Vikings offseason losers

@"MaroonBells" said: https://vikingsterritory.com/2021/general-news/vikings-named-one-of-nfls-biggest-losers-for-2021-offseason Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report detailed five winners and five losers for the offseason on Monday — now that the bulk offseason operations are in the rearview. For Knox, the Vikings made the “loser” list. Why? Well, he believes the franchise will rue missing out on Justin Fields during the 2021 NFL Draft, a quarterback who landed with the rival Chicago Bears. “The Jets landed their quarterback in April’s draft. So did the Chicago Bears, who traded up to No. 11 to take Ohio State’s Justin Fields. The Minnesota Vikings, however, missed out on the quarterback they wanted. The Vikings wanted Fields and lost him to a bitter division rival. Minnesota’s desire to nab Fields suggests their time with Kirk Cousins is running short. While the Vikings did take Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond in the third round, he was not the team’s first choice. Perhaps Mond will develop well and work out as Minnesota’s future starter. However, if Fields goes on to have a long and fruitful career with the Bears, the Vikings are going to wish they pulled the trigger on a trade.“

MB: Anyone who even loosely follows the draft knows that the offer the Vikings made to move up in the 1st round was NOT a serious offer. It was lowball. Below lowball. I have a hunch that was intentional. 

I also think anyone who could possibly rank the Vikings offseason--one that saw the addition of Tomlinson, Richardson, Peterson, Breeland, Woods, Mack, Darrisaw, Davis and the redo of Hunter's deal--as one of the NFL's worst is probably an idiot. 

Idiot he definitely is, agreed MB.

Any quarterback the Vikings do or don't pick will get them labeled a loser period. The majority of the media views the Vikings as irrelevant. It really doesn't matter until they show differently. 

Idiot indeed! Time will tell. But considering where the Vikings were at the end of last season, this off season is one of the best ever. This bears fan better get on his knees and pray they didn't sign another QB bust. Because what they gave up for him is likely to cripple their defense in the next couple of years.
I was pleased the Vikings didn't sell the boat to get the motor.

I bet Trevor Lawrrence was on everybodies “list”. That doesnt make them losers for missing on him. 

Unless this Bleacher Report writer was in the Viking draft room he has no clue who the Vikings were targeting with a low ball offer to move up.  What a worthless piece of writing by this guy.

A little off subject, but I saw that NFL network dude who predicted the Vikings will win 4 games this year. Sure enough, he had two Bears hats on the bookshelf behind him. Lots of Bears fans and Vikings haters on the networks.
Only way to shut them up is to win. This would be a good season to do just that.

Even with a schedule that looks BRUTAL on paper, the question marks on all the new player pieces, how or when they will jell, there's NO WAY with a straight face you could rationalize the Vikings finishing with a lower record than 2020. 

All that said, this town would be going ape-shit if the Vikings landed Fields. I sure hope the Bears didnt finally find that franchise QB to go with them dogs on D. 

Someone saw the RG3 article and said "hold my beer".

Asinine article.

Fields was not an option, whether or not they tried to move up, Chicago was the more attractive offer.  Ridiculous to evaluate an off season on that.  Years from now, the factors that may become evaluators of this draft could be Mac Jones and Mond.  It is just mini camp, but Jones has been drawing high praise in NE.  Personally, I think the Vikes played the first 3 rounds perfectly, getting Darrisaw, Davis and Mond with the one draft pick could end up becoming one of the best moves ever by RS.

@"JR44" said: Fields was not an option, whether or not they tried to move up, Chicago was the more attractive offer.  Ridiculous to evaluate an off season on that.  Years from now, the factors that may become evaluators of this draft could be Mac Jones and Mond.  It is just mini camp, but Jones has been drawing high praise in NE.  Personally, I think the Vikes played the first 3 rounds perfectly, getting Darrisaw, Davis and Mond with the one draft pick could end up becoming one of the best moves ever by RS.

