Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Should the Vikings bring back Everson Griffen?

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

In a quick take episode, Matthew Coller talks about Everson Griffen's desire to return to the Vikings and the pluses and minuses of the idea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. I know that I mentioned that I was going to be off on vacation, and that is technically true, but there was a few things left on the cutting room floor that I wanted to get to. So I'm going to bring a couple of quick takes each day. We're not going to do full epic podcast, but just touch on one particular topic because there's a few things that were left out there. And I can't take a few days off without touching on them

because they're interesting. So first, just want to thank our sponsors as always. Soda Stick, go to sodastick.com. Also, Birdie Golf, if it has been too hot for you this summer to play outside, go check out Birdie Golf. It is awesome. And of course, as always, Scout Logistics. Okay, quick take here on Everson Griffin and a potential return.

So our friend Will Raggetts, who covers the Vikings for SI, he has a recap of this. So you can check out his Twitter and find that if you want to see kind of the whole thing. But Paul Allen brought up the fact that he has been texting with Everson Griffin and that Everson Griffin said that he bleeped up and what he tweeted was wrong and that the Vikings organization was always good to him. And he was disrespectful when he tweeted out some things disparaging Kirk Cousins, including Everson Griffin saying that Mike Zimmer never wanted Kirk Cousins. But now it seems that he wants to return to Minnesota and is apologetic about this. And so Paul Allen also mentioned that there are people within the organization that are interested in Everson Griffin coming back.

And Chris Thomason of the Pioneer Press talked with Everson and he said, quote, if you want it, go get it. So that's what Everson said about a potential return. So I think this is interesting that Paul Allen is bringing it up because, I mean, for one, he's obviously very connected as the play-by-play broadcaster. But I also think if there was zero chance of this happening, he probably would not bring it up, that he is maybe putting it out there to see the reaction to see how it is perceived by fans or the organization. I'm not really sure. Or maybe just wanted, you know, Everson Griffin to come back because the Vikings still need another defensive end,

in my opinion. Right now, they're set to have a battle between Stephen Weatherly and DJ Wanham, which, you know, if DJ Wanham takes a big step, Stephen Weatherly is a nice rotational player. But you've gone all in on the defense. I don't think it's really time to experiment there that there should be another veteran that they bring in. And Anthony Zettel style players or Dayton Jones style players that are just kind of swings at the free agent market. This isn't really a year for that. They've brought in Sheldon Richardson. They've spent all this money on the defensive side to rebuild it, but they've kind of left this one big hole that Everson Griffin could fill. So there's a couple of different parts to this. The first part is how you deal with the tweets. If Everson Griffin is going to return, he has to answer for why he tweeted that Mike Zimmer

never wanted Kirk Cousins. And he also disparaged Cousins as a player that makes things very tricky. Even from the beginning of Everson Griffin, returning to a locker room where he played with Kirk Cousins and then publicly said that the guy wasn't good. And so how do you come back and say, sorry, bro, I didn't mean to tweet that you're bad or that your coach never wanted you. That's a part that is difficult to deal with because it looks like it's a disrespect and an undermining of the quarterback. And we think about like, okay, well, everybody just wants great players around them. And that is very true. But also I think if you're the leader of a team and that's what you want to be as the quarterback and Kirk cousins, bringing somebody in who publicly undermined you and said you were bad. It, it looks like a disrespect

to you. It looks like they don't take you seriously. It looks like your feelings on this would not matter. So how would you deal with that if you're Everson Griffin? I mean, do you come out and tweet a picture of you hugging Kirk Cousins? I don't know. That's a really difficult one to overcome because I think that it actually does take away from some of Kirk Cousins' ability to lead this team. And when you look at this team on the offensive side, you have Adam Thielen, of course, and Delvin Cook, but you also have a lot of young players. And when Kirk Cousins got here, I think there were more veteran players, including Stefan Diggs, who's sort of an alpha type personality, that you have actually an opportunity for Kirk Cousins with a young offensive coordinator, with a young offensive line, Justin Jefferson, Irv Smith, to actually be the leader of the offense. And I don't know how much that helps when you bring in someone who said he's not any good on Twitter.

And now we know that Everson deals with mental health issues. And so there is that part of it as well, that he could say, look, I was having a tough day and I vented and I shouldn't have done that. And maybe we'll all just move on. So maybe it is not as dramatic as you think, but you could see where some feelings would be uncomfortable by bringing in someone who publicly criticized Kirk Cousins after he left. So there's that part. The money part should not be a huge problem. The Vikings have about 13 something, 13, 9, 14, 5,

somewhere between there in cap space so they have enough money to be able to bring in Everson Griffin that shouldn't be an issue last year I think he signed one year six million if they did that again no big deal here's the question though are there better options than Everson Griffin is Everson Griffin washed or is he still good so I'm of course going to the most natural source to look up how he played last year because I did not watch every down of Everson Griffin for the Detroit Lions because why would I watch the Detroit Lions so in 2019 it's kind of crazy Everson Griffin was still as monstrous as Everson Griffin has ever been. 70 pressures in 2019. PFF credited him with an 11 sacks. I tend to lean a little toward theirs

