Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Grading the Vikings at the quarter mark of the season with Star Tribune's Andrew Krammer
Episode Date: October 6, 2020Read Matthew Coller's written work at PurpleInsider.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
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Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider.
Matthew Collar here, and joining me from the Star Tribune is Andrew Kramer.
What's up, Andrew?
Well, from my apartment.
I'm doing pretty well, Matthew.
Good to see you.
So, yeah, traveling, are you doing any of it for this year?
Because I missed it yesterday.
And one of the things, and I thought the broadcast was okay
this week against Indianapolis it was a time uh the kicker for Indianapolis changed names several
times and Adam Thielen worshipped Julian Edelman according to that broadcast so yesterday was okay
with Brock Heward and Greg Jennings and uh a very upset Chris Myers that the Texans were running
so often but I miss going and seeing new stadiums and going to places to eat and everything else.
Like, I really enjoyed the travel part of this, and it's kind of sad.
I don't enjoy really covering games from my couch.
Yeah, this was the first one I had to cover from my couch as well since I think it was the 2016 season.
I had gone to every game since then.
Yeah, we went to the Indianapolis game,
but sending four people on the road for the Star Tribune just wasn't
economically the smartest way to go because, yeah,
how much do you get out of it?
We're not in the locker room.
We're not talking to these coaches face-to-face.
There's nothing you can do pre-game or post-game that really makes it worth it.
So I got to cover this one from home and listen to Greg Jennings like you did.
It was, you know, I think I need to cover this one from home and listen to Greg Jennings like you did. It was,
you know, I think I need to get used to these broadcasts because I had to mute it a few times.
I was like, I just can't handle it. Well, when we cover every single tiny part of this team all the time versus people who are going from teams to teams and they have to get everything
about both teams and so forth, and they don't know what every guy's aesthetic is.
And you're like, that obviously aren't his gloves. So that's not so-and-so. And they're like way up
in a broadcast booth. So there's going to be some room for error. But at the same time, it's just
not something that I focus closely on. Because if you're just watching a regular game, it's usually
the Monday night football or it's, you know's the Sunday night football game that you're watching.
So we don't often watch the number three team on Fox or CBS.
And so having done that the last couple of weeks, a little weird.
And from a journalistic perspective, you and I, and I don't want anyone to feel bad for us here,
but being in the locker room, we have a similar approach of
like sometimes just small talk with players on the side while we're standing around will spark
a story idea and get something interesting. And I was even thinking today, there was an idea I had,
and I thought, man, if I was in the locker room, I could go up to ask the player, hey, is this a
thing or is it not a thing? And now not being able to do that is tougher.
And again, a lot of people have more challenges because of COVID than us, but it sort of had to
change the way that we do this. Yeah, I have to thank the people that are still following
all of our coverage, from me to you to anybody in this market or any NFL market, because it's just
so difficult to do, as you said. It's the personal side of it. And it's also, yeah, the kind of way
to kind of branch out and do different things. The amount of times that, as you said, that you
talk to somebody off to the side, it's not even, it doesn't even need to be a starter. I remember
the amount of times I would have a conversation with guys like Kentrell Brothers. I mean, that
would just spark some kind of idea. And you would never quote him. You would never appear in anything
you ever wrote. But he would be the impetus for some story, maybe on
Anthony Barr or somebody that he knew very well. So it just, yeah, it makes the job so much harder.
And again, I have to thank all the people following us because they're hopefully going to stick
through this and maybe 2021 we're back to normal. Yeah, we're trying our best here and definitely
hope that 2021 is back to normal, but not super confident confident so we'll see uh let's grade some stuff is that cool um so we are at the
i mentioned this to you off the air but we are at the quarter mark of the season if you say quarter
pull of the season then horse racing people will get perturbed because it's not doesn't mean what
you think it means so important quarter mark of
the season so let's assign some grades to some position groups and so forth on this and start
with Kirk Cousins now I was just pulling this up Kirk Cousins is rated by pro football focus the
10th best quarterback in the NFL this year his traditional stats not super great though two of
his interceptions that go into this is why quarterback rating sometimes is problematic,
two Hail Mary interceptions, those go down as the same as a bad interception
in the quarterback rating, but it really doesn't mean the same thing.
So how would you evaluate Mr. Cousins through four games?
Boy, because the one we just saw, or even the Tennessee game too,
if you take it
collectively, they were so different than the first two games, right? The way he played against
the Titans, it was a different game plan, but he was still able to succeed and have the breakout
with Justin Jefferson. And then for them to go back to what they do normally and do well with
the play action game here against the Texans when they finally get their first win. It looked like Kirk in October last year when he
was winning NFC Player of the Month, but at the same time, it was so poorly to start the year,
and how much do you put on him? That's the famous, you know, that's the question of how much is it
on the offensive line dealing with what they've had to deal with, how much of it's on Gary Kubiak
for trying to get a feel for what can this team do, and should we be putting Kirk in certain
situations like play action dropbacks that lead to a safety? There's just so many different trying to get a feel for what can this team do and should we be putting Kirk in certain situations
like play action drop backs that lead to a safety there's just so many different things that you
have to take into account so with Kirk I would have to put it at just kind of an average C I
can't say any more any less than that because I think the numbers might say that he's in that
below average echelon so far and I don't think that the case. I think he's had to deal with some things.
