2019 off-season thread: moves and news

[hermes]

alright, another season in the books and it was disappointing coming off some high expectations

before we get into the usual off-season stuff lets look back and do some grades of the team to see how people did and who needs to improve. you can base your letter grade (a-f) on anything you want just let us know what your criteria are so we know where you are coming from

offense:
QB:
RB:
FB:
WR:
TE:
OT:
OG:
C:
K:

defense:
DE:
DT:
LB:
CB:
S:
P:

coaches/front office:
HC:
OC:
DC:
ST:
GM:

feel free to add in other specific categories you like (or specific players within a position if they performed drastically different than the position as a whole)

[hermes]

now that we've looked back, lets look forward to the off-season and next year. we still have our very good core and don't have a lot of cap space. so there aren't a lot of major positional needs (or room to do them). there is a coaching vacancy at offensive coordinator (and potentially more if the dc gets hired away - he's interviewing i think)

needs:
offensive coordinator
offensive line help (big time)
depending on who stays on the current roster will dictate where some other needs are (3rd wr, linebacker, defensive tackle)

haven't heard a lot of options the vikings are looking at for offensive coordinator, and it also sounds like zimmer is going to make a decision by tuesday. hue jackson was thrown around but according to paul allen that isn't going to be the choice. and apparently stefanski is officially under contract until tuesday (when he'll be open to interview with anyone). so all signs seem to be pointing to stefanski getting the job.

free agency:
its early to be looking at this and with us having so little cap space we're not likely to be big players here. probably a couple smaller contracts to fill in holes when we get to that point (assuming no big names get released - which is possible)

here is the list of our free agents:
unrestricted:
sheldon richardson
latavius murray
anthony barr
brett jones
nick easton
dan bailey
marcus sherels
ameer abdullah
tom johnson
tom compton
george iloka
aldrick robinson
anthony harris
trevor siemian

restricted:
rashod hill

exclusive restricted:
matt wile
cj ham
cedrick lang
josiah price

some big names on the list, who do you want to bring back and who are you ok moving on from?
here is spotrac with all the numbers: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/minnesota-vikings/

draft
the vikings will have the 18th pick in the draft
looks like we have a 1st (18), 2nd (50), 3rd (81), 4th, and 6th right now
the numbers for rounds 4-7 will be determined later after the playoffs and the compensatory picks (which we might be in line for a couple)
we don't have a 5th rounder due to the trade with the broncos for trevor siemian
we don't have a 7th rounder due to the trade with the giants for brett jones

so not a lot of draft capital to work with. its probably a little excessive to take all offensive lineman but we should at least consider it i think. its still fairly early for mock drafts (order not finalized and college players have until the 12th i think to declare), so those will come later

what positions do we need to address in the draft this year?

[hermes]

anyway, i'd be fine with stefanski. he didn't have a great audition but it wasn't a great situation to be thrown into. he's been on the team a while and knows zimmer (which is probably going to be key). if its him, lets see what he can do with a full off-season to prepare

i have to wonder what he thinks about being repeatedly blocked for better positions on other teams.

[Worm Guts]

Ultimately all we can do is try to stack the offensive line, and maybe find a great offensive mind at coordinator. Between Cousins and all the extensions we signed the last couple seasons, I think would be tough to make any significant changes without taking a clear step back.

[hermes]

courtney cronin thinks that (per a radio interview i heard on friday), they are going to let anthony barr walk and keep sheldon richardson

and i wouldn't say no to letting compton walk (you probably have to, he wasn't good) and cut remmers (since there isn't a tackle spot for him anymore and he's not good at guard) and then spend the first two picks on the best o-linemen available and grab a couple lower money depth guys in free agency

[Jedzz]

WR A

QB C+. Started season just fine. Allowed this coaching group to ruin him. You could tell he was following orders to a T the whole time to a fault often. Also stared down most targets to the left, constantly threw into double, triple coverage and never looked at open guys or players with single coverage. He was throwing to who's name was called for the play. Morphed into a check down goddess and started games like a Brad Johnson game manager. Started to look shell shocked much like Ponder after a good beating from a bad Oline. Pretty typical season progression under this coaching group. I expected Cousins with experience to man up and do his own thing more often. He played their way to a fault. I expect a lot more next season and a lot more aggression early in games.

