Where is your confidence level at with this organization?

Anybody prior to the draft have Lewis Cine as a high want or need for this team? Booth was a huge injury concern coming in, and Ingram was considered by most to be a reach who played below average football all year. Asamoah is an undersized LB who hardly played outside of special teams. He is going to have the same problems Kendricks had in this scheme as an undersized linebacker with no bodies in front of him and big ass lineman getting on him unabated. Evans, nobody knows. Hardly played, then was injured. So yes, let's be realistic, take off the purple shades and call this draft for what it was. Kwesi needs to do better for this franchise to stay competitive moving forward regarding player evaluation...which he literally has no experience at. This draft is not a finished product obviously, but it's lack of impact was a contributing factor in our early playoff exit. That's just me calling it for what it is. 

@"supafreak84" said:

@"Riphawkins" said:

@"supafreak84" said:

@"Riphawkins" said: Pretty high

One year in and they won the division. KAM and KOC will or at least should get better at decision making. I was honestly surprised by some of the cuts made this past offseason. 

Hard decisions will be made and I think KAM can make them. I don’t think there is a reason to think he wouldn’t want to put the best product out there. 
The Wilf family just needs to stay out of the way a little bit. I know they wanted a soft retooling instead of a complete rebuild, which I agree with. Blowing up a roster just because never made sense to me.

Pinning Donatell on KOC is fair, however you have to look at the big picture that is the NFL coaching tree. Sometimes coordinators want more control or freedom to do what they want, or see the personnel on a team and say, Nope!We don’t know who was talked to or who was considered besides Donatell. Maybe other coaches didn’t want to attach themselves to KOC, thinking he’s young and it could hurt their career. You never know all the details.

Depth is something that will probably be lacking for at least another year. The decisions that take place this off season will impact that. You can’t do wholesale cuts and expect to be deep. 
I hope this draft goes well, I hope they fix some of the problems on the defensive side of the ball, while still trying to add weapons and good depth on the O line. 
Speaking of the O line, they were good at times, and they were bad at times. But, they were better than the past and they did see some young players step up and contribute. Brandel has become a very good swing tackle IMO, and honestly Bradbury stepped up his game. They’ll need to resign or replace this offseason. Is the o line elite? No, but name the starting 5 O linemen for the 6 Super Bowls Belicheat won. 
I’m good with the path the Vikings are on. We’ll see in a few years who was right. 
We could both be wrong.

Well, here is the situation. The Vikings are 7.4 million OVER the projected salary cap for 2023. We have a lot of older veteran players that we will need to make decisions on. There is not a single free agent on this roster I would bring back (including Bradbury) and what do we do with Cousins moving forward, who is once again going into the final year of his contract and will be 35 years old. We drafted 10 players last year and we have no idea if any of them can play or add any sort of quality depth. We have needs along the defensive line, at linebacker, we have no idea if any of the young corners on the roster are any good so does this also become a need? Thielen likely will be a salary cut in June, so finding a starting caliber receiver somewhere that can take the double and triple teams off JJ becomes a priority. We traded off draft picks for Reagor and Hockenson. 

This team has huge question marks up and down the roster and I simply do not trust this front office to make the right decisions when the right decision was to blow this thing up last offseason. I would have gladly taken a 5-12 season this year with Baker Mayfield at the helm (per say), salary cap room, extra draft picks, and a top 5 draft pick heading into next season. Instead, we blew our wads trying to piece this together with duct tape, got bounced in the first round of the playoffs, and once again have to address the same problems and issues as last offseason. 

Well, we all know youre not a Cousins fan, but he will be hard to replace unless you trade up and use valuable picks and ignore the reat of the roster, or trade for or sign a guy that hasn’t made it elsewhere.