They've had to make some major changes on the fly here with Justin Jefferson
stepping in with guys letting him down.
They had three key drops in that Colts game.
There was other pieces.
Drew Samita starting games now at guard.
I just don't put so much of it, maybe as much as other people do, on Kirk.
But at the same time, he's always that guy that's going to frustrate you
if you're a Vikings fan or he seems to be,
and that he's not going to necessarily always make up
for those shortcomings elsewhere.
And so to me, it's just been average.
I think it's been an average quarter of the start for Kirk.
It's been extremely Kirk Cousins is what it has been.
That, you know, in the games that they lose,
there are key mistakes by Cousins in times of the games
where you think that's where he should step up.
And that even goes for the Tennessee game.
Of course, Garrett Bradbury snapping it right by him is not his fault.
And the offensive line collapsing is not his fault.
But there were other drives where you could stick a dagger in the Titans
that didn't happen.
And even against Houston, the door is still left open a crack for them to potentially come back and they are this close to scoring on that throw to Will Fuller and not that you would blame the
offense but you would say there were a couple of shots throughout that game that were opportunities
missed that were sacks taken, where it looks like you
had time to get rid of the ball and not have a drive-crushing play, and yet it happened.
But at the same time, especially against Houston, but I would say against Tennessee as well,
there are some terrific throws mixed in.
I think his pro football focus grade is too high because they factor the end of the Green
Bay game where I think that we don't.
Yes, he made great throws, but they don't adjust of the Green Bay game where I think that we don't like yes he made great throws
but they're not they don't adjust for the game situation so they're not going to be like throw
that in the trash like no he made those throws so they're going to grade them but we are looking at
those a little differently because they were playing back in Indianapolis I also think boy
the supporting cast just didn't give him any help. Irv Smith catches the ball and then drops it.
He has a push-off penalty.
You have an interception where it kind of goes through the receiver's hands.
You have an offensive line who looked like they had never played in the NFL before.
And then it turns out that Indy's defense is actually really darn good the next couple of weeks.
So I think that it's been the typical, if he plays against a defense that's not good,
he's going to beat them or play really well. And if he plays against a defense that's not good, he's going to beat them or play really well.
And if he plays against a defense that's good, he's going to have his problems.
So we're sort of in the Kirk's just not been that interesting to discuss so far
because there's your Kirk for you.
He'll make a throw just to, not to cut you off, but he'll make a throw that,
I'm thinking of the 19-yarder to Kyle Rudolph, I think it was.
There was play action in that game against the Texans.
He's got somebody in his face coming at him.
He's kind of dropping back.
It's that kind of improvisational on-the-move throw.
And then where is that nine times out of ten?
Right.
And we've seen it a couple of times this year,
but I don't think it's been at a higher rate than before.
And do you ever think it's funny, just like an oxymoron kind of thing,
when someone talks about going off schedule,
like you're planning to go off schedule?
Like I don't think off schedule and planned actually can go together.
So, yeah, I'm planning to do that.
I'm planning to go off schedule.
Anyway, so it's just –
Planning to have instincts is just not – yeah, you can't do it.
It's kind of a funny thing.
But those big throws from him against Houston were sort of what we see So it's just planning to have instincts is just not, yeah, you can't do it. It's kind of a funny thing, but those,
those big throws from him against Houston were sort of what we see when the
other team is not that great is that he'll find his ways.
And especially if he's not pressured that much,
which in that game he was not and took full advantage.
Now from the running back perspective,
hard to give Delvin cook anything but an a, I mean, it starts,
at least in my opinion, it starts with his health.
So it's always something we're watching through a quarter of the season,
a couple of times where he's a little dinged up.
But other than that, he has taken a lot of snaps.
He's made a ton of plays.
And in these last two games, he has been flat-out superstar-level dominant
and led the NFL in broken tackles.
I mean, coming off of the huge contract, it's exactly what you'd want to see from Delvin
Cook.
Yeah.
Has he fumbled yet?
I don't believe so.
No.
Yeah, that's the thing.
And so the knocks on him were durability, as you said, and him not holding on to the
football.
Oh, yes, he did once.
Green Bay, right?
Green Bay.
Gosh, I'd have to look it up.
But either way, the fact that we're talking about this means that he has not had any, like, key big turnovers like we've seen in the past.
This guy's phenomenal.
I went back and watched the Houston game over again with trying to just get a sense more of Gary Kubiak and what they were going in trying to do.
And I had to just keep stopping on the Dalvin Cook plays and rewatching them because they are just so insane.
Some of the things this guy is doing, he's getting contacted.
One of the plays, Drew Samia was knocked four yards back,
and he runs into his own guard, bounces outside,
turned into a 15-yard run.
I think that was like in the fourth quarter.
One of his 20-plus, you know, was it 22nd, 23rd carry,
something like that, 20-plus carries at that point.
It's just insane to see from this guy who we know he can do it.
And every time he does it, it's still just kind of surprising. It's like, oh yeah, that's right.