Everyone else C-D

Head Coach F, for limiting and killing his offense and OC yet again. For his team not showing up in half the games. For his defense dropping way off from last season. For dropping from 13-3 to a 8-7-1 record. A freaking tie coach.
ST coach: F. More Kicker foolishness.
GM D, for coordinator gaff, Oline yet again, and K drafting ridiculousness. It's on you buddy.

Safeties B, needed more ball hawking. Hated the Smith "fake pressure and sprint back 20yrds bit". Still solid group.
Cornerbacks B-, Though Rhodes injuries are starting to be regular and forcing this team to carry too many corners because of it. Seemed like a lack of ball hawking this season. Nickel corner needs improvement.

Def Ends, C-. Not enough people understood the consistency Robison brought here. The "younger" ends now aren't solid for full games or stretches of games. Lots of potential just not pulling high level weight.

Interior Def Line, B.

Linebackers. C. Someone will have to explain Barr's lousy start to the season that caused losses for this team. Then he was invisible for a while or out, then he picked up steam at the end of the year probably trying to present himself to his next team. The depth guys picked up slack when they got time near end of season.

WR A Can't say enough about the top two WRs. I feel they were both used incorrectly or at least not to their best strengths. Especially as the season wore on and Zimm forced shorter and less forward movement upon the offense. The OC was bad enough and it got much worse after him. Diggs and Thielen are so good, I hope they get a good coach one day to really unlock them. Robinson didn't seem like the same guy late in the season in the short game the team was wasting games with. Plenty of drops on his rare enough chances. Kind of hoped for more but he's still a threat and I would keep him as a third/fourth guy and just don't try to use him as a possession WR, that's not him. Treadwell needs to be somewhere else.

Runningbacks, C-. Cook is average with an average to poor Oline. He's nothing special catching passes. Zimm/Defilippo offense put way too much stock in passes to him for nothing special in return. Murray turned into a big oversized waste of space second half of season after showing a strong start to season. Seeing him softly hit the line on 4th and shorts was maddening in December. Zimmer doesn't seem to understand the difference between Adrian carrying his conservative run run short pass punt offenses compared to Cook. Probably should have let Murray+Ham bulldoze all season if that's what he wanted.

Oline. F overall. What else needs being said. Possibly ruined another QB here. Won't know until next year now. Hope 80% of these lineman are gone.
Center- C+. Small drop from last season from someeone I had high hopes for.
Guards F. forget it.
Tackles. D. Not impressed with this group.

If this ST coach is back again, you know he's never leaving until this GM is thrown out on his ass.

Oline coach. Did they have one this year? Did they bother filling the role after this summer's loss?

I really don't see a lot to be positive about if all these same coaches and gm return. What does anyone expect to be different? I don't see a lot of moves they make now. They stacked up the contracts last offseason for the long haul. They either stop limiting the offense and let the defense play from leads instead of deficits or they don't.

[Jedzz]

I assume it will be Mums the word from this team all the way to the draft.

[Worm Guts]

This was still a top 5 defense in yards allowed. There was a drop off from last year, but that should be somewhat expected after such an outstanding year and probably a lot more injuries. It was still a playoff defense this year. The big issue was the offensive line and that we paid a lot for a QB who seems unable to elevate his game in the big moments.
I also sort of think New England figured the Vikings offense, take away the outside receivers and there's nothing they can do. After that game, the Vikings offense was never the same.

[Duke4life831]

My quick breakdown

QB: Incomplete. I honestly have no clue how to grade Kirk. The start of the season he was playing like a top 5 QB and the offense was looking pretty damn good. Then the OL just became horrible, play calling became much more predictable and conservative. I think the dude isn't good enough to make a bad team good, but good enough to be really good on a good team

RB: C. With the horrible line its hard to grade. But I feel like or running backs are the definition of average. They don't hurt our team, but don't add much either.