Ed Ingram, Brian Asamoah, and Akaleb Evans all look like they can play, and 2 of these got substantial playing time. I have faith Cine can and will play. 
Nailer looks like he can contribute, and Chandler could move up quickly if they move on from Cook and Mattison. which they probably will. 
Every paints gllom and doom from the ‘22 draft class. I see a ton of potential. Everyone thinks 7 to 10 guys drafted should come in and start and be all pro. Reality says otherwise.

While I know potential doesn’t mean squat, it's what we have on this team. I guess I’m a glass half full guy.

As far as addressing the same problems goes, the biggest one was Zimmer being an asshat! They took care of that and like it ir not you havr to trust the system in olace until it doesn’t work. it worked, the Vikings won the North.

Maybe that is all the Wilfs want. Be conpetitive, keep fans in the stands, get me a return on my investment. if so, we’re Fricked!

I am actually a Cousins fan, but I understand the dynamics for what they are. He is a good, not great QB, he's 35 years old, costs us a lot of money every year, and we are always scrambling trying to figure out his contract situation. 

As far as the rookies go, Ingram struggled most of the year. Asamoah didn't see a ton of action outside of special teams, and Evans we never saw enough of to form an opinion on. Our first two picks were complete busts. We have no idea what kind of player Cine is or will be after that injury, and Booth continued his injury MO he's had for years. We don't know if any of these guys can play or be long term starters for us. But more power to you if you see a ton of potential there

@"supafreak84" said: Anybody prior to the draft have Lewis Cine as a high want or need for this team? Booth was a huge injury concern coming in, and Ingram was considered by most to be a reach who played below average football all year. Asamoah is an undersized LB who hardly played outside of special teams. He is going to have the same problems Kendricks had in this scheme as an undersized linebacker with no bodies in front of him and big ass lineman getting on him unabated. Evans, nobody knows. Hardly played, then was injured. So yes, let's be realistic, take off the purple shades and call this draft for what it was. Kwesi needs to do better for this franchise to stay competitive moving forward regarding player evaluation...which he literally has no experience at. This draft is not a finished product obviously, but it's lack of impact was a contributing factor in our early playoff exit. That's just me calling it for what it is. 

I think there might be a good bit of confirmation bias going on in your take. I seem to remember you were not a fan of the KAM hire? I think because you thought affirmative action played a part? I could be thinking of someone else, but if that's correct, I suspect everything he does will be colored by you with that brush.