It doesn't matter kind of what the situation is. He's going to be able to turn something in. And
it was, I think too, that seven yard touchdown he had where it was like four or five guys try
to drag him down and he bounces outside, stiff arms the last one. He's doing it every single
way. It's kind of a really phenomenal and fun guy to watch. So yeah, nothing more than an A for him. him down and he bounces outside stiff arms the last one um he's doing it every single way it's
kind of a really phenomenal and fun guy to watch so yeah nothing more than an a for him or nothing
uh he yes it was against tennessee actually that he had the fumble do you remember it now he's kind
of running to the right side um that's right yep so he right now has pff's highest grade in the
entire nfl for running the ball and averages 5.7 yards per carry,
which is nuts.
And six touchdowns on an offense that was slow to start the season and struggled, and
yet he still has six rushing touchdowns already.
I guess my one question, if I were going to give it an A- and 7A, but I'm not because
I don't think this is his fault.
I think this is more of the offense and a product, I think, of the offensive
line that he just hasn't been involved in the screen game. Now, technically, his one screen was
a run because it was thrown behind the line of scrimmage in the game against Houston. That was
more of along the lines of what you want to see, but the slip screens were really working in 2019,
and it seemed like every defense went we're not going to let
them do that and we're going to be right there ready and also I don't know that Drew Samia really
knows how to operate one of those or anything else for that matter which we'll get to but that would
be the one criticism I have on his start to the season is just Gary you got to get him involved
more in the passing game yeah I like what they did with the one, at least in the beginning of the game,
with the Texans, where it was Garrett Bradbury kind of, as you said,
slip screen, just the center, only the center,
kind of focusing him out there and leaving four guys in the block.
That gives Cousins at least a modicum of time.
And then you can get Garrett, who I think is so much better when he's out on the run
instead of just sitting back there and getting bulldozed at times.
Get that guy on the move.
Get him out there against the defensive back.
And it was an 11-yard gain on second down.
And that's the kind of thing that they need to utilize.
And also, how much do you put on Kirk for maybe just, hey, you already want to throw short of the stick sometimes. Just check down to that guy, too, every now and then.
And, right, he hasn't done a lot of that.
He's been mostly throwing the ball down the field. His average depth of target is one of the highest in the NFL, which is a big change from 2018, but sort of similar to 2019.
But there haven't been as many screens, and it's amazing.
Last year, he averaged, when throwing behind the line of scrimmage, eight yards an attempt, which is preposterous.
It's incredibly high.
Most quarterbacks are usually somewhere between five and seven. And this year that's just been non-existent. Now, a follow-up question on Cook.
He's been great. He's super good at football. I don't think any of us have ever doubted that.
Two questions. A, does it last through a whole season, do you think? And B, are they wasting,
if this season does not turn out to be turned around and they go 13-3,
are they wasting a season of Delvin Cook?
And then that's where it gets more tricky.
No one was ever against this version of Delvin Cook for a contract,
but it's always what happens down the road because of the, you know,
Todd Gurley was unbelievable early in his career and then suddenly fell off the edge of a cliff.
So I think that's like a consideration when we look forward with Dalvin Cook.
Yeah, I looked it up.
I think only Derrick Henry and Joe Mixon have got more carries right now than Dalvin Cook.
Those guys have so far proven to have no durability concerns at this point of their careers.
Dalvin has a lot of them, the shoulder injuries, the knee injuries, the hamstring he dealt
with.
I think the shoulders are the biggest concern because when you talk to people
a lot smarter than us, they'll tell you that these dislocations,
they can happen over and over.
And then the more they happen, the more likely to continue happening.
So I think the biggest complaint that, at least in the media,
we've heard from fans when it comes to the Vikings about Cook is,
well, why didn't you use him more earlier on?
It's probably because they've got this thinking of, hey, we need to try to make sure we have a
16-game outlook for this guy and can't just all of a sudden give him 400 carries in a season like
he is Derrick Henry. And I guess the good thing is if you're not getting involved in the screen
game, those aren't added wear and tear touches right now, but he got 27 carries against the
Texans. And that is something where if you want to win, you need to do that.
But is it worth doing that this year?
That's a great question.
And one that I think really only Mark Wilf and the Vikings ownership should be answering
right now for them.
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27 carries reminded me of like back in the day like eddie george would get 27 carries you do
not see too many guys getting 27 carries in a game. And this is what
you were supposed to have Alexander Madison for, but it would seem, and this is no knock on Madison,
but the line outside of Bradbury was not run blocking particularly well. And it just didn't
matter because Delvin Cook was going to break every tackle. But when Madison went in, it's just
a different story. He's a good player, but he's not good enough like Cook is to make up for complete ineptitude when it comes to run block. That's just that too. And Cook talked about after
the game, I think somebody had asked about, you guys have had a lot of the outside runs. What was
it about the Texans? He said, well, they're really big. We had to outrun them. We just needed to get
to the edge and outrun them. I'm not saying Madison's slow, but Dalvin's faster. And Dalvin
was doing that a lot quicker. And even some of these runs that were in the middle,
Dalvin would just instinctively bounce it outside and realize, hey,
I know I've got the speed to take it on these guys.
And it looked so much different when Madison was in the game.
