Phil Riewer
Posts: 27433
Joined: 8/24/2007
From: MN
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: David Levine quote:
ORIGINAL: bohumm quote:
ORIGINAL: Arlowe84 quote:
ORIGINAL: joejitsu quote:
ORIGINAL: David Levine The Ravens called the Vikings about Yannick Ngakoue and struck a deal. Suddenly, the competition was wide open. For the next three weeks, Mata’afa joined this party. He hadn’t played much edge rusher, staying mostly inside. He had tried linebacker for a few OTAs his rookie year but never as a hand-in-the-dirt edge rusher. The Vikings took a liking to this and activated him for their Week 8 game in Green Bay. He wasn’t fully promoted to the roster, but instead played as one of their COVID-19 exempt activations for the game. He played outside for 26 of his 32 snaps on defense. Those snaps went well, resulting in four pressures, including this heroic one: quote:
This was such a massive sequence in this one. 37 seconds left, Mata'afa gets pressure which forces Rodgers to throw in bounds, clock keeps moving, Packers can't get set and blow like 10 seconds and the next play is the strip sack. The Vikings promoted Mata’afa to the proper active roster on Nov. 6, just 24 days after his initial release and the clown emoji debacle. After a position switch, a social media hurricane, a firing and a re-hiring, Mata’afa was on the Vikings once again. And this time, he was in direct competition for a starting role. On Sunday’s game against the Lions, Mata’afa rotated with Holmes and Odenigbo, taking 27 defensive snaps. On those, he logged three more pressures and a split sack with Shamar Stephen. https://zonecoverage.com/2020/minnesota-vikings-news/hercules-mataafa-from-clown-emoji-to-edge-rusher/ 27 plays, three pressures and half a sack. He also seemed to me in the mix on several other plays when he was in. He appears to be very comfortable coming off the edge. It's interesting Ngakoue has turned into a part time player with Baltimore as LBer in the 3-4 Granted they have a ton of talent in their front 7, but maybe Zimmer concluded he's just not that good. This is what I heard from Matthew Coller. The trade is a big-time fail in the pro personnel scouting. You only make that trade if you plan to extend him at a high salary; figuring out after you've got him that he's not worth it is inexcusable. It felt like a panic trade at the time it happened, and that's exactly what it turned out to be. I think the emergence of Wonnum helped them decide too. A lot of the guys didn't have a normal training camp...starting to see team depth now---which is really nice. Do you think the Bears would love to have our 2nd and 3rd string RB right now?
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SSG Riewer, Greg A Co 2/136 CAB KIA 23 March 2007 Habbaniyah Iraq
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