This team has flaws including Coaching
And drafting.
1st the QB sitch:
Darnold must be well protected to be excellent ala Kirk Cousins. If he’s signed we don’t have the picks or the money to protect him. We can be a consistent playoff team with him but nothing more as we are currently constructed. I no longer favor resigning him.
It’s JJ time as many on here said all along in my opinion so we can load up in FA and run it back. If our Oline held up here at year end as they had all year, I would be all for resigning Sammie, but they have collapsed and you see the results.
HC: KOC has a kickass downfield passing offense, the players like him, but he doesn’t help his QB by committing to run the football nor shape his offense for smaller passing gains. I offer him an extension, but shorter.
GM: great in FA, poor in the draft. Hopefully he can get his college scouting reworked to improve. I offer him a short extension running with KOC for 2 more years.
Defense/Flores. Bflo has an exotic scheme and is a fine DC. He likely stays because I don’t see any team hiring him as HC yet. His personnel is pretty good in my opinion. I would look for an elite corner and DT in FA instead of resigning Murphy for big money
What I would do: with JJ’s contract look for elite players in FA at CB, DT, C, and G and get them all. Trade back and draft 2 interior line players to develop. Tell KOC and KAM you have 2 years to get it done.
They had the best team they have had in a long time, this year.
My concerns are more philosophical than anything, with regards to the coaching staff and GM.
Why, really Why, do you refuse to build from the inside out? Just look what Detroit can do with the best O-line in football.
Until they commit to that, they will be lightweights if they make the playoffs, and end up where they don't belong.
I have a lot of confidence in them. I just don't know if they see a weak interior line on both sides of the ball as a weakness!
I hope they do, and play JJM next season. They have a lot of gaps to fill with free agents. But their future appears bright if they make good moves.
I'm wondering what it'll take to get this team to fix the IOL, and protect QBs in big games. This looks VERY familiar, just with a different name under center.
The problem is a decade or more old, now, and while we have great OTs (when healthy), the middle of the line-the shortest route to the QB-is a constant weakness.
COME ON, KAM/KOC. FIX IT.
KOC, JJM, Flores...make a good plan, or you'll be following Kwesi....
Watch how the Eagles will beat the Rams similar to how they beat us and won't surrender a single sack to them. The wheels fell off completely here. Who knew that 14-3 = fraud. What a nice culture they are building in Minnesota, people are saying. Screw that - win some damn games when they count! Sam Darnold = Kirk Cousins when the bright lights were on him. Cinderella to qb hack in a moments notice. Year 3 will tell a lot with KAM and KOC and BFlo, but one thing is for damn sure, I 1000% agree with the theme of this thread, building the O and D lines so we quit getting mauled when playing in big games. What a sour taste to the off-season this game has provided.
Yep KOC got taken out to the woodshed by the Daniel jones led aNew York Giants a few years ago, got taken out to the woodshed by Detroit, and got taken out to the shed tonight again when all the Rams did defensively was copy the same thing Detroit did - and he made no adjustments. For the record, I’m not a JJ McCarthy fan. He was just a caretaker at Michigan. I look for a five or six win team next year sadly.
After the 1st quarter, I knew this was going to be a repeat of the Detroit game.
O'Connell needs to be able to modify his game plan to get the ball out with a QB like Darnold, and should have known that since the last Rams game, and particularly since the Lions game. Pretty hard pass on Darnold moving into next season. The fatal flaws have been exposed.
DH11 wrote:
Yep KOC got taken out to the woodshed by the Daniel jones led aNew York Giants a few years ago, got taken out to the woodshed by Detroit, and got taken out to the shed tonight again when all the Rams did defensively was copy the same thing Detroit did - and he made no adjustments. For the record, I’m not a JJ McCarthy fan. He was just a caretaker at Michigan. I look for a five or six win team next year sadly.
Interesting post DH. There’s a notorious DH that was banned hundreds of times over at the old KFAN board. That your cousin?
ArizonaViking wrote:
After the 1st quarter, I knew this was going to be a repeat of the Detroit game.
I've been pumping this team all year. Felt like they were breaking the old tendencies . I kind of felt like the season ended last week after the lions game.
I don't like to admit it but, I turned the game off with 4 minutes to go in the first half.
Seemed like a special season until they turned into the Vikings again!
hogjowlsjohnny wrote:
I've been pumping this team all year. Felt like they were breaking the old tendencies . I kind of felt like the season ended last week after the lions game.
I don't like to admit it but, I turned the game off with 4 minutes to go in the first half.
Seemed like a special season until they turned into the Vikings again!