I think Madison's so good as a closer,
and he's so good as a red zone running back when you just needed to plow
forward and just kind of get some yardage.
But if you really need to make up for the fact that you're losing the line
of scrimmage, I just don't think Alexander's going to get it done 20 times a game like Dalvin's doing
it. All right, grade me wide receivers and tight ends. Boy, I'm interested in your grade here
because I haggled over this. Yeah, the wide receivers are tough. To me, the tight ends
aren't that tough because I don't think they've played that well outside of Kyle Rudolph.
And really it's just Irv Smith going through some growing pains.
You had mentioned earlier, I think it was the Indy game,
where he had two penalties that were just boneheaded moves.
And then afterward he was asked about the crackback block on Darius Leonard,
and he talked like he didn't understand the rule.
And for a second-year NFL player, that's not what you want.
And then he also had a drop on a jarring hit in that game, too.
He just hasn't gotten involved.
And I think fans will just say, well, throw him the ball.
Well, you need to do things like not get penalized, run block,
be where you're supposed to be to then get those targets.
And look at Justin Jefferson.
That's exactly what happened with him.
He had to bide his time for a couple weeks, kind of got expedited
because Ola B.C. Johnson had an awful game. So to go ahead and plug Justin Jefferson in, that's why to me the
wide receivers are doing so much better. We're seeing Gary Kubiak go empty sets. We're seeing
him go three wide. We're seeing him go four wide at times. I think it's because he's got confidence
in some of these wide receivers. And so I think to them, I would rate them as a B plus right now.
And after trading Stephon D's, that's pretty good.
That's pretty good.
And a big part is because Justin Jefferson fell to you in the first round.
The tight ends to me, that would be more of a C, C minus.
Cause I think they had big hopes for what that two tight end package can do.
And we have not seen much of it right now.
If we're putting them all together,
I think I go somewhere in the middle of that.
I think I go like C plus,
but it's kind of weird.
It's almost like if you're giving a test and you ace the toughest essay at
the end,
like it's multiple choice.
And then the essay,
you crush the essay,
but you do kind of mediocre on the multiple choice.
You should get extra credit for the essay.
That's Justin Jefferson.
He's the essay.
You've crushed
that. I mean, that right now is, even in the first two weeks where he didn't play that much,
he still played well when he got out on the field and when he had targets. He caught them,
he made plays, and then he finally gets his chance in week three and just sets the world
on fire these last two weeks. And based on how he's done it, I don't expect that to change.
Natural gifts that other people just don't have.
And that's why you caught 111 passes at LSU, because you have different skill from everybody
else.
And I think we saw that in training camp on the field.
It was just, he's probably not ready.
But when you watch, he's moving at a different speed than everybody else.
I think I remember standing next to our buddy Sam Ekstrom at training camp,
and this was around the time that everybody's writing the pieces of like,
oh, the BC, sneaky starter, like, hey, Vikings are going to start him.
And I'm thinking that's true, but look at how Justin's over there with Adam Thielen
not taking part in any special teams drills.
It was special teams point in camp, and the Vikings told this rookie, get out of here.
We don't need you. Go with the veteran wide receiver. It's like, they had such big hopes
for this kid. It was only a matter of time before he ended up being that starting guy.
And I think it, again, I think it was earlier than they expected because old BC did have a bad game
in Indy, but it was also out of desperation because they needed that spark. Like they just
needed to find that spark opposite Adam Thielen. And boy, this kid's really lit it on fire.
And that's where that would go under the multiple choice of like, well,
BC Johnson didn't work out as much as you want, but tough break.
I mean, no, I mean like, look for the future of this team,
it just doesn't mean anything.
And the same thing with Chad Beebe.
And these are guys that we like and they're good stories and everything else.
And they could play in the NFL.
But if you're talking about difference-making players who win you games,
then Justin Jefferson has shown that the last two weeks.
They are nowhere close against the Titans without him.
They lose to the Texans without him.
And going forward, you have to evaluate, I think, the offense with Justin Jefferson
and throw out the first two games in terms of how you evaluate the weapons
and what they're going to mean.
On the Irv Smith thing, Mike Zimmer was a little defensive about that because he talked about plays that are drawn up for him, opportunities. I know when I looked back at the Tennessee game,
there were chances for him to get the ball, but it didn't come out from Kirk or he was sped up in
his reads because of the offensive line. But you certainly, when a guy has no receptions in two games out of the four,
you certainly can't go like, A plus, good job, Irv. And Rudolph has done exactly what he's
supposed to do. I mean, this is like late career Rudolph, is catch a pass here or there,
make a big play here or there. The fact that Kirk trusted him on that 19-yard throw,
though, tell me you were not stunned by that that because he has just been the opposite of trusting Rudolph
when that's exactly what you should do.
Yeah, Kirk was throwing trust around a lot in Houston.
I was surprised by that because it was, whether it was the back shoulder thing
to Justin Jefferson or it was that play, like you had said, to Kyle Rudolph,
where he's got a defender in his face and he's just saying,
hey, save me on this one, please go up and get this.
