Vikings offseason losers
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.
“A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't." - Tom Waits
@"medaille" said: If you have a league average QB, you need to draft another QB to put into the pipeline.Can you win a SB with an average QB? Yes, but your odds are much, much better with
an elite QB.I’m probably in the minority on this, but I think if your QB
isn’t elite (top 5ish), you need to be looking for an upgrade. I think there’s a lot more people who’d stop
looking if they got a top 10 QB. If you’ve
got a 10th-15th ranked QB, and you’re not looking, I think
that’s just a recipe for perpetual mediocrity.
Overall I agree with you...
BUT
Depends on what "keep looking" means...
Are you incented by ownership to take some risks, find the needle in the hay-stack (even with an avg qb) or collect a big enough, fat enough check with a #10 QB who gets you to the dance every other year?
I dont know the answer to that
@"medaille" said: If you have a league average QB, you need to draft another QB to put into the pipeline.Can you win a SB with an average QB? Yes, but your odds are much, much better with
an elite QB.I’m probably in the minority on this, but I think if your QB
isn’t elite (top 5ish), you need to be looking for an upgrade. I think there’s a lot more people who’d stop
looking if they got a top 10 QB. If you’ve
got a 10th-15th ranked QB, and you’re not looking, I think
that’s just a recipe for perpetual mediocrity.
I go one step further and say until you have 2 QBs on your roster that are above average you need to keep drafting, otherwise you end up in a situation like we are currently in, Cousins holds all the contractual cards until we have something better than a journeyman clipboard holder who is good in the meeting room. the franchise needs to keep their options open and only pay top tier players top tier money and not let positional depth weakness become a negotiating factor in the players favor. ( Thank God Kendricks isnt a pending FA! )
@"purplefaithful" said:@"medaille" said: If you have a league average QB, you need to draft another QB to put into the pipeline.Can you win a SB with an average QB? Yes, but your odds are much, much better with
an elite QB.I’m probably in the minority on this, but I think if your QB
isn’t elite (top 5ish), you need to be looking for an upgrade. I think there’s a lot more people who’d stop
looking if they got a top 10 QB. If you’ve
got a 10th-15th ranked QB, and you’re not looking, I think
that’s just a recipe for perpetual mediocrity.
Overall I agree with you...BUT
Depends on what "keep looking" means...
Are you incented by ownership to take some risks, find the needle in the hay-stack (even with an avg qb) or collect a big enough, fat enough check with a #10 QB who gets you to the dance every other year?
I dont know the answer to that
Also depends on the offense you run. And the kind of defense you have. Really depends on a lot of things. And I couldn't disagree with Medaille's point more. In fact, I would say the opposite. If you've got a 10th to 15th ranked QB (in other words, Stafford, a Ryan, a Cousins, a Prescott) and you're still looking, I think THAT'S a recipe for perpetual mediocrity. Because you're screwing the rest of your roster while you throw billion dollar darts at college QBs who become elite NFL QBs at a clip of about 3%.Even if you get one it doesn't guarantee you're going to the dance every other year either. Packers have had back to back HOF QBs. They've been to the Super Bowl exactly ONE time in 21 years. I think you're better off finding a team of dolts who don't know what they have. IOW, find a vet like the Rams did with Stafford, like the Vikings did with Cousins, like the Broncos did with Manning, like the Bucs did with Brady.
Perhaps it’s just finding the “next” winning combination. You have 32 teams reacting to each other, all for profitability. Others interests are politics, leveraging stadiums, locations and occasionally new owners. There are just a few teams that can just build using a long term strategy.
@"minny65" said:Compare this to Mond who in the last two years had only one offensive player drafted from his team, which was a 4th round OL this year. One of the most understated aspects about Mond was that he was not surrounded with playmakers and a great supporting cast like most of the QBs who before him.
- Jaylen Waddle – Pick No. 6 by the Miami Dolphins; Signing Bonus – $17.58 million; Total Contract – $27.086 million
- DeVonta Smith – Pick No. 10 by the Philadelphia Eagles; Signing Bonus – $12 million; Total Contract – $20.14 million
- Alex Leatherwood – Pick No. 17 by the Las Vegas Raiders; Signing Bonus – $7.83 million; Total Contract – $14.39 million
- Najee Harris – Pick No. 24 by the Pittsburgh Steelers; Signing Bonus – $6.85 million; Total Contract – $13.05 million
- Landon Dickerson – Pick No. 37 (second round) by the Philadelphia Eagles – Signing Bonus – $3.66 million; Total Contract – $8.66 million
@"purplefaithful" said:@"medaille" said: If you have a league average QB, you need to draft another QB to put into the pipeline.Can you win a SB with an average QB? Yes, but your odds are much, much better with
an elite QB.I’m probably in the minority on this, but I think if your QB
isn’t elite (top 5ish), you need to be looking for an upgrade. I think there’s a lot more people who’d stop
looking if they got a top 10 QB. If you’ve
got a 10th-15th ranked QB, and you’re not looking, I think
that’s just a recipe for perpetual mediocrity.
Overall I agree with you...BUT
Depends on what "keep looking" means...
Are you incented by ownership to take some risks, find the needle in the hay-stack (even with an avg qb) or collect a big enough, fat enough check with a #10 QB who gets you to the dance every other year?
I dont know the answer to that
To me, it means you need to set the precedence early on with
your QB, that the goal is to develop an elite QB that’s perpetually top 5. They need clear understanding what the target
is, and that you’ll be keeping the best guy, while also bringing in guys to develop
in parallel because you need as many darts as possible and it’s too important to
not do, and that you want all the QBs to succeed, either here or on a future
team. I think you also have to work with
them, such that they are given every opportunity to develop/succeed. I think this looks like ensuring your offense
is top tier and maybe letting your defense be under-invested in talent-wise,
but with great coaches. I think it’s
easier to add in defensive parts once you’re ready to go all in around a QB you
feel is good enough.I think that it’s often the case that the best QBs aren’t
the ones everyone predicted pre-draft, so you don’t want to go all in on one
guy and you often don’t have opportunity to draft a guy when you NEED him, so you
should be drafting QBs every time you get the opportunity to draft one with
high potential (in the first 3 rounds), seeing how they look for some number of
years and then trading them for picks after you find out they aren’t going to
develop. I think you should know within
3 years if you need to move on.I also think there’s a good chance that we might see the
current elite QBs (like Rodgers or Wilson) start making a stink to try and force
a trade to a desirable team that has cap space.
This new team can push all their chips in bringing in guys to create a
short term super team for 3-5 years, like what happened in TB, and then do it
again once the teams in cap purgatory. I
think this opportunity exists for goodish teams, who maintain a lot of cap
space.
@"minny65" said: 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!
I think the Bears move up for Fields was the right decision.
I think Mond would have gone early second round in almost every draft if this QB draft wasn't so loaded. So again, Spelly got good value - IMO.
Very good opportunity/draft to take a shot at QB. QB drafts this deep come around every 15+ plus years.
The factors are endless when trying to decide to draft a QB when you already have a Top 10 QB. But the fact that this draft was so loaded with first and second round QB's I think being aggressive in this particular draft for a QB was the smart move for any team. We all know that most of these guys are not going to live up to their hype but again you go with the odds and the numbers. Then you add in - how good and stable is your GM/scouting department.
Once again, I am very happy with the way this draft worked out but if we moved up in the first or any round to grab a QB that we decided was worth it then I would have fully supported that move. Spelly's gamble to drop down allowed us to get Mond which was fortunate IMO.
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