Agreed. As the sports media will do, they are singing the praises of Fields like he's a mortal lock. No matter what happens, at least Mond will get the chance to learn stress free and be whatever it is he will be as a NFL pro. 

@"purplefaithful" said: Even with a schedule that looks BRUTAL on paper, the question marks on all the new player pieces, how or when they will jell, there's NO WAY with a straight face you could rationalize the Vikings finishing with a lower record than 2020. 

All that said, this town would be going ape-shit if the Vikings landed Fields. I sure hope the Bears didnt finally find that franchise QB to go with them dogs on D. 

Vikings went 7-9. Missed the playoffs by one game and lost four games by less than 3 points. Those four games were lost in the final drive. Had that final drive gone differently, the Vikings are 11 and 5. How would the narrative be different? They did this despite not having Hunter, Pierce, and Barr all season, and Eric Kendricks for a big chunk of it. 

To that team, the core of which has always been strong, the Vikings add all of those players, but then fortified it with ridiculous beef on the IDL and redundant depth in the secondary. And don't forget that Ezra, Cam and JJ actually get a training camp this year. 

Pretty hard to fathom how anyone can objectively argue that this team will be worse in '21. 

@"JR44" said: Fields was not an option, whether or not they tried to move up, Chicago was the more attractive offer.  Ridiculous to evaluate an off season on that.  Years from now, the factors that may become evaluators of this draft could be Mac Jones and Mond.  It is just mini camp, but Jones has been drawing high praise in NE.  Personally, I think the Vikes played the first 3 rounds perfectly, getting Darrisaw, Davis and Mond with the one draft pick could end up becoming one of the best moves ever by RS.

100%.
As of today I think the Vikings have had a phenomenal offseason. If 2 years from now Mac Jones is an elite QB and Mond hasn't seen a snap then yeah I might think differently. Anyone would. But the basis of this article is ridiculous.
The Bears offered next year's first. There's no way the Vikings could match that since we were only trying to move up a couple spots. It wouldn't have made any sense to do so. If we'd have matched that offer we'd still be on this guy's losers list for getting fleeced.
Vikings have had a great offseason in my opinion.

This is a pretty flimsy argument.  I don’t think you declare any team a loser based
on who they didn’t trade up to get.  I think
we objectively had a very solid offseason.

That said there is some merit to the point.  This is a QB driven league.  The perpetual winners are the teams with
elite QBs.  The teams with midlevel QBs
float up and down with the talent of the rest of their roster, and teams with
bad QBs usually fail to win more often than not.  If Fields becomes better than Cousins or Mond,
we clearly missed an opportunity, but that’s with the help of hindsight.  I don’t think it often works out that the
best QB of a draft class is the one everyone predicted to be the best, so I
think you have to have a long term strategy to upgrade by frequently drafting guys
with potential to be an upgrade.  I think
the Mond pick is a great pick, but I think the Vikings clearly failed to make a
serious attempt to have a backup QB that offered any real possibility of being
an upgrade.

@"pattersaur" said:

@"JR44" said: Fields was not an option, whether or not they tried to move up, Chicago was the more attractive offer.  Ridiculous to evaluate an off season on that.  Years from now, the factors that may become evaluators of this draft could be Mac Jones and Mond.  It is just mini camp, but Jones has been drawing high praise in NE.  Personally, I think the Vikes played the first 3 rounds perfectly, getting Darrisaw, Davis and Mond with the one draft pick could end up becoming one of the best moves ever by RS.

100%.
As of today I think the Vikings have had a phenomenal offseason. If 2 years from now Mac Jones is an elite QB and Mond hasn't seen a snap then yeah I might think differently. Anyone would. But the basis of this article is ridiculous.
The Bears offered next year's first. There's no way the Vikings could match that since we were only trying to move up a couple spots. It wouldn't have made any sense to do so. If we'd have matched that offer we'd still be on this guy's losers list for getting fleeced.
Vikings have had a great offseason in my opinion.