@"Riphawkins" said:@"supafreak84" said:@"Riphawkins" said:@"supafreak84" said:@"Riphawkins" said:Pretty high One year in and they won the division. KAM and KOC will or at least should get better at decision making. I was honestly surprised by some of the cuts made this past offseason. Hard decisions will be made and I think KAM can make them. I don’t think there is a reason to think he wouldn’t want to put the best product out there.  The Wilf family just needs to stay out of the way a little bit. I know they wanted a soft retooling instead of a complete rebuild, which I agree with. Blowing up a roster just because never made sense to me. Pinning Donatell on KOC is fair, however you have to look at the big picture that is the NFL coaching tree. Sometimes coordinators want more control or freedom to do what they want, or see the personnel on a team and say, Nope!We don’t know who was talked to or who was considered besides Donatell. Maybe other coaches didn’t want to attach themselves to KOC, thinking he’s young and it could hurt their career. You never know all the details. Depth is something that will probably be lacking for at least another year. The decisions that take place this off season will impact that. You can’t do wholesale cuts and expect to be deep.  I hope this draft goes well, I hope they fix some of the problems on the defensive side of the ball, while still trying to add weapons and good depth on the O line.  Speaking of the O line, they were good at times, and they were bad at times. But, they were better than the past and they did see some young players step up and contribute. Brandel has become a very good swing tackle IMO, and honestly Bradbury stepped up his game. They’ll need to resign or replace this offseason. Is the o line elite? No, but name the starting 5 O linemen for the 6 Super Bowls Belicheat won.  I’m good with the path the Vikings are on. We’ll see in a few years who was right.  We could both be wrong. Well, here is the situation. The Vikings are 7.4 million OVER the projected salary cap for 2023. We have a lot of older veteran players that we will need to make decisions on. There is not a single free agent on this roster I would bring back (including Bradbury) and what do we do with Cousins moving forward, who is once again going into the final year of his contract and will be 35 years old. We drafted 10 players last year and we have no idea if any of them can play or add any sort of quality depth. We have needs along the defensive line, at linebacker, we have no idea if any of the young corners on the roster are any good so does this also become a need? Thielen likely will be a salary cut in June, so finding a starting caliber receiver somewhere that can take the double and triple teams off JJ becomes a priority. We traded off draft picks for Reagor and Hockenson.  This team has huge question marks up and down the roster and I simply do not trust this front office to make the right decisions when the right decision was to blow this thing up last offseason. I would have gladly taken a 5-12 season this year with Baker Mayfield at the helm (per say), salary cap room, extra draft picks, and a top 5 draft pick heading into next season. Instead, we blew our wads trying to piece this together with duct tape, got bounced in the first round of the playoffs, and once again have to address the same problems and issues as last offseason. Well, we all know youre not a Cousins fan, but he will be hard to replace unless you trade up and use valuable picks and ignore the reat of the roster, or trade for or sign a guy that hasn’t made it elsewhere. Ed Ingram, Brian Asamoah, and Akaleb Evans all look like they can play, and 2 of these got substantial playing time. I have faith Cine can and will play. Nailer looks like he can contribute, and Chandler could move up quickly if they move on from Cook and Mattison. which they probably will. Every paints gllom and doom from the ‘22 draft class. I see a ton of potential. Everyone thinks 7 to 10 guys drafted should come in and start and be all pro. Reality says otherwise. While I know potential doesn’t mean squat, it's what we have on this team. I guess I’m a glass half full guy. You’re insane if you think guys are busts if they didn’t immediately step in and play. Asamoah showed signs of being one of those guys who can make plays. He wasn’t going to supplant Kendrick’s or Hicks this year. I watched him at OK and thought he was a very good player, always around the ball, always making plays. Ingram struggled, but the way you’re wanting to tear it down and start from scratch, there will be a lot of guys struggling like Ingram did. Now he’ll have a year under his belt and should be better next season for it.I think Cine comes in and makes a difference next season. No idea about Booth.  As far as Cousins goes, pay the man, sign him for an extended contract. He’s shown his worth, and he’s worth keeping. But, the teams he’s been on have refused to do that.  If the Vikings had torn it all down and started over there would still be a ton of question marks. I’ve read some of your other responses. One thing you said was that they didn’t draft any player that anyone wanted. Who is that anyone? You? I’m sure they don’t give a rats ass what some guy on a message board says or wants. Me included.in fact they are probably wondering WTF we are still doing on message boards. Lol I'm simply stating that we did not get contributions from our draft class of 10 players and the lack of impact played a part in our struggles defensively and getting bounced in the playoffs. Also I'm stating that the draft and trade downs were highly questionable and did not work out in our favor year one. We are being ran by a guy with little to no experience in scouting, coaching, or playing the game himself. He was a day trader with a masters in economics. 

@"supafreak84" said: Anybody prior to the draft have Lewis Cine as a high want or need for this team? Booth was a huge injury concern coming in, and Ingram was considered by most to be a reach who played below average football all year. Asamoah is an undersized LB who hardly played outside of special teams. He is going to have the same problems Kendricks had in this scheme as an undersized linebacker with no bodies in front of him and big ass lineman getting on him unabated. Evans, nobody knows. Hardly played, then was injured. So yes, let's be realistic, take off the purple shades and call this draft for what it was. Kwesi needs to do better for this franchise to stay competitive moving forward regarding player evaluation...which he literally has no experience at. This draft is not a finished product obviously, but it's lack of impact was a contributing factor in our early playoff exit. That's just me calling it for what it is. 