Thinking of Rudolph, though, the one-handed touchdown catch in Indianapolis too I mean that's
that's the kind of thing where you don't see those kind of plays very often and if Kirk can just put
that in a spot where he trusts himself and they can trust the targets to make those plays hey
maybe this offense is going to win more shootouts than we think offensive line where are we putting it uh bad just it i don't know it can't
be quite an f because i think reef and uh brian o'neill have both been decent to good but not but
the whole thing has not been good at all no and i think garrett bradbury it's so it's so tough too
right because if if we'd if we could be person, if we could be in the locker room,
maybe that is one of the side conversations you can have with a Garrett Bradbury
is to figure out how much did not having the offseason really affect you?
How much did not being in the weight room, an NFL-level weight room,
when that was kind of your offseason thing was to go out there and bulk up,
get bigger.
It's been disappointing this year. It's been so far. I know it's tough every week. You're going to have a Jadavian Clowney, a JJ Watt, but opponents tell you how
they feel about you when you go against them. And it's consistently the best guy right across from
you. And it doesn't matter if it's Drew Samia, Dakota Dozier, Pat Elfline when he was healthy,
or Garrett Bradbury. Opponents consistently put the best guys inside, and that's happened since last year.
And it's consistent.
Ever since they drafted Garrett Bradbury, opponents are like, it doesn't matter.
We don't think he's that good.
And so I think Garrett's got some things going for him in pass protection.
It's just the run blocking has been abysmal up front at times.
And that's weird for a guy in Cook who's leading the league in yards per touch, but it speaks
to how many tackles he's breaking it speaks to how he's creating it does not speak to
how this line is blocking necessarily up front they've got good things on the edges you're
totally right i like what riley reef did especially in houston um i think brian o'neill's consistently
been the guy we thought he was um so i would have to balance it out at like a C-plus for the offensive line.
And I understand I'm giving them a higher grade than Kirk.
But I think this whole system is built around negating the damage the offensive line can do.
And they're still doing a little bit too much damage, I think, for everybody's liking.
Yeah, I was going to go probably C-minus on this because the downs have been so down to just to give up 60% of dropbacks with
pressure in a single game any out of four gets you a major demerit and they weren't exactly good
against Indianapolis I thought that Kirk was under pressure a lot and didn't have very many of those
opportunities to sit back there and throw and of course I mean Houston's pass rush stinks though
I mean they're literally pass rush stinks, though.
I mean, they're literally playing P.J. Hall the whole game,
the guy that couldn't pass a physical for the Vikings.
That is a horrible defensive line.
Even J.J. Watt does not have the gas that he used to.
And one guy you could kind of focus on.
But the fact that they have a player in there who didn't even play the first game and has already given up 13 pressures in three games in Drew Samia
and has a pass blocking grade for PFF of 19.
I've never seen it that low over multiple games.
So there's that.
Bradbury, I think it's almost weird because some of the pressure might go off of him
as teams see Drew Samia playing and they're like, oh, okay, this is even easier to get to the quarterback.
Let's focus our rush over there.
The Seattle Seahawks, though, probably won't test this.
Atlanta probably won't test this.
Detroit probably won't.
So there are some opportunities coming up in the future schedule where they're going
to at least have a chance to give Kirk time to throw.
But I think when you go up against the good defensive lines,
when they face the Packers again, when they face the Bears,
it's still going to be every bit as problematic.
Yeah, Tampa Bay, too, has a really good defensive front.
That coming in December.
If you are a gambling man, take the over on every Vikings game.
Just do it.
Because we've seen it.
We're going to keep seeing it.
This defense is going to give up maybe 30 points a game, and the offense is going to get cushioned
to catch up. And maybe they keep pace with teams like Atlanta, Detroit. Maybe these teams that
aren't as good. Seattle, I just don't know how they're going to corral Russell Wilson. And DK
Metcalf is averaging like 25 yards a catch. It was phenomenal.
Anyway, yeah, I guess I might be grading the offensive line a little too much because the lows have been so, so low.
But I do think there are things moving forward that Kirk
and even Gary Kubiak can kind of continue to do to help them out too.
So let me just ask one more question on the offensive line,
and then we'll grade the defense kind of as a whole.
Riley Reif, is he coming back next year?
Because he's playing pretty well.
And do we see Ezra Cleveland anytime soon?
Yeah, I would be surprised at this point if Riley Reif comes back.
This is a guy who could not have been happy about taking a $5 million pay cut,
is now going to probably be on a losing team or a 500 team at this late stage of his career.
And as much as he likes Gary Kubiak and what they've got going on here,
I wonder if he's going to try to maximize financially the end of his career,
because it's not going to be here.
And I know a lot of teams might not have a lot of money to throw around,
but if he's able to put a good enough season together here in 2020,
there are going to be teams out there that are willing to give him a decent chunk of change,
probably more than what the Vikings are going to be able to do.
Yeah, I was thinking from the Vikings' perspective that they might just want to keep him.
Now, do you know, because Over the Cap does not have his final year voided,
is he still under contract after this year?
Because I was confused about that. My understanding is that he still still under contract after this year because I was confused about that
oh my understanding is that he still is under contract after this year okay I thought so too
so I guess my thinking was that well they might we all had it sort of written down in pen
well cut him put in Ezra Cleveland but the fact that we haven't seen Ezra Cleveland and he's
played so well it made me think well maybe they just keep him for next year yeah Ezra Cleveland, and he's played so well, it made me think, well, maybe they just keep him for next year.