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"pattersaur" said:

@"JR44" said: Fields was not an option, whether or not they tried to move up, Chicago was the more attractive offer.  Ridiculous to evaluate an off season on that.  Years from now, the factors that may become evaluators of this draft could be Mac Jones and Mond.  It is just mini camp, but Jones has been drawing high praise in NE.  Personally, I think the Vikes played the first 3 rounds perfectly, getting Darrisaw, Davis and Mond with the one draft pick could end up becoming one of the best moves ever by RS.

100%.
As of today I think the Vikings have had a phenomenal offseason. If 2 years from now Mac Jones is an elite QB and Mond hasn't seen a snap then yeah I might think differently. Anyone would. But the basis of this article is ridiculous.
The Bears offered next year's first. There's no way the Vikings could match that since we were only trying to move up a couple spots. It wouldn't have made any sense to do so. If we'd have matched that offer we'd still be on this guy's losers list for getting fleeced.
Vikings have had a great offseason in my opinion.

not having that second this year really hampered the first round,   all the accolades that RS is getting for turning that 1 first rounder into those 3 picks needs to carry an asterisk IMO,  it should note that he didnt have the ammo to really move up since last year he turned this years early 2nd round pick into essentially a 4th round selection due to a poor trade decision.  I am happy with how this draft turned out,  but I dont think we should forget the folly that led to this fortunate ending.  the old adage of lucky being better than good comes to mind.

@"MaroonBells" said: https://vikingsterritory.com/2021/general-news/vikings-named-one-of-nfls-biggest-losers-for-2021-offseason Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report detailed five winners and five losers for the offseason on Monday — now that the bulk offseason operations are in the rearview. For Knox, the Vikings made the “loser” list. Why? Well, he believes the franchise will rue missing out on Justin Fields during the 2021 NFL Draft, a quarterback who landed with the rival Chicago Bears. “The Jets landed their quarterback in April’s draft. So did the Chicago Bears, who traded up to No. 11 to take Ohio State’s Justin Fields. The Minnesota Vikings, however, missed out on the quarterback they wanted. The Vikings wanted Fields and lost him to a bitter division rival. Minnesota’s desire to nab Fields suggests their time with Kirk Cousins is running short. While the Vikings did take Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond in the third round, he was not the team’s first choice. Perhaps Mond will develop well and work out as Minnesota’s future starter. However, if Fields goes on to have a long and fruitful career with the Bears, the Vikings are going to wish they pulled the trigger on a trade.“

MB: Anyone who even loosely follows the draft knows that the offer the Vikings made to move up in the 1st round was NOT a serious offer. It was lowball. Below lowball. I have a hunch that was intentional. 

I also think anyone who could possibly rank the Vikings offseason--one that saw the addition of Tomlinson, Richardson, Peterson, Breeland, Woods, Mack, Darrisaw, Davis and the redo of Hunter's deal--as one of the NFL's worst is probably an idiot. 

By this guy's reasoning, everyone who didn't trade up with the Bengals for Joe Burrows was a loser in the offseason. What a lazy take. Anybody with any NFL knowledge doesn't look at the 3rd ranked QB prospect and assume they will have a great 10 year career. The first 3 QBs drafted in 2021 could end up being busts, easily. Trevor is on a poor team, Zach is on poor team, Justin will have to make a big leap in his progressions and all 3 will have to adjust to an NFL offense & facing the speed of NFL defenses. They all have potential but the odds are against any of them becoming HOFers. Stop listening to these want-to-be analysts who spend more time playing Fortnite than watching actual NFL games.