Its ok to call Booth a bust.  The guy is and has always been injured.
Its not ok to call Cine a bust.  He broke his leg playing and was walking not long after.  He'll be back next year where we'll have a proper amount of time to evaluate whether he was worthy of the pick or not.
You can't really ding Evans much.  He had a concussion.  Was there other questions in his past?
Asamoah will have next year to show if he's able to take a spot.  Our 4 linebackers were locked in to start the season.
Ingram will be better next year.  He got better as the year went on.

@supafreak84: Lol I'm simply stating that we did not get contributions from our draft class of 10 players and the lack of impact played a part in our struggles defensively and getting bounced in the playoffs. Also I'm stating that the draft and trade downs were highly questionable and did not work out in our favor year one. We are being ran by a guy with little to no experience in scouting, coaching, or playing the game himself. He was a day trader with a masters in economics. 

OK, Mr. Sudden Impact, I believe the guy you wanted was Jameson Williams. We talked about that quite a bit, with you arguing that he would be ready early in the season and me arguing that he probably wouldn't contribute much at all his first season. Fast forward 9 months and he caught one pass. Even after he was healthy, his coach commented that it wasn't "clicking" for him. 

And whether you like it or not, people with experience in analytics and economics are the future of NFL leadership positions. 

@"MaroonBells" said: Yes, Cine was talked about quite a bit, along with several other safeties. Cowboys had him ranked 13th overall. Booth was a frequent topic as well. And neither were reaches where we took them.  I think there might be a good bit of confirmation bias going on in your take. I seem to remember you were not a fan of the KAM hire? I think because you thought affirmative action played a part? I could be thinking of someone else, but if that's correct, I suspect everything he does will be colored by you with that brush. Safety wasn't a need position on this team and the Cine pick was more of a luxury than anything. Every team will have different grades on players but he was widely considered to be a second round prospect who was running 4th on the depth chart (behind Mettelus) when he had the injury. Nobody knows his status moving forward or how much the injury will impact his play. Booth was always an injury concern and that played out as a rookie. I wanted Tariq Woolen and had him mocked to us in the second round.  And yes, my own personal opinion is Kwesi was hired in part for reasons outside his resume, but that's not really relevant when discussing the draft and the players he selected. The bottom line is i dont believe his experience qualified him to be a GM and make these kind of big decisions. It was a bad draft, and the strategy in maneuvering around with division rivals remains questionable at best. Watson is going to be a stud and a healthy Jameson Williams is going to be a problem. We are countering that with Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth!? Lol. In fairness, I also hammered Spielman quite a bit too for his gaffes. I'm an equal opportilunist when criticism is warranted. I did give Kwesi credit for the Hockenson trade...so there is that 

Supa, you're being a bit harsh on KAM in my opinion.  His draft left something to be desired (from my perspective), but he did make some good FA acquistions and in-season acquisitions.  I like his personality and hope he learned from his first draft because everything else he did looks promising.

The biggest complaint from the draft is too many trades and not enough compensation overall... hopefully he learned that sometimes the best trade is the one you didn't make.  Felt like his justification for trading with the Lions is they wanted to move back all along and just settled for the best deal of the few teams that were interested in moving up.

As to the others commenting in here, it's OK for Supa to not like the draft.  I didn't care for it either.  The best thing you can say about it is "potential" which comes up in a lot of posts.  Problem is all that "potential" only netted one starter(Ingram) who didn't play well the first half of the season and then was probably more of a slightly below average starter by the end.

Booth was a talented college player, but didn't look like a starter when he wasn't hurt.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since he was hurt a lot, but that was his trend in college and it followed him to the NFL. Complete question mark from a guy we spent a 2nd round pick on.

Cine had a bad injury, but I love his attitude and leadership qualities.  But there is no guarantee he's going to be a starter next season or live up to his potential.  Plus there were reports he was struggling to pick up the defensive scheme and wasn't the best fit for what we were asking our safeties to do in coverage BEFORE he got injured...  playing SPECIAL TEAMS.  THAT doesn't reflect well on your GM if you're first round pick isn't an ideal fit for your defense. Hopefully we get a new DC that runs a scheme that fits Cine and some of these other young defensive guys we'll be counting on.

