Stick A Fork In Hitman

...or whatever he had was a serious illness and he just needs more time to get in playing shape. I mean the guy's 36 years old. Bodies don't recover like they do in your 20s. He does, though, seem to be pushing the boundaries for what is a reasonable amount of time to get in shape. If that's even the issue.

StickierBuns wrote:
Something happened to him, some secretive thing he doesn't want out in public. Its weird, but its his business I suppose. What a weird year of stuff, I swear....

I will say its weird seeing Colts/Seahawks/Steelers/Bucs so high right now...I guess I shouldn't be surprised about the Bucs.

That and the pervasive injuries. I'm feeling for Ravens fans as an example...So close but yet so far now. Does it trace back to pre-season changes? I have no idea.

Harry is what it looks like when you play a year too long. Have no idea what his illness was/is. We probably wont find out till he retires.

This makes me sad.
For "the Hitman" to go out like this, is not the way that I'm sure he envisioned.

Montana Tom wrote:
This makes me sad. For "the Hitman" to go out like this, is not the way that I'm sure he envisioned.

What he envisioned was returning for one more bite of the apple on a team he felt had potential to win it all. However, by the time he was able to play, that team he envisioned wasn't there. His special talent now is mental more than physical. He can read the offense and get the back end of the defense lined up appropriately. He still has that skill and when he was out the defense struggled with that. This is his last hurrah, but I'm not throwing dirt on him yet. He will be an asset on third downs, and if that's his role, so be it. No forks for me!

Thought Smith looked pretty good last game, he is still ramping up, do not see any concern here, it is not like there has been a set back, I see him getting more reps and becoming more of a factor.

StickierBuns wrote:

Yeah, he's good for this year as a finale....secondary seems to be better than expected, as it was a concern for most. But the pipeline is a bit dry, at least from the layperson's view for the safety position. But how much do we trust KAM to pull a good draft pick? Is Jay Ward doing anything for anyone? Can he (KAM) keep pulling rabbits out of his hat in the UDFA arena? 

I'm not a rearview-woulda-coulda-shoulda draft guy, you can play that game every year with every team in the NFL: its a fool's errand. But are the players the Vikings DO draft making an impact? What about after 2 or 3 years? That's been a rough road for KAM.

And this is why we've gone from one of the younger rosters in the league under Spielman to one of the older rosters under KAM because we've had to dip into free agency more to fill those draft misses. As of an article from August, we had 12 players on the roster at least 29 years of age. That number has gone up with the Wentz signing. It's not a sustainable formula so we all better start hoping Mensah and Grigson start hitting on more draft picks

And let me add this, with the increase in player injuries it's become more important than ever for teams to hit on draft picks and supplement the roster with quality depth. The teams that can sustain through those injuries, because they've drafted well, are going to be the teams that make it the farthest in the playoffs. I've stated adnauseum that a GM's most important job is to identify talent in the draft. This continues to be where Mensah falls short because any dolt can spend money in free agency on proven veteran players.

MaroonBells wrote:
...or whatever he had was a serious illness and he just needs more time to get in playing shape. I mean the guy's 36 years old. Bodies don't recover like they do in your 20s. He does, though, seem to be pushing the boundaries for what is a reasonable amount of time to get in shape. If that's even the issue.

Exactly.  He was not just sick, but obviously not working out.  So he lost lots of ground in the physical realm.  Takes time to work back.

supafreak84 wrote:

I've stated ad nauseum that a GM's most important job is to identify talent in the draft. This continues to be where Mensah falls short because any dolt can spend money in free agency on proven veteran players.

I would say the GM's most important job is hiring the right coach.  This is where most people don't get it because they see drafting as a GM standing in a draft room ordering up picks.  It's a collaborative process.    Yes he is responsible for the final outcomes, responsible for finding the right scouts, coaches, etc. to build a great draft room.   I'll give you that.   But it takes a village as someone once said.

Problem is his background in analytics wasn't enough to build that great draft structure.  Starting with Grigson, an abject failure at Indianapolis who looks like the same here.  This is why if the pressure is ever put on, Grigson will be the fall guy because KAM already has the big $ extention locked up from the owners who care mostly about the bottom line.  Winning is secondary despite the p.r. that brainwashes the entire purple fanbase about how bad they "want it" lol.  But I digress.

KAM has to rely on people with scouting and football backgrounds that are more thorough than anything he personally has from his time making spreadsheets for various teams, so if he picks the wrong guy to run scouting well, you get what we have.   A drunk baby throwing darts could probably come up with at least a couple of pro-bowl worthy draft picks in 4 years versus just one (Addison) so far.  Maybe Jackson will pan out.   The underachievement at this point in the drafting department is somewhat mind-bogglingly bad.

comet52 wrote:

I would say the GM's most important job is hiring the right coach.  This is where most people don't get it because they see drafting as a GM standing in a draft room ordering up picks.  It's a collaborative process.    Yes he is responsible for the final outcomes, responsible for finding the right scouts, coaches, etc. to build a great draft room.   I'll give you that.   But it takes a village as someone once said.

Agreed, but you can think you hired "the right guy" one year to not speaking to each other the next like Spielman and Zimmer. Having the ability to scout and identify draft talent doesn't change and Is the core of roster building. It's why I say that's the most important job/quality in a GM and I'd never think of hiring someone that doesn't come from a scouting background. Instead we hired the analytics guy who is now relying on a putrid former GM (Grigson) to shore up his scouting deficiencies. It's the literal definition of "recipe for disaster" and the results have been the results.

supafreak84 wrote:

Agreed, but you can think you hired "the right guy" one year to not speaking to each other the next like Spielman and Zimmer. Having the ability to scout and identify draft talent doesn't change and Is the core of roster building. It's why I say that's the most important job/quality in a GM and I'd never think of hiring someone that doesn't come from a scouting background. Instead we hired the analytics guy who is now relying on a putrid former GM (Grigson) to shore up his scouting deficiencies. It's the literal definition of "recipe for disaster" and the results have been the results.

Your take is probably harsher than mine on KAM because I think more highly of what he's done as a whole, but specifically talking about draft picks your take is not unfair. He, his team, the village, whatever we wanna call it has been pretty terrible at drafting.

I agree with what was said earlier in the thread. There will always be loads of players we should've chosen, but are the players we do select any good? So far the answer has been mostly, "not really".

I think all of us hoped McCarthy and Turner would take the league by storm this year and be two fine feathers in Kwesi's cap. Hasn't worked out that way so far.