Yeah, Ezra's a big, that's a big question, Mark. It can't, it's not a good sign. It's just not a
good sign that this guy's still with their offensive line issues, specifically a guard.
I know how much they have sunk in Drew Samia in terms of a year and a half over four games and
a shortened offseason with Ezra, but that kid is supposed to be something special. He's supposed to be what you call the franchise left tackle cornerstone
that takes over for Riley Reif.
I believe the direct quote from the general manager was, hey,
Riley's just going to hold down the fort for this kid.
And then he didn't give him any snaps because the O-line coach says, hey,
he works better in tight spaces.
And then we're still not getting him in the game,
even though we're short a guard and not
playing well inside. So I just, I have no read on that one right now. I had known that in the summer
he was not doing well, confidence was low, and they didn't really view and feel good about him
going into the season. So at this point, I don't know what could have happened to raise his
confidence and for them to feel better about him because he's not getting a whole lot of snaps at practice.
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And if we don't see him pretty soon, then yeah,
because there's no reason he shouldn't play over Dakota Dozier.
And the fact that he is a guard and not a tackle is kind of weird now.
Like you're a second-round pick, and I mean, at first, Gary made it sound like,
oh, well, you know, we're just giving him some reps
there but then he never took any reps at tackle and this sort of goes along the lines of what we
saw from Samia where publicly they're like oh no it's fine everything's good you know he's great
yep but then when you actually see it in practice and he can't beat out Pat Elfline it's like what
they do tells us more than what they say a lot of times. And in this case, the fact that he hasn't been, I mean, I thought maybe, okay, play
Dozier for a couple weeks to get him acclimated, but it doesn't look like he's anywhere close
to playing.
No, and Dozier hasn't, I mean, frankly, sometimes Dozier's the best interior offensive lineman
they've got.
If Garrett's got a tough matchup, at least it knows.
But I guess maybe the thing is they just don't want to screw with his head anymore by putting
him on the right side for Drew Samia and think, think hey let's just try to keep him on the left side
but the fact that they haven't played him a tackle at all yeah that to me that says more than they're
letting on all right grade the defense and you might as well just do this as well Mike Zimmer's
coaching because it's his defense so grade both of those things for me. Yeah, I'll start with Zimmer because he started out,
and he admitted it too in saying that he might have misjudged the defense
a little bit and what they were capable of doing, at least in coverage.
It sounded like a little bit of coaching hubris and thinking that,
I got these corners ready, we'll be all right.
And then they went in there, and it was not all right against Aaron Rodgers.
For them to play as much single high as they did against Green Bay
to get torched right out of the gate against all that single high coverage,
the safeties seem like they've been out of whack
because they're being told to do one thing one game,
and then the next game they're playing deep.
And then they're getting caught shallow because they're still trying to help in the run
but while still trying to play deep.
I just think the whole thing is the feel for the game has been thrown so off for those
two guys, at least before this Texans game, and Harrison got ejected. So we don't know what that
game would have looked like for him. But with Mike Zimmer, I think he's got them on kind of a yo-yo,
and that has not necessarily helped their veterans in that secondary. And then the young guys,
they've actually played a little bit better than I thought they would. I did not think Cameron Dantzler would come in and play the way he has.
So with Zimmer, I would say his coaching is more of like a B, B minus right now.
And you have dealt a really bad hand.
Anthony Barr getting hurt, Daniel Hunter getting hurt, no sign of either of them coming back this year at all.
That's really tough.
But at the same time, you know, this is supposed to be this kind of defensive guru,
fixer, all that kind of stuff, and this defense allowed 444 yards
and 30 points a game through an 0-3 start.
So I think Zimmer's got to wear a little more of that than maybe he wants to,
and I guess he's taken some of it publicly, but not a whole lot of it.
The players, I don't know what you think, but I think, frankly,
the defensive line has been the most disappointing group. To me, we were thinking that, okay,
this is going to be Jaleel Johnson's moment. They talk up Shamar Steffen so much. Go ahead,
show it. Be that run stopper. Be that great nose that people talk about and know he was a seventh
round pick for a reason. He's physically limited. This is a guy that's just going to be kind of who
he is, which should be more of a rotational player. And you just didn't
want to admit in the summer that, hey, we're going to be kind of screwed without Michael Pierce.
And we're not, you know, Eric Hendricks is not going to have the same kind of run stops up front
because he's not going to have Linval Joseph taking up so many double teams. Shamar doesn't
require that. And Jaleel hasn't played that well at three tech.
I think he's done decently against the run,
but we haven't seen him produce much of any pass rush up the middle.
And then Ngakwe's taken a while to get acclimated because, hey,
you traded for a guy who held out, and, yeah,
he hadn't practiced since September 2nd in all of 2020.