Evans flashed in what...  Parts of 2-3 games? Harrison Hand did the same for us at the end of his rookie year and he's been nothing more than a special teams guy and backup CB for us and his new team. 

Asamoah flashed in limited playing time, but he's small and again...  doesn't seem like a fit for a 3-4 unless we end up playing some type of hybrid 3-4 where he's more of a coverage guy and used to blitz in special packages.  I'm not sure he can hold up as a full-time starter as an ILB in a traditional 3-4.

The rest...  no one knows?  Feels like some are really overrating the draft because of "potential"... I don't think it was as bad as Supa says, but it definitely wasn't impressive considering the lack of contributions from our rookie class and the question marks heading into next year.

@"Wetlander" said: Supa, you're being a bit harsh on KAM in my opinion.  His draft left something to be desired (from my perspective), but he did make some good FA acquistions and in-season acquisitions.  I like his personality and hope he learned from his first draft because everything else he did looks promising.

The biggest complaint from the draft is too many trades and not enough compensation overall... hopefully he learned that sometimes the best trade is the one you didn't make.  Felt like his justification for trading with the Lions is they wanted to move back all along and just settled for the best deal of the few teams that were interested in moving up.

As to the others commenting in here, it's OK for Supa to not like the draft.  I didn't care for it either.  The best thing you can say about it is "potential" which comes up in a lot of posts.  Problem is all that "potential" only netted one starter(Ingram) who didn't play well the first half of the season and then was probably more of a slightly below average starter by the end.

Booth was a talented college player, but didn't look like a starter when he wasn't hurt.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since he was hurt a lot, but that was his trend in college and it followed him to the NFL. Complete question mark from a guy we spent a 2nd round pick on.

Cine had a bad injury, but I love his attitude and leadership qualities.  But there is no guarantee he's going to be a starter next season or live up to his potential.  Plus there were reports he was struggling to pick up the defensive scheme and wasn't the best fit for what we were asking our safeties to do in coverage BEFORE he got injured...  playing SPECIAL TEAMS.  THAT doesn't reflect well on your GM if you're first round pick isn't an ideal fit for your defense. Hopefully we get a new DC that runs a scheme that fits Cine and some of these other young defensive guys we'll be counting on.

Evans flashed in what...  Parts of 2-3 games? Harrison Hand did the same for us at the end of his rookie year and he's been nothing more than a special teams guy and backup CB for us and his new team. 

Asamoah flashed in limited playing time, but he's small and again...  doesn't seem like a fit for a 3-4 unless we end up playing some type of hybrid 3-4 where he's more of a coverage guy and used to blitz in special packages.  I'm not sure he can hold up as a full-time starter as an ILB in a traditional 3-4.

The rest...  no one knows?  Feels like some are really overrating the draft because of "potential"... I don't think it was as bad as Supa says, but it definitely wasn't impressive considering the lack of contributions from our rookie class and the question marks heading into next year.

@"MaroonBells" said: OK, Mr. Sudden Impact, I believe the guy you wanted was Jameson Williams. We talked about that quite a bit, with you arguing that he would be ready early in the season and me arguing that he probably wouldn't contribute much at all his first season. Fast forward 9 months and he caught one pass. Even after he was healthy, his coach commented that it wasn't "clicking" for him.  And whether you like it or not, people with experience in analytics and economics are the future of NFL leadership positions.  I thought he might be ready by Halloween, but at the very least I thought he could be a difference maker for the playoff run. I still believe he will be a very good player for the Lions and would have went a long ways in solidifying our WR core for next season. Now WR is a position of need (one of many) with Thielen likely on his way out the door. 

And no, I'm not a fan of analytics and economics majors running my franchise. 

