Jason Dorn
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Joined: 7/31/2007
From: Minnesota-born and raised
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https://www.podcastone.com/episode/Assessing-the-Vikings-wreckage-ep-427-
Who is to blame for the Vikings' season coming to an end Sunday with an embarrassing loss to the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium? Matthew Coller and Judd Zulgad discuss and also get into whether Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman are in jeopardy of losing their jobs
https://www.podcastone.com/episode/The-coach-GM-are-returning-so-whats-next-ep-428
Matthew Coller and former NFL quarterback Sage Rosenfels dive deep into the Vikings' disappointing season, who is to blame, whether keeping Zimmer and Spielman is a good idea, how to fix the Vikings' offense, the offseason checklist and where Teddy Bridgewater lands.
Not all see the greatness in Kirk Cousins.
Cliff notes from ep 427 below
(Zulgad)
The FO and coaching staff told us, "don't worry, we're football people and we know what we're doing with our personnel, our offensive line is going to be fine". This is among one of the most disappointing seasons in Vikings history, when considering the expectations in the offseason, and the organization got what they deserved for their arrogance.
I said, don't draft an SEC kicker, Rick! You've been down this road before.
Kirk is paid like a top 3-5 player, and he in no way, shape, or form is. The fact that the team paid a player this much and expected him to carry a team like the other top paid players in the league do, is flawed logic.
I think the buy-in from the locker room when it comes to Cousins is very, very small. Cousins is a corporate QB in that he's constantly telling everyone, "I've got a brain coach, I work with guys on the sidelines". He's constantly telling guys what they should be doing. Kirk Cousins is the type of guy that believes - I'm the QB, I walk in the locker room, I tell you what to do and you say....wow, there's a guy that can really lead. That's not how it works! It works by guys saying - wow, that guys got "it", that guy has the ability to lead. If there's a primary concern to me as this season comes to a close, it's that I think Kirk has lost this team. You can have as many personalized coaches as you want, you can try and coach guys as much as you want, but if you don't have "it", it's not going to work! It's why Washington didn't sign him longterm.
If your first round pick doesn't go toward the best available offensive lineman, you are certifiably crazy! People should be fired! You'd have to be crazy if your first round pick is on the defensive side of the ball. The Wilfs don't get personally involved in personnel decision-making, but I think this is one of the times where they need to walk into the room and say - "Listen you bozos, I don't care what you think you're going to do, but you're going to draft the best available offensive lineman", end of discussion, and then walk out of the room!
(Collier)
Eric Eager from PFF and I dissected Kirk Cousnins' games prior to the season. Eric is one of the smartest football minds out there, he's a guy that NFL teams actually call for advice on players. Eric said prior to the season, "I can legitimately see this team winning only 8 games". We got flooded with tweets and emails from fans telling us, "YOU'RE CRAZY!! Eric stated that "Kirk is a very flawed player with huge holes in his game! If the offensive line doesn't play right, if the playcalls aren't exactly perfect, if the defense isn't dominant for him, you're going to see this team miss the playoffs if all of these factors don't come into play"! The outcome of this season was predicted by his past play. Jay Gruden stated that, "our team's success was reflective of the QB play", when Cousins was at the helm.
Against the Buffalo Bills, your QB no-showed. Against the Seattle Seahawks, your QB no-showed. Against the New England Patriots, your QB no-showed. And when you needed him the most, the guy that was Mr. 4000 yards, did not come through in any way. Other QB's in this league overcome a turnover, overcome a dropped pass, overcome defensive lapses. I watched Deshaun Watson, who's the most sacked QB in the game, bring his team back and take the lead in the 4th quarter against the Eagles. THEN, I watched NICK FREAKING FOLES come back and win the game, and our QB acts like it's impossible, and everybody makes excuses for him CONSTANTLY!(He's screaming at this point) COME ON! YOU CAN'T TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY OFF OF A PLAYER WHO IS CONSISTENTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TEAM LOSING! AND AT THE END OF THE DAY IN THE BEARS' GAME, HE THROWS FOR 132 YARDS, A MUST-WIN GAME, HE THROWS FOR 132 YARDS. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE??
I truly believe that despite some of the obstacles the rest of this team faced, this QB can't overcome ANYTHING that goes wrong. They gave him a top defense, and he consistently gave away points to the other team. I'll guarantee you when I look at the statistics at the end of the year, the Vikings will have a top ranked defense by DVOA. And that's what we always heard prior to this season - "Ah, Kirk never had an elite defense before". We gave him an elite defense, we gave him a star runningback, we gave him two of the absolute best wide receivers in the NFL, they gave him a competent TE. And you want to try and say that Cousins would have been fine if you'd just drafted Will Hernandez in the first round? I'm sorry, but you go what you signed up for.....$84 million dollars worth of 8-8.
It's a shame what happened to Teddy Bridgewater, he was everything that Kirk Cousins isn't! He took command of the locker room and made people better around him. He made the offensive line better around him, he made bad receivers better. He scored on a very high percentage of his drives. This year's offense, when I go back and look at the final stats, will be at the bottom of the league. Where, if you go back and look at the offenses Teddy ran, people are surprised to find out that they're always in the top 10 because they didn't throw pick 6's, they didn't constantly fumble the ball, and they consistently converted 3rd downs. What you saw against the Bears was synonymous of Cousins' career. It was 3rd and 17 and he throws a checkdown to Rudolph. Thanks, Sam Bradford! He doesn't seem to have the ability to take anyone to the next level, including when there's a pass rush. I think that the shortcomings of Cousins are easily abused in games against good teams with good coaching. Cousins doesn't have the ability to diagnose pre-snap disguises from good defense.
Thielen has shown frustration with Cousins, even going back to mini camps. We never saw that with Keenum, we certainly never saw that with him and Teddy. I wonder about the buy-in by the locker room.
A couple things from the Bears' game. I want to formerly issue an apology to Mitchell Trubiski. He only threw for 163 yards, not terribly impressive. But he had what I like to call, a Teddy Bridgewater win. He came up big in big situations, he didn't put up huge stats, but he did a wonderful job in this game. On a dagger drive, he completed multiple 3rd and longs, ran for a first down juking out Anthony Barr, he had zero turnovers, and he convinced me that he has enough of the playmaker ability to actually help his team win. Chicago was without their top 2 receivers and yet the team and QB still stepped up.
Jay Gruden and Mike Zimmer know each other very well, I wouldn't be surprised if Jay didn't text Zimmer after the Bears' game and say, "that's Kirk"
Happy New Year! Enjoy running Zimmer out of town. Skol.
< Message edited by Jason Dorn -- 1/4/2019 4:18:03 PM >
_____________________________
Skol ... Vikings can win the Super Bowl.
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