see how they play on the back-end but I imagine they aren't going to be overly aggressive with man looks with a group of corners with limited experience. 

Hunter sounds like a great fit for that scheme. Do you think Odenigbo would be good enough on the other side presuming that we lose Griffen or is adding another edge rusher seem likely? The converted wide-9 sounds interesting, makes me think of the double A-gap concept in the sense that they could mess with blocking schemes if Barr or Smith are the actual edge and not the DE.

I'm also hoping that a penetrating DT is a high draft priority. That's still a big weakness on the team and now seems like a good time to retool the DL, but a strong DL would go a long way in covering a suspect group of corners.

I am very concerned about cornerback right now. I'd like to see one of the CB spots addressed through FA, so that we have some experience back there and not need to burn two high picks on CB.

Completely unrelated, but I am curious to see if they go WR early or try to trust the depth of the draft. If they do the latter, then they would almost certainly need to trade up from their 2nd, since everyone would know they need a WR. I assume we need a vertical threat to compliment Thielen, though Diggs was obviously more than that.

To your latter points, I don't think they're quite done with free agency yet either. Just need to let things cool down so they can grab some bargains. 

But back to the majority of your post, Odenigbo does fit but as more of a weakside run stuffer. Regardless of scheme I don't know if the Vikings will consider Odenigbo a "starter" in the formal sense. He is a swiss army knife who can line up all over. So although he may not start at a specific position he may get the snap count of a starter. 

Am I reading Spotrac right that the team only has 8.7 million left? I hope not, that's barely enough for a Tier 3 guy and a flyer. 

That is pretty close since we don't have to sign rookies yet. If you want to consider our draft picks that $8M get whittled down to $4.5M. So they're definitely running tight. They have a few ways to create easy space without long-term risk though. Danielle's contract is the easiest way, but they also could prorate Thielen's $5M roster bonus, trade Harris, cut Shamar, etc..