@"Viking7271" said:

@"MaroonBells" said: https://vikingsterritory.com/2021/general-news/vikings-named-one-of-nfls-biggest-losers-for-2021-offseason Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report detailed five winners and five losers for the offseason on Monday — now that the bulk offseason operations are in the rearview. For Knox, the Vikings made the “loser” list. Why? Well, he believes the franchise will rue missing out on Justin Fields during the 2021 NFL Draft, a quarterback who landed with the rival Chicago Bears. “The Jets landed their quarterback in April’s draft. So did the Chicago Bears, who traded up to No. 11 to take Ohio State’s Justin Fields. The Minnesota Vikings, however, missed out on the quarterback they wanted. The Vikings wanted Fields and lost him to a bitter division rival. Minnesota’s desire to nab Fields suggests their time with Kirk Cousins is running short. While the Vikings did take Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond in the third round, he was not the team’s first choice. Perhaps Mond will develop well and work out as Minnesota’s future starter. However, if Fields goes on to have a long and fruitful career with the Bears, the Vikings are going to wish they pulled the trigger on a trade.“

MB: Anyone who even loosely follows the draft knows that the offer the Vikings made to move up in the 1st round was NOT a serious offer. It was lowball. Below lowball. I have a hunch that was intentional. 

I also think anyone who could possibly rank the Vikings offseason--one that saw the addition of Tomlinson, Richardson, Peterson, Breeland, Woods, Mack, Darrisaw, Davis and the redo of Hunter's deal--as one of the NFL's worst is probably an idiot. 

By this guy's reasoning, everyone who didn't trade up with the Bengals for Joe Burrows was a loser in the offseason. What a lazy take. Anybody with any NFL knowledge doesn't look at the 3rd ranked QB prospect and assume they will have a great 10 year career. The first 3 QBs drafted in 2021 could end up being busts, easily. Trevor is on a poor team, Zach is on poor team, Justin will have to make a big leap in his progressions and all 3 will have to adjust to an NFL offense & facing the speed of NFL defenses. They all have potential but the odds are against any of them becoming HOFers. Stop listening to these want-to-be analysts who spend more time playing Fortnite than watching actual NFL games.

Mt take:

First the OP article is obvious clickbait and not very logical for numerous reasons already mentioned- IMO.

We made a rumored flimsy attempt/offer with Carolina at #8 which they immediately disregarded because it was pretty much an insult.  Knowing how well Spelly works the draft I think he was just trying to read/gauge the draft board and value. I also think the player they were most interested in that was remaining was OT - Slater and not Fields.  

Fields was also available to us to move up from 14 to where he went at 11.  Zero rumors about us trying to move up after the weak attempt at number 8.  Both Fields and Slater were available at 8,9,10 and 11 and we did not send any other offers??   I really think Rick decided to risk that Slater might fall to 14 and we would not have to give up anything.  Slater went 13 and then Rick made the risk assessment of moving down and picking up picks.  AVT/Darrisaw were both available to us at 14 and we decided to move down.  Logic says that Rick did not think AVT/Darrisaw were rock solid value at 14.  Very risky but another gamble by Rick that I really liked because we got the guy I wanted all along (Darrisaw) and 2 additional picks that addressed 2 other high needs - Mond and Wyatt - I think Rick nailed this but it could still backfire if Darrisaw is not who I think he is.

So without draft revisionists history on my part - I wanted and would have drafted Darrisaw at 14 - without a drop down and additional picks so no Mond/Wyatt.  The only player I would have given up a ton for at #8 would have been Wilson who I think is the best QB in this draft and will have to overcome the Jets franchise :(    Of course we had no chance as he went second.  

Every GM and person knows that you always have to give up more if a QB is available at the pick.  Chicago gave up a lot to move up 9 spots.  A very rough trade value assessment would give 1250 points for pick 11.  The Giants got an estimated 2,100 - 2,200 points in return.  

The difference for the Vikings to have moved up from 14 to 11 is 150 points or a late 3rd rounder.  Of course we would have had to give up more then just a 3rd.  We made no offers and we had the ammo if we really wanted Fields or Slater that bad = logic.  

Now somewhat back to the OP  and Fields.