So, of course, it's going to take a while, and it's going to look ugly. And, frankly, I don't think Jalen Holmes has been much at defensive end although they bounced him around just in general they've got enough guys
on that defensive line where you shouldn't be as porous as you are and when you watch them play
against some of these teams it just doesn't look like a good defensive line yeah I totally agree
with everything you said there and the fact that you have your defensive line guru and Andre
Patterson who believes that he could just coach him up and hey you know we'll just teach this guy to do this and
Andre was almost cocky and talking about how hey remember that Dallas game where Shamar and Jaleel
held down the fort right but that's one game that's not week in and week out and I remember
Rick Spielman talking about this with players and how they put them in different color categories
of a red player a blue player and those kind of things and one of the colors I forget which
is a player who can fill in for a couple games and will be fine but you don't want them playing
long term and I'm not even sure Jaleel can fill in and be fine but this whole thing of no we
don't need any rotational rushers that we need to sign and bring in here.
We have all these guys that we've been drafting and developing.
And then when you look back through these draft picks, you go, wow, there is not a whole lot of meat on that bone from what you've gotten out of all of these late picks that you thought you could develop.
And I think that they got a little bit maybe full of themselves on, oh, we drafted Everson in the fourth round.
He's a star.
Oh, we got Tom Johnson out of the CFL, and he was really good.
Oh, we got, you know, Linval Joseph on a fairly decent contract the first time we got him, but he wasn't a big superstar, and now he is.
And so it's like, look, we have this ability to have the magic touch.
You can't magic touch someone who's really bad.
And so I think that's what they've run themselves into here.
And with Ngakwe, I think we've seen exactly why Jacksonville,
though they are Jacksonville, but why they didn't want to say,
okay, you can have Khalil Mack or Vaughn Miller or elite, elite money
because even though he makes one play a week it's only one play a week
and his run defense is about as bad as anyone's in the nfl he's much more like an outside linebacker
than he is a 3-4 defensive end who sets an edge yeah where do they go from here too because that
depth is something that they always wanted to kind of accumulate and you talk about a foddy and sure
maybe he's a good rotational guy.
Maybe he is that guy that's supposed to be that number three,
that Steven Weatherly kind of type that you kind of wanted him to be when you
traded for an N'Gokwe.
And maybe you were thinking that Hunter was going to come back at that point
sooner than it seems right now.
Because right now it's going to be N'Gokwe and Hunter.
You presume Hunter's going to eventually be able to play football once again.
And what then? Because the defensive tackle situation right now, you need to hope Michael
Pierce can come in and solve a lot of that up front. And then you're right back to square one,
in my opinion, at three tech, because you can't expect anything out of James Lynch.
Because if you can't expect anything out of your fourth year, fourth round picks,
what are you going to get out of your rookie or second year guys?
Right. The fact that, I mean, Jamesch put him in the same category as ezra
cleveland the path is easy and if you can't get through that path of beating out jalen holmes
then we're concerned right then even though oh he's just a rookie or whatever but if you can't
get on the field with guys who are replacement level players that might be in the xfl next year
then i think it's a little concerning that you were that high of a pick.
So special teams, it's fine. Dan Bailey's good. We don't need to grade that.
Coaching point, I thought that this week specifically, Zimmer deserves to be proud of his coaching job.
They had a lot of things go against them and they went and they were prepared from the very start of the game.
They played well. They shut down Deshaun Watson on three straight drives or David Johnson inside runs uh for I mean
they've gained 16 yards in their first couple of drives and you should be happy about that
you never anticipate your safety getting thrown out of a game they were shorthanded uh really not
anything to do with him when it came to the defense, but situationally they stepped up.
And so, yeah, I agree with you that, I mean, him trying to figure this out and adjust is as much of a problem as the players trying to adjust to all the new bodies. And there are regrettable
things along the way, but I also think that in getting that win under these circumstances,
it tells you that the players were ready to play,
that they weren't ready to try and get their coach fired.
And so, right?
I mean, if they show up and get beat by 40, that to me says, we don't really want to play for you anymore.
But the fact that they showed up and played really well, I think it does say something about them.
You're right.
It does.
The fact that they were down, all the COVID stuff, team facility
getting closed, down to practice, having to get retested at game day before getting into the
stadium. There were a lot of things there. It's just, I guess I'm stuck in the fact that if Will
Fuller catches that ball and then they get a two-point conversion and we go into overtime and
then who knows what happens. To do the sports writer thing that fans love of, well,
then we might be talking about this the same way we're talking about the
Titans game.
It's true.
Because it was a very similar game where the offense balls out,
the defense doesn't do enough, and they almost cough it up at the very end.
Deshaun Watson threw, I believe, for 127 yards in the final two drives for the
Texans.
You just can't let that happen.
And if you're a Vikings fan,
that's why you're white knuckling on the couch the entire time thinking like, is this going to happen again? And then
fortunately for Mike Zimmer, it didn't. I agree that they had so much against them that it
shouldn't have looked that good for the Vikings because it was still a turnover-free game.
They were still able to win the yardage battle. They were still able to do enough things against
Deshaun Watson, who should be so much better outside of a Bill O'Brien coach
team. I do have to commend them for that. It's just this team's margin for error is so thin,
and right there on Sunday, they were able to be on the correct side of that margin.
All right, so I have two more things for you. One, I want you to rapid fire.
I'm going to give you a player, and I want you to guess their PFF grade, okay?
Oh, God, okay.
