What to expect in 2019
May have to waste another year of viking football to expect changes in 2020.
The Vikings are basically fielding the same team from 2017/2018 only older and slower. Imagine only needing one victory on week 18 against the bears AT HOME to enter the playoffs and missing, then returning the same team in 2019. OUCH!
Improvement? Maybe Quarterback but not on the line, either side, combined with Zimmer's need to run the ball, but only between the tackles and only rushing four on defense that will need a Minneapolis Miracle to win a game, after being up by 14.
All other teams have improved. Unless the vikings have a second coming in the draft, and find a way to impeach high salary FUNKMARKELS, (FunkMarkel, a player who has been around a lot of years, but still cannot get Better or do his job, BETTER, yet still gets paid very well,) this will be another long season.
A conservative approach to either side of the football and the Vikings will be picking earlier than 18 in 2020.
@"FSUVike" said: Loaded roster underperformed last year. Either you believe that there was a litany of factors like craptastic OC, Tony passing, no OGs that were League Average, Griff's breakdown, etc., or you think Zimmer can't coach and Cousins is overrated.I'm not going to argue in either direction. What is inaeguable is that this roster outside of O-Line is very talented.
You and Guru have been expressing this for a couple weeks, and I'm trying to drink the Kool-Aid that 2018 was the anomaly - underperforming.
But - what if 2017 was the anomaly, and the Vikings' roster OVERPERFORMED then, and reverted to normal in 2018??
An anomaly in a series is the one which varies the most from average. The Vikings' regular season wins during Mike Zimmer's tenure have been: 7, 11, 8, 13, and 8. That's an average of 9.4 wins per season. The furthest season from that average - the anomalous outlier - is 13 wins in 2017 (3.6 wins from the average).
"They underperformed in 2018" would fit if this was a team coming off a string of double-digit win seasons and 8 wins was the worst they had done for a long time. But it's not: they had 7 or 8 wins in 3 of Zimmer's season, the most common result. If you discard the largest anomaly (13 wins), as some statistical prediction methods would, Zimmer's average season is 8.5 wins.
Maybe you deem the roster "loaded" based on some measure other than winning games. It may be inarguable that the roster is "very talented" - but teams with less talent seem to win a lot of arguments for victories on the playing field.
In terms of wins, 2018 was not the fluke - 2017 was.
Loaded rosters have failed before, J. Especially ones created primarily via FA.
Every team in the League would gladly take Smith, Rhodes, Barr, Kendricks, Joseph, Hunter, Diggs, Cook, Thielen and Rudolph and many would take Cousins and Waynes in a heartbeat.
That's talent on every Unit minus the O-Line and Kickers. Doesn't mean it will perform. But the talent is inaeguable.
It all starts up front. Vikings offensive line last year was simply awful. Spin your opinions on Cousins or under-performing but in the end, the offensive line dictates how successful a team will be. Not only did our talent suck last year, we had injuries there too. We'll draft 3 offensive linemen this year, with at least one starting, maybe two. Running game keeps defenses fresh. I believe the Vikes will look to Jonah Williams, Chris Lindstrom or Garrett Bradbury in the first and Nate Davis, Ben Powers or Greg Little in the third. They'll give Zimmer a new toy in the second...perhaps Jeffrey Simmons if he slides.
I expect the O-Line to be vastly different by 2020 with the exception of O'Neil.
@"Jor-El" said:"But - what if 2017 was the anomaly, and the Vikings' roster OVERPERFORMED then, and reverted to normal in 2018??"@"FSUVike" said: Loaded roster underperformed last year. Either you believe that there was a litany of factors like craptastic OC, Tony passing, no OGs that were League Average, Griff's breakdown, etc., or you think Zimmer can't coach and Cousins is overrated.I'm not going to argue in either direction. What is inaeguable is that this roster outside of O-Line is very talented.
You and Guru have been expressing this for a couple weeks, and I'm trying to drink the Kool-Aid that 2018 was the anomaly - underperforming.
But - what if 2017 was the anomaly, and the Vikings' roster OVERPERFORMED then, and reverted to normal in 2018??
An anomaly in a series is the one which varies the most from average. The Vikings' regular season wins during Mike Zimmer's tenure have been: 7, 11, 8, 13, and 8. That's an average of 9.4 wins per season. The furthest season from that average - the anomalous outlier - is 13 wins in 2017 (3.6 wins from the average).
"They underperformed in 2018" would fit if this was a team coming off a string of double-digit win seasons and 8 wins was the worst they had done for a long time. But it's not: they had 7 or 8 wins in 3 of Zimmer's season, the most common result. If you discard the largest anomaly (13 wins), as some statistical prediction methods would, Zimmer's average season is 8.5 wins.
Maybe you deem the roster "loaded" based on some measure other than winning games. It may be inarguable that the roster is "very talented" - but teams with less talent seem to win a lot of arguments for victories on the playing field.
In terms of wins, 2018 was not the fluke - 2017 was.
Yes they did over perform. Back up QB, RB, and poor offensive line. Further proof is found in the fact it took a 'miracle' to get to the NFCCG, and when they got there, the drubbing they took proved they didn't belong there.
The Vikings do have a lot of talented players, but are they a talented team?
To me they look like a .500 team that has potential to be much better. How often do they live up to their potential?
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