over the box score in terms of their sack totals. They don't give out half sacks either, which just, I think, drive you crazy. So 70 pressures and 11 sacks is just phenomenal. It's a great pressure rate. It's a great pressure rate. It's among the best in the league in terms of total pressures. But last year, he goes to two bad defenses, and he's okay. 33 pressures in 319 pass rushes. So you're looking for better than one out of every 10 in terms of creating a pressure. Seven sacks. Right there, though, that would have been been the best the sack total and the pressure rate

the best of anyone on the Vikings last year and it's decidedly better than what you might expect from Steven Weatherly and we don't know what there is for DJ Wanham there so as a player it looks to me especially since his pass rush grade was still solid from pro football focus. And sometimes you get the sack totals can be a little misleading, right? You get cleanup sacks and guys who are in really beneficial situations. And that's why you kind of look at the pass rush grade, because that's evaluating a player from play to play. So his pass rush grade was still solid.

He was 22nd in the NFL. Guys who were similar to Everson Griffin, LOL, Yannick Ngakwe, but also Shaq Barrett, Olivier Vernon, Jason Pierre-Paul, Alden Smith. There were a lot of guys that were right in his ballpark in terms of his pass rush grade who are not at the top of the league not at the one two three but he was 22nd last year and again that's better than what they had from any pass rusher last season they also let a faddy adenabo go who was their best pass rusher last season in terms of pass rushing grade so would everson griffin be worth the money is he washed no it doesn't seem like he's washed he is not the dominant player that he was in 2019 but still effective despite playing for two teams last year now here's another question

that goes along with more of the personality dynamic I think at this point in Everson Griffin's career what you want is him to play like 40 snaps, be out there, especially early downs. He's really good. Maybe situational pass rushing at times, mixing him in though, not making him play all the snaps all the time. I think by the end of 2019, we saw him tire out a little bit because Mike Zimmer was just running him out there for every play. And that would be part of my concern is if you bring in whoever passed rusher situational guy and they come in

and they split time with one of them and they split time with Weatherly and maybe one of these other guys, Patrick Jones, Janarius Robinson, maybe they mix themselves in there because they play well in camp. Okay, fine. That's kind of what you want from that position. But if it's Everson, is Mike Zimmer going to feel compelled to play Everson Griffin every play and ultimately not get the same performance that you would get out of a rotation? And the other element of it is when Everson comes in, he's the guy and he's the leader. He's the heartbeat. He is the energy of the defense. Do you want that for this year? Because you've brought in Delvin Tomlinson, who from all accountser, like that guy, you want to have some command in that locker room. Do you want to bring in a guy who feels like, Hey, this is my franchise that I led the defense for a really long time as the vocal leader. Cause that, that vocal leader is

not necessarily Eric Hendricks or Anthony Barr or even Harrison Smith. those guys are kind of understated. So how does that dynamic work? I think end of the day, can you get over the tweets? Probably. Can you afford him? Yes. Can you bring him into the locker room and have him be a heartbeat, but also not necessarily play him every snap? Yes. And are you concerned about just his consistency and where he's going to be at a little bit but have you managed it before yes so there's all those boxes that you check the only thing that i would bring up is if one of those does not get checked one of those boxes does not get checked it ends up being a problematic signing where there are other guys from the outside that you

could bring in. And if you don't like how it's going, then you could just say, okay, you're not playing or you're cut. Or if, or if the guy is washed, if you bring in somebody who's 30 plus years old and they're not playing well, like Anthony Zettel last year in training camp, I don't know how many people remember that Anthony Zettel is a person who played NFL football, but he actually demolished the Vikings in a game. And so they, in, I don't know, 2017 or something. And so of course they brought him in because of that, that didn't work out. But if you bring in that type of guy and you don't like what you see, then you just call it a day and that's it. If you don't like what you see from Everson Griffin and DJ Wanham is playing

better or just as well, some of these developmental guys, you want to keep them. Then all of a sudden you're in a tricky situation because he's Everson Griffin and he's a big name. So there's a lot working here, but ultimately this will come down to does Mike Zimmer want Everson Griffin back? And remember Everson Griffin did say some things to Mike Zimmer that were very strange last year where he said he called me a good player, not a great player and so forth. I mean, that was very odd. And maybe just Everson trying to get himself up for the game because Mike Zimmer's admiration for Everson Griffin is like the rest of us. I mean, he's one of those players that you look at and say he was the elite, like at the very top of the league. And the Vikings do not

have a number one defense without him. They don't have consistency on defense without him. And I think you saw last year how much they missed him in terms of his energy, as well as his past rush ability. So this will be a difficult decision. And I could see inside the building at TCO Performance Center, a lot of debate. Should we do it? Should we not do it? At this point in the game, though, when you're in a situation where you're taking kind of a lot of risks with free agents, low risk one year deals on some guys, but risks in terms of, hey, just come in here on a one year deal and start like it, it looks like the shot Breland is going to do. And Xavier Woods is going

to do. So they're already taking some of these risks that this player or that player will fit in. You might as well with Everson Griffin. So I wouldn't be shocked if they decide to do it. Okay. So not going to make an entire long podcast out of this, but just wanted to make sure we didn't leave that out there because that is very interesting subject. So I appreciate you listening to this. What do we want to call it? A purple insider, quick take, hot take, mini take somebody come up with a name for me. We'll catch you next time.