Okay, Eddie Yarbrough. What? Does he play this year? give you a player and I want you to guess their PFF grade. Okay. Oh, God. Okay. Okay.
Eddie Yarbrough.
What?
Has he played this year?
22 snaps.
This is the game.
The game is I'm giving you players who have barely played and you have to guess their
PFF grade.
Oh.
How about-
22 snaps of Eddie Yarbrough is what?
How about 71?
Oh, man.
You are way overrating those 22 snaps.
Am I?
You didn't watch the games.
You don't watch PFF grades.
30.3 is why he hasn't played, I guess, since then.
Hercules Mata'afa in all 18 snaps.
Stop trying to make Mata'afa happen, Vikings.
No, stop.
I guess PFF does more of a 0
to 100 grade. I'm still stuck on the
60 to 100. See, my
fiance's a teacher, so I'm still stuck on that.
Anyway,
is 60 the
lowest? Isn't it?
I don't know. They don't F.
They just give you an F.
60 or below? Alright, because
I got much lower grades than that in high school at times,
so I wish they had done that.
Mata AFA.
Mata AFA, 18 snaps of Hercules Mata AFA, zero QB pressures.
There's a hint.
We'll go slightly better than our Yarbrough, 41.
44, 44.8.
How about that?
Yep, exactly.
Okay, now how about somebody who sort of matters,
but we just mentioned as a disappointment, Jalen Holmes.
64.
You are overrating Jalen Holmes.
45.9.
Again, these are out of 100, so these are supposed to be much better.
That's pretty bad.
That's pretty bad.
Right.
Well, the Vikings have one player over 70 right now, and that is Harrison Smith.
Wait, on the whole defense, one player?
Yes, one player.
Okay.
So, anyway, well, last one is Todd Davis.
Todd Davis is on the team, and he's played nine snaps.
But didn't he get a tackle in his, like, one snap?
He did.
Yeah, they targeted him.
Made a great play.
So then his grade might be a little bit higher.
It's not.
No, it's not.
It's a 58.6.
This game is stupid, and I meant it.
So before we wrap up, what do you got this team at?
I don't really think that many people are printing playoff,
well, I guess we can't say tickets anymore,
memorabilia after one win against the Texans who should fire their coach today.
So what do you think?
What's the final record?
Yeah, see, if Green Bay and the Bears weren't in their division,
I would feel, if they were in the NFC East,
I might feel a little bit better because those teams seem just a little more discombobulated.
But I think Chicago's defense is such a bad matchup, as you alluded to.
They still got to play them twice.
Green Bay already beat you once.
And then with Tampa Bay, New Orleans, I mean,
there's just so many difficult games left on the schedule.
It's not all Tennessees and Houstons from here on out.
So I think they're going to be 7-9 at best,
and I do not think they're going to make that seventh NFC playoff seeding.
I think we'll be talking about 16 games at most for the Minnesota Vikings.
And it is remarkable, though, the number of bad teams in the NFC,
specifically the East.
The fact that you'd be right up there,
only a half a game behind the Eagles at this point for the division,
and it felt like a disaster of a season.
There are opportunities, is the way I'm going to put it.
There are opportunities for the Vikings to have their offense carry this team
and for it to be an exciting season.
There are not too many opportunities where they're a great team
or a very good team after the way they've started.
So it's always a roller coaster, though, Andrew.
Any parting thoughts before we call it a day?
I'm just interested to see what can go wrong for them in Seattle,
because it's one of those House of Horrors almost like Soldier Field,
and it's a night game.
So I'm just waiting.
I think this game is going to be fun.
I think it's going to be one of those ones where Russell Wilson is going to game is going to be fun I think it's going to be
one of those ones where Russell Wilson's going to have the ball at the end and it's going to matter
whatever he does even though they might be up by 10 we're still going to need to see him make some
kind of a play and he's just always fun to watch and against this Vikings defense could be quite
the roller coaster I am with you in maybe I'll feel silly after this maybe it'll be 46 to 10
and who cares but that defense for Seattle is not good.
And so this could be super fun.
And I'm going to spend the whole week really excited about this game
and just how ridiculous it might end up being.
Because the last two games have been ridiculous.
Big plays all over the field and just, you know, up and down.
And I don't know if Seattle is that much better than the Tennessee Titans
as a complete team.
I mean, they're good, but if you can't stop anybody or pressure the quarterback, that's where Cousins is at his best.
But then national TV and everyone thinks the Cousins is bad every national TV game.
So, yeah, there's a lot going on here.
I mean, we're going to have so many shootouts from Seattle, Atlanta.
What's the next one?
Dallas.
Dallas could be crazy.
Yep. And then, next one? Green Bay. Dallas could be crazy. Yep.
And then, of course, Detroit even.
We've seen shootouts against Detroit when the Vikings had a good defense.
So I think we're going to see a lot of points.
Take the over.
Yeah, it could be a really entertaining 7-9 season.
Andrew Kramer, Star Tribune, always great to have you on.
Great work that you've been doing despite some of our hurdles to overcome.
It's adversity, but we're trained on that.
You know what?
We're used to it.
We're used to it.
Veterans by now in the game.
Exactly.
All right, Andrew, thanks for your time, buddy.
Yeah, thanks, Matt.
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