When the Rams had 4th down and a few yards in the red zone early in the 1st quarter and Bullard jumps offsides to give the Rams a free 1st down, I thought yep going to be a long night. Shades of Everson Griffen jumping before the snap. Why in the hell can't they watch the ball to see it getting snapped? Why can't the Vikings teach their quarterbacks to adjust the cadence to get an encroachment call? Then seeing Darnold later get strip sacked and fumbling to give the Rams a free run to the end zone I pretty much knew it was over.
Is it me or does KOC have a tendency to force a run on 1st down usually resulting in no gain setting up a long 2nd down?
The forward pass by Stafford was a bullshit call which should have been at least intentional grounding. Guaranteed if Darnold had done that it would have been called a fumble.
There many excited by having the cap space to attain free agents to fix the flaws. I hear the same thing every year. The Vikings should get this big name guy or that guy in the first wave of free agency. But it rarely happens. They are always overpriced and Kwesi is a bargain shopper. He did pretty well in free agency last year. I suspect that was with Flores' help!
Will be interesting to see what he does this off season, and will we see a trade to get back some draft capital?
This team has a way to go to be a real contender. I think they are heading in the right direction. Sometimes good teams have to knock on that play off door a couple times to break through. I don't see it next year but expect it in 2-3 years.
hogjowlsjohnny wrote:
There many excited by having the cap space to attain free agents to fix the flaws. I hear the same thing every year. The Vikings should get this big name guy or that guy in the first wave of free agency. But it rarely happens. They are always overpriced and Kwesi is a bargain shopper. He did pretty well in free agency last year. I suspect that was with Flores' help! Will be interesting to see what he does this off season, and will we see a trade to get back some draft capital? This team has a way to go to be a real contender. I think they are heading in the right direction. Sometimes good teams have to knock on that play off door a couple times to break through. I don't see it next year but expect it in 2-3 years.
Kwesi was a bargain shopper because he didn't have a lot of money. Remember, the Vikings had a $28M dead cap albatross around the neck. In 2025, the Vikings sit with the best cap picture in the NFL. I'd be very surprised if he didn't spend money on at least a couple of big name free agents. Like some have said, it may be a sad day in Minnesota, but at least the picture is now very clear.
Honestly, it's all about JJ McCarthy now. We'll have some holes to fill but the core of a pretty good team is already there. 90% of how we do will depend on how McCarthy plays.
I don’t think we know Kwesi is a pure bargain shopper. Up until know we’ve been purging the big cap hits to get in a good cap place and being thrifty was the correct move.
I think if we’re thrifty this offseason and next, that will be a strong indicator though.
Look at Verse who can dominate a game and then look at Turner if you can find him and do not forget all of the picks we gave up to get Turner, bottom line for this team is that not only have we drafted terribly since Kwesi has been here, but we have done a really poor job of maximizing draft capital. He did a great job in free agency this year, but his drafting is why we still have so many holes on both lines. He should get another job title and bring in someone who actually has experience running a draft. Players are going to have good and not so good days, same as coaches, but the team collectively needs to pick each other up and we just do not have enough players who can be that guy.
JR44 wrote:
Look at Verse who can dominate a game and then look at Turner if you can find him and do not forget all of the picks we gave up to get Turner, bottom line for this team is that not only have we drafted terribly since Kwesi has been here, but we have done a really poor job of maximizing draft capital. He did a great job in free agency this year, but his drafting is why we still have so many holes on both lines. He should get another job title and bring in someone who actually has experience running a draft. Players are going to have good and not so good days, same as coaches, but the team collectively needs to pick each other up and we just do not have enough players who can be that guy.
Teams knew Turner might take a year when they drafted him. Verse is also 4 years older than Turner. I believe Turner will be just fine and kept on getting better as the later weeks went on.
JR44 wrote:
Look at Verse who can dominate a game and then look at Turner if you can find him and do not forget all of the picks we gave up to get Turner, bottom line for this team is that not only have we drafted terribly since Kwesi has been here, but we have done a really poor job of maximizing draft capital. He did a great job in free agency this year, but his drafting is why we still have so many holes on both lines. He should get another job title and bring in someone who actually has experience running a draft. Players are going to have good and not so good days, same as coaches, but the team collectively needs to pick each other up and we just do not have enough players who can be that guy.
He did, he brought in Ryan Grigson and that was the mistake. The scouting department has not been overhauled since KAM got here either.
I’m glad to see KOC is getting nationally ripped on the radio and television for being unprepared and not making any adjustments. Hopefully this is a wake up call for him. It is especially concerning when he had to know the Rams are basically going to do the same thing Detroit did and he still did not make any adjustments before the game or during the game, which is more concerning to me. A great coach makes in game adjustments. Let’s hope this is a wake up call and he’s not so stubborn about deviating from his original game plan.
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