Cornerstone, Building Block, or Refuse Pile

[RpMc]

Alright Valhalla, with the season essentially over heading into the bye week, lets take a critical look at the roster on both sides of the ball.  Cornerstone players are those you can build a scheme/system around.  Building Blocks are players who can serve a purpose whether that's as a solid starter or role player.  Refuse Pile players are those who are either overpaid, underperforming, aged out, or are less than replacement level players.  Players can also fall into the Too Early to Tell category

Offensive Cornerstone Players:  Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson, and Brian O'Neill
Offensive Building Blocks:  Irv Smith Jr, CJ Ham, Garrett Bradbury, Alexander Mattison
Refuse Pile:  Kirk Cousins, Kyle Rudolph (a nice red zone piece to have, has improved as a blocker, but overpaid for his role), Riley Reiff, Dakota Dozier, Dru Samia (trending in this direction despite the young career)
Too Early to Tell:  Oli Udoh (running out of time), Ezra Cleveland, Bisi Johnson

Defensive Cornerstone Players:  Eric Kendricks, Danielle Hunter (hopefully can come back from injury), Harrison Smith (still a high enough level of player to be here, IMO)
Defensive Building Blocks:  Michael Pierce, Anthony Barr (trending toward refuse pile), Ifeadi Odenigbo, Yannick Ngakoue (pending UFA),
Refuse Pile:  Anthony Harris (too expensive/older), Shamar Stephen, Jaleel Johnson,  Mike Hughes (can't stay healthy)
Too Early to Tell:  Cam Dantzler, Jeff Gladney, Armon Watts, James Lynch, DJ Wonnum, 

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Obviously doesn't cover the entire roster as I didn't even touch the linebackers outside of Kendricks and Barr.  Wilson has stretches of great, and then terrible.  Looking at the offense, we have some good pieces that are pretty scheme diverse in terms of the passing game (still would want to be a wide zone base, but maybe less of a traditional under center/PA team).  Anthony Barr isn't the terrible player that he's sometimes given flack for, but he's overpaid for what he brings to the team and paying two off-ball linebackers that level of money is madness to me unless they're causing a lot of turnovers.

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by RpMc

[Beavis]

Cornerstones: Danielle Hunter, Justin Jefferson, Brian O'Neil, Eric Kendricks, Harrison Smith, Michael Pierce

Building Blocks: Anthony Barr, Adam Thielen, Irv Smith, Mike Hughes, Bisi Johnson.

Refuse: Anthony Harris, Riley Reiff, Kirk Cousins, Kyle Rudolph. Dalvin Cook (Post Extension)

[SemperFeist]

I wouldn’t throw Reiff on the refuse pile yet. 

[RpMc]

Given his contract, our cap status, and his average level of play... he may not be a refuse pile type of player, but he's certainly a throw up on craigslist and see if anyone wants him type.

[SteelKing728]

Remember when the core of this team (cornerstone/building block players) used to be huge?

Things change quickly in the NFL!

[wcblack34]

35 minutes ago, SteelKing728 said:

Remember when the core of this team (cornerstone/building block players) used to be huge?

Things change quickly in the NFL!

Especially when you overpay for a mediocre QB. 

[vikingsrule]

27 minutes ago, SteelKing728 said:

Remember when the core of this team (cornerstone/building block players) used to be huge?

Things change quickly in the NFL!

What we get, two playoff wins out of the original core. Definitely a bit of a rebuild needs to take place. I think the core pieces on defense are Hunter, Ngakoue (get him extended), Kendricks and Smith (still looks like he can be good for a handful of years). The entire interior DL needs to be rebuilt. Barr and Harris are a huge waste of cap space. All the young CBs are an unknown, but I think they need another. There isn’t a shutdown alpha in the bunch like Rhodes in his prime. They all seem like 2 and 3 type level CBs. Hughes and Hill have no future here.

On offense, I think you can point to Cook, Jefferson, Thielen (like Smith I don’t think age gets to him) as the core. Maybe Mattison too, he seems to run well and it should be expected that he plays a lot given that Cook is usually dinged up half the year. Along the OL, Bradbury and O’Neill are core players. 

So many question marks remain. The OL looks bad. Cousins is an expensive stop gap but is arguably a bottom five QB at this stage with his high turnover rate. Irv Smith finally appears to be performing well, let’s see more of it. Rudolph and Reiff are expensive and not worth the cost going forward.