My concern is that if you look at this season, we have Zero Playmakers on Defense that consistently can take over a game. Z. Smith started the year on fire and quickly faded. He pretty much disappeared the second half of the season due to injuries and was just not effective. Hunter never figured it out except for a couple of games late in the season. Our interior DLine is below average, the play of our Linebackers and the majority of our Defensive Backs sucked all year. Some of them had a moment where they flashed every once in a while, but nothing consistent. Outside of the Green Bay game, we were getting torched week in and week out and had it not been the magical play of Cousins and JJ generating 9 come from behind victories we would have never made the playoffs let alone won the Division. We won in spite of our Defense. That is not all on KAM as he inherited the players from the Previous Regime but his draft maneuvering didn't make this team better, especially the defense which we knew had major holes coming into the offseason. IMO, KAM treated the draft like he was back on Wall Street trading stocks and for that he deserves some scrutiny and criticism. If we can get some mileage out of the veterans we have by simply changing the scheme and DC, then great. Maybe there is hope for next season. If it's truly an Age and Declining Talent issue then I think we will be at the bottom of the league in defense again next year because I'm not sold on KAM as a draft evaluator yet and the talent gap will be too great to overcome while we have Cousins and JJ in their prime.   

@"supafreak84" said:

@"MaroonBells" said: OK, Mr. Sudden Impact, I believe the guy you wanted was Jameson Williams. We talked about that quite a bit, with you arguing that he would be ready early in the season and me arguing that he probably wouldn't contribute much at all his first season. Fast forward 9 months and he caught one pass. Even after he was healthy, his coach commented that it wasn't "clicking" for him.  And whether you like it or not, people with experience in analytics and economics are the future of NFL leadership positions.  I thought he might be ready by Halloween, but at the very least I thought he could be a difference maker for the playoff run. I still believe he will be a very good player for the Lions and would have went a long ways in solidifying our WR core for next season. Now WR is a position of need (one of many) with Thielen likely on his way out the door. 

And no, I'm not a fan of analytics and economics majors running my franchise. 

@"Riphawkins" said: So, you’re giving him a year to develop? Maybe you should give Kwesi’s first draft class the same benefit.

I will happily revisit this topic then with you next January. We'll put it on the calendar 

@"supafreak84" said:

@"Riphawkins" said: So, you’re giving him a year to develop? Maybe you should give Kwesi’s first draft class the same benefit.

I will happily revisit this topic then with you next January. We'll put it on the calendar 

@"Riphawkins" said:

@"supafreak84" said:

@"Riphawkins" said: So, you’re giving him a year to develop? Maybe you should give Kwesi’s first draft class the same benefit.

I will happily revisit this topic then with you next January. We'll put it on the calendar 

I’m sure you will. Unless we are still playing and those guys are contributing. 

@"supafreak84" said:

@"Riphawkins" said:

@"supafreak84" said:

@"Riphawkins" said: So, you’re giving him a year to develop? Maybe you should give Kwesi’s first draft class the same benefit.

I will happily revisit this topic then with you next January. We'll put it on the calendar 

I’m sure you will. Unless we are still playing and those guys are contributing. 

And if we aren't and they aren't contributing (again) I'm sure it will be crickets 

I'd prefer not be right because I want this team to win just like we all do, but it's fair to call a spade a spade and this draft class was lousy and made little to no impact for a team that badly needed it. You all want to give Kwesi a pass and shoot sunshine out your asses about how "impressive" his draft class was when it clearly wasn't. So let's give it another year, we can revisit this topic and see how these guys develop, if at all. We can also revisit the impact of the guys we let our division rivals draft (Williams and Watson) in comparison to the guys we drafted and see what the scale says. So I won't say any more about the golden child and this draft class until next January. Next topic 

I always believed you should grade a draft class after two or three years. Hopefully the injured guys get healthy and have more impact going forward. Time will tell how KAM's first draft was.

@"supafreak84" said:

@"Riphawkins" said: Pretty high

One year in and they won the division. KAM and KOC will or at least should get better at decision making. I was honestly surprised by some of the cuts made this past offseason. 