I think it was a very good move up for the Bears.  I think Fields is a legit NFL starting QB within a year or two.  The Bears team has a small window with almost all the pieces except at the most important position.  So they took a chance and I like that at the QB position.  Just like I had been expressing for months a draft with 3,4, or 5 first round QB's available does not come along often at all - I think it goes back to the 80's with Marino etc.  

When it is all said and done - I think both the Vikings and Bears will be proven winners in this draft alone never mind when you add in our total offseason!!!  We knocked it out of the park.  

I certainly would not put either team as losers based on even just the draft scenario never mind our absolutely stellar offseason!

@"MaroonBells" said: https://vikingsterritory.com/2021/general-news/vikings-named-one-of-nfls-biggest-losers-for-2021-offseason Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report detailed five winners and five losers for the offseason on Monday — now that the bulk offseason operations are in the rearview. For Knox, the Vikings made the “loser” list. Why? Well, he believes the franchise will rue missing out on Justin Fields during the 2021 NFL Draft, a quarterback who landed with the rival Chicago Bears. “The Jets landed their quarterback in April’s draft. So did the Chicago Bears, who traded up to No. 11 to take Ohio State’s Justin Fields. The Minnesota Vikings, however, missed out on the quarterback they wanted. The Vikings wanted Fields and lost him to a bitter division rival. Minnesota’s desire to nab Fields suggests their time with Kirk Cousins is running short. While the Vikings did take Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond in the third round, he was not the team’s first choice. Perhaps Mond will develop well and work out as Minnesota’s future starter. However, if Fields goes on to have a long and fruitful career with the Bears, the Vikings are going to wish they pulled the trigger on a trade.“

MB: Anyone who even loosely follows the draft knows that the offer the Vikings made to move up in the 1st round was NOT a serious offer. It was lowball. Below lowball. I have a hunch that was intentional. 

Yeah, one has to wonder if it wasn't intended to get the Bears to mortgage picks on another QB?  Fields may or may not turn out, but Chicago's tendency to give away multiple draft picks for one player has become a pattern, and not a productive one.

I think there is lots of chess going on in the draft rooms and Rick seems to be on the upper level of chess players.  Whether it was simple feigning interest, or an offer made for the other team so they could drive up interest with the "well the Vikings gave us an offer".  Lots of possibilities.

@"greediron" said:

@"MaroonBells" said: https://vikingsterritory.com/2021/general-news/vikings-named-one-of-nfls-biggest-losers-for-2021-offseason Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report detailed five winners and five losers for the offseason on Monday — now that the bulk offseason operations are in the rearview. For Knox, the Vikings made the “loser” list. Why? Well, he believes the franchise will rue missing out on Justin Fields during the 2021 NFL Draft, a quarterback who landed with the rival Chicago Bears. “The Jets landed their quarterback in April’s draft. So did the Chicago Bears, who traded up to No. 11 to take Ohio State’s Justin Fields. The Minnesota Vikings, however, missed out on the quarterback they wanted. The Vikings wanted Fields and lost him to a bitter division rival. Minnesota’s desire to nab Fields suggests their time with Kirk Cousins is running short. While the Vikings did take Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond in the third round, he was not the team’s first choice. Perhaps Mond will develop well and work out as Minnesota’s future starter. However, if Fields goes on to have a long and fruitful career with the Bears, the Vikings are going to wish they pulled the trigger on a trade.“

MB: Anyone who even loosely follows the draft knows that the offer the Vikings made to move up in the 1st round was NOT a serious offer. It was lowball. Below lowball. I have a hunch that was intentional. 

Yeah, one has to wonder if it wasn't intended to get the Bears to mortgage picks on another QB?  Fields may or may not turn out, but Chicago's tendency to give away multiple draft picks for one player has become a pattern, and not a productive one.

I think there is lots of chess going on in the draft rooms and Rick seems to be on the upper level of chess players.  Whether it was simple feigning interest, or an offer made for the other team so they could drive up interest with the "well the Vikings gave us an offer".  Lots of possibilities.