WR/TE: A. Couldn't ask for a better trio than Diggs/Adam/Rudolph.

DL: B+. Thought we missed Robison. He seemed to have been the leader for that group. Overall I thought this group played well

LB: C+. Barr went from horrible to really good at the end. Kendricks had a down year in my opinion, missed a lot more tackles than usual it felt like.

DB/S. B. Not as dominant as the year before. But I though Smith was still very good and we delt with a lot of injuries as well, but still played well.

HC: F. I thought Zimmer did a horrible job with this team. The offense seemed to have 2 seasons, the first half was a Defillipo season, the 2nd half was a Zimmer season. Sometimes a great head coach knows what is not his expertise. I don't think Zimmer has that trait. His track record with OCs is starting to look horrible.

OC: Incomplete. Like I said before I felt like the offense had 2 seasons. I thought the first half of the season the offense looked good (except for that Buffalo game). Then the 2nd half the offense just grinded to a stop it felt like. I would give Defillipo a B+ for that first half, don't know what to say about this situation for the 2nd half.

[Worm Guts]

Stefanski back as OC.

[hermes]

i like that there will some continuity at least, since he's been here

whatever that is worth

[Worm Guts]

I think he’s fine, there’s been a run on young offensive minds to the point where Stefanski got a serious look for a HC job, but it’s clear we need to upgrade the personnel now.

[hermes]

looking at joe philbin for o-line coach

[hermes]

priefer took a job with the browns, so he won't be back. apparently he's from there

so we'll need a new special teams coordinator as well (also a qb coach since stefanski moved up)

the return game was good with priefer (how much is on having really good returners?), the coverage was ok for the most part, but kicking really stuck out as not being good. probably for the best we get someone new in there

[Jedzz]

Priefer moving on is a big change for the GM and Coach to make. Never thought it would happen unless they were cleared out.

Aside: Why does this Vikings forum often log me out and force me to log back in when I enter? Happens no where else to me on these sports forums.

[Worm Guts]

Kubiak names offensive assistant. Kind of a weird dynamic but we’ll see

[hermes]

Priefer moving on is a big change for the GM and Coach to make. Never thought it would happen unless they were cleared out.

Aside: Why does this Vikings forum often log me out and force me to log back in when I enter? Happens no where else to me on these sports forums.

i don't think the priefer move was the vikings cutting ties, i think his contract had run out and he decided to leave (to go home to cleveland)

and i don't think i've ever been logged out when i come here

[hermes]

Kubiak names offensive assistant. Kind of a weird dynamic but we’ll see

does seem weird

but zimmer's had former head coaches on staff before guiding the offense (although in more official/normal roles). maybe this is just getting another experienced mind in there for stefanski if he needs it.

could also be a one-year thing to get his son a coaching gig (he's the qb coach now)

[Jedzz]

Priefer moving on is a big change for the GM and Coach to make. Never thought it would happen unless they were cleared out.

Aside: Why does this Vikings forum often log me out and force me to log back in when I enter? Happens no where else to me on these sports forums.

i don't think the priefer move was the vikings cutting ties, i think his contract had run out and he decided to leave (to go home to cleveland)

and i don't think i've ever been logged out when i come here

About the log out thing, that's why I asked. It's happened a lot coming here for me. At least I know now it's not everyone.

The Vikings cutting ties is usually a non call when your deal us up. I think AP said that once.

[Jedzz]

Kubiak runs a lot. Not overly a lot, but I think he's known for his offenses being a 50/50 run pass even ship. maybe only occasionally going 54/46 run/pass or vice versa. Also think he's had a lot of poo poo season outcomes. So not sure. He brings experience to the offensive coaching. Doubt Zimmer would listen to him anyway. If anything it maybe allows Zimmer to once again step away from offense. Hopefully we don't see the offense start the season flat and then see Stefanski leave and Kubiak take over after a bye week...like we've seen happen once before not long ago.