Hard decisions will be made and I think KAM can make them. I don’t think there is a reason to think he wouldn’t want to put the best product out there. 
The Wilf family just needs to stay out of the way a little bit. I know they wanted a soft retooling instead of a complete rebuild, which I agree with. Blowing up a roster just because never made sense to me.

Pinning Donatell on KOC is fair, however you have to look at the big picture that is the NFL coaching tree. Sometimes coordinators want more control or freedom to do what they want, or see the personnel on a team and say, Nope!We don’t know who was talked to or who was considered besides Donatell. Maybe other coaches didn’t want to attach themselves to KOC, thinking he’s young and it could hurt their career. You never know all the details.

Depth is something that will probably be lacking for at least another year. The decisions that take place this off season will impact that. You can’t do wholesale cuts and expect to be deep. 
I hope this draft goes well, I hope they fix some of the problems on the defensive side of the ball, while still trying to add weapons and good depth on the O line. 
Speaking of the O line, they were good at times, and they were bad at times. But, they were better than the past and they did see some young players step up and contribute. Brandel has become a very good swing tackle IMO, and honestly Bradbury stepped up his game. They’ll need to resign or replace this offseason. Is the o line elite? No, but name the starting 5 O linemen for the 6 Super Bowls Belicheat won. 
I’m good with the path the Vikings are on. We’ll see in a few years who was right. 
We could both be wrong.

Well, here is the situation. The Vikings are 7.4 million OVER the projected salary cap for 2023. We have a lot of older veteran players that we will need to make decisions on. There is not a single free agent on this roster I would bring back (including Bradbury) and what do we do with Cousins moving forward, who is once again going into the final year of his contract and will be 35 years old. We drafted 10 players last year and we have no idea if any of them can play or add any sort of quality depth. We have needs along the defensive line, at linebacker, we have no idea if any of the young corners on the roster are any good so does this also become a need? Thielen likely will be a salary cut in June, so finding a starting caliber receiver somewhere that can take the double and triple teams off JJ becomes a priority. We traded off draft picks for Reagor and Hockenson. 

This team has huge question marks up and down the roster and I simply do not trust this front office to make the right decisions when the right decision was to blow this thing up last offseason. I would have gladly taken a 5-12 season this year with Baker Mayfield at the helm (per say), salary cap room, extra draft picks, and a top 5 draft pick heading into next season. Instead, we blew our wads trying to piece this together with duct tape, got bounced in the first round of the playoffs, and once again have to address the same problems and issues as last offseason. 

@"MarkSP18" said:

@"supafreak84" said:

@"Riphawkins" said: Pretty high

One year in and they won the division. KAM and KOC will or at least should get better at decision making. I was honestly surprised by some of the cuts made this past offseason. 

Hard decisions will be made and I think KAM can make them. I don’t think there is a reason to think he wouldn’t want to put the best product out there. 
The Wilf family just needs to stay out of the way a little bit. I know they wanted a soft retooling instead of a complete rebuild, which I agree with. Blowing up a roster just because never made sense to me.

Pinning Donatell on KOC is fair, however you have to look at the big picture that is the NFL coaching tree. Sometimes coordinators want more control or freedom to do what they want, or see the personnel on a team and say, Nope!We don’t know who was talked to or who was considered besides Donatell. Maybe other coaches didn’t want to attach themselves to KOC, thinking he’s young and it could hurt their career. You never know all the details.

Depth is something that will probably be lacking for at least another year. The decisions that take place this off season will impact that. You can’t do wholesale cuts and expect to be deep. 
I hope this draft goes well, I hope they fix some of the problems on the defensive side of the ball, while still trying to add weapons and good depth on the O line. 
Speaking of the O line, they were good at times, and they were bad at times. But, they were better than the past and they did see some young players step up and contribute. Brandel has become a very good swing tackle IMO, and honestly Bradbury stepped up his game. They’ll need to resign or replace this offseason. Is the o line elite? No, but name the starting 5 O linemen for the 6 Super Bowls Belicheat won. 
I’m good with the path the Vikings are on. We’ll see in a few years who was right. 
We could both be wrong.

Well, here is the situation. The Vikings are 7.4 million OVER the projected salary cap for 2023. We have a lot of older veteran players that we will need to make decisions on. There is not a single free agent on this roster I would bring back (including Bradbury) and what do we do with Cousins moving forward, who is once again going into the final year of his contract and will be 35 years old. We drafted 10 players last year and we have no idea if any of them can play or add any sort of quality depth. We have needs along the defensive line, at linebacker, we have no idea if any of the young corners on the roster are any good so does this also become a need? Thielen likely will be a salary cut in June, so finding a starting caliber receiver somewhere that can take the double and triple teams off JJ becomes a priority. We traded off draft picks for Reagor and Hockenson. 

This team has huge question marks up and down the roster and I simply do not trust this front office to make the right decisions when the right decision was to blow this thing up last offseason. I would have gladly taken a 5-12 season this year with Baker Mayfield at the helm (per say), salary cap room, extra draft picks, and a top 5 draft pick heading into next season. Instead, we blew our wads trying to piece this together with duct tape, got bounced in the first round of the playoffs, and once again have to address the same problems and issues as last offseason. 

The Vikings are actually 24.551M over according to overthecap.  

Several players have updated salaries. Ezra Cleveland is at $2,995,000 up from $1,365,076, Cameron Dantzler at up $2,745,000 from $1,154,000, DJ Wonnum is at $2,745,000 up from $1,010,000, and KJ Osborn is at $2,745,000 up from $1,010,000.  That is an extra $6,690,924.

Players on rookie contracts are eligible for an escalator mainly based on how much they play.
https://frontofficenfl.com/2020/06/04/2020-nfl-cba-explained-proven-performance-escalator-ppe-in-rookie-contracts/

Beginning with the 2018 draft class, players drafted in the second through seventh rounds are eligible to receive the Level One, Level Two or Level Three PPE.
In order to qualify for Level One, second-round picks must either (a) play 60 percent of his team’s offensive or defensive plays in any two of his first three seasons or (b) participate in a cumulative average of 60 percent of his team’s offensive or defensive plays over the course of his first three regular seasons. For third- through seventh-round picks, players can hit either (a) or (b) above, but the threshold to reach drops to 35 percent of such plays.

Also, there were some practice squad players added to get to 51.  Tay Gowan at $940,000, William Kwenkeu at $870,000, Trishton Jackson at $870,000, Nick Muse at $870,000, and Kalon Barnes at $870,000 for a total of $4,420,000. All together the extra is $11,110,924.

The team is in a tight spot.

Potential cuts/trades with savings

Eric Kendrick - 9.5M
Jordan Hicks - 5M
Adam Thielen - 6.4M
Harrison Smith - 7.4M
Dalvin Cook - 7.9M
CJ Ham - 3M
Chris Reed - 2.5M
Za'Darius Smith - 13.6M

If they moved on from these players they save 55.4M and would have 30.9M in cap space.

They could restructure 12M of O'Neill's salary and get an extra 9M.
They could give Hockenson a 4 yr 58M deal with nice signing bonus and save 5M.
They can extend Tomlinson and NOT have it change his 7.5M cap hit that is already there at all.

They would have 44.9M available with these moves without touching Cousins deal which they should not.

Give JJ a 5 year 165M deal with a 40M signing bonus and it costs 8M  in cap space.

That takes the available space down to 36.9M.

All they have left after that is to decide if they want to extend or trade Hunter.  I wonder if Seattle would give up #20 plus a 2024 (3rd or 4th) for Hunter?
I'm not sure they should extend Bradbury with the strong center class in the draft.  Plus, it could take 10M apy or more.

I would target Germaine Pratt LB and Cameron Sutton CB in free agency.