twslhs20 Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 We are in Cap hell for the next year or 2. We can't really rebuild until we get Cousin, and Barr's contracts off the books. Barr can come off this year, but I bet that doesn't happen. I love Dalvin, but even his contract seems inflated in a pass heavy NFL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelKing728 Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 9 minutes ago, twslhs20 said: We are in Cap hell for the next year or 2. We can't really rebuild until we get Cousin, and Barr's contracts off the books. Barr can come off this year, but I bet that doesn't happen. I love Dalvin, but even his contract seems inflated in a pass heavy NFL He put up 1500 yards in 14 games. Henry just put up 2K. I'm not a fan of paying RBs (for the Vikings perspective - I prefer that Minnesota doesn't do this) but he was worth his contract. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede700 Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 1 hour ago, twslhs20 said: We are in Cap hell for the next year or 2. We can't really rebuild until we get Cousin, and Barr's contracts off the books. Barr can come off this year, but I bet that doesn't happen. I love Dalvin, but even his contract seems inflated in a pass heavy NFL No, we're not. We're already halfway through cap hell, as the cap hell period is only 2020 and 2021. Even with Cousins' and Barr's contracts, they're currently projected to have over $40M in cap space in 2022...with the only significant free agents until then being Harrison Smith and Brian O'Neill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SemperFeist Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 No one knows if this team is in cap he’ll until we know where the salary cap will get set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RpMc Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 (edited) I do expect the cap to be around the $175M figure (given that's what at least one NFL GM is expecting), maybe a little higher, and then our rollover from 2020 adds between $4-5M to that. I'm working on a mock offseason with $180M being our salary cap at the moment. If that's the case, we are about $9.1M over the cap. Working on a mock offseason right now with that figure in mind. Edited January 8, 2021 by RpMc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede700 Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 2 minutes ago, RpMc said: I do expect the cap to be around the $175M figure (given that's what at least one NFL GM is expecting), maybe a little higher, and then our rollover from 2020 adds between $4-5M to that. I'm working on a mock offseason with $180M being our salary cap at the moment. If that's the case, we are about $9.1M over the cap. Working on a mock offseason right now with that figure in mind. I'm actually expecting it to be a lot closer to the current cap number than closer to $175M. It'll still be down, but there were a lot of teams that still had fans in seats, even if they were smaller. We did here in KC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RpMc Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 (edited) 3 minutes ago, swede700 said: I'm actually expecting it to be a lot closer to the current cap number than closer to $175M. It'll still be down, but there were a lot of teams that still had fans in seats, even if they were smaller. We did here in KC. I started out thinking much as you, but in all honestly I think that, if anything, the total number of fans for this year helps to offset operating costs under COVID restrictions much more than it would impact that salary cap. I'd be shocked, but happy, if the cap was north of $185M. Again, given at least one NFL GM believes the cap will be around $175M, that's the figure I'm going with for now. Edited January 8, 2021 by RpMc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SemperFeist Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 (edited) $175M was a worst case scenario. The league played every game. I’d be surprised if it’s lower than $190M, honestly. Not to mention that a cap of anything under $180M would put 1/3 of the league over that projected number. Including most of the league’s premier teams. I’m just not buying it. 1 hour ago, RpMc said: Again, given at least one NFL GM believes the cap will be around $175M, that's the figure I'm going with for now. Where was this reported? Edited January 8, 2021 by SemperFeist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RpMc Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 (edited) 6 minutes ago, SemperFeist said: $175M was a worst case scenario. The league played every game. I’d be surprised if it’s lower than $190M, honestly. Not to mention that a cap of anything under $180M would put 1/3 of the league over that projected number. Including most of the league’s premier teams. I’m just not buying it. Where was this reported? Tweet from the beginning of this month from Matt Barrows; trying to find it right now, but the language of the tweet states that John Lynch said that the team is operating under the assumption that the 2021 cap will be at the floor of $175M Perhaps I'm reading too much into that, and they're just being prudent, but the fact that a GM is working under that assumption is something I'm taking as meaningful. Edited January 8, 2021 by RpMc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VikeManDan Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 (edited) 19 minutes ago, RpMc said: Tweet from the beginning of this month from Matt Barrows; trying to find it right now, but the language of the tweet states that John Lynch said that the team is operating under the assumption that the 2021 cap will be at the floor of $175M Perhaps I'm reading too much into that, and they're just being prudent, but the fact that a GM is working under that assumption is something I'm taking as meaningful. I would hope that all GMs are operating under the worst case scenario (floor $175M) until reported otherwise. I share @SemperFeist more optimistic view regarding the 2021 cap. Smart to operate at the floor until official announcement comes though. Edited January 8, 2021 by VikeManDan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArcticNorseman Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 I hope my impressions of the season come across as objective and fair, so my thoughts: - The offense was well-balanced and productive. Would have been exceptionally productive if the middle of the offensive line did not allow 35+% pressure rate on pass plays. When you look at Cousins stat line, in every way but two metrics, he performed at an elite level . . . on par with Russell Wilson, Josh Allen and Big Ben, even very similar to Rodgers, not counting TDs. The data that separates each from Cousins is Sacks Taken and total Turn Overs. Cousins had 18 turnovers and took 39 sacks. That's 57 impact plays against the Vikes Offense. - Missed kicks . . . 26 points left off the scoresheet. 7 FGs and 6 missed PATs. Plus I believe there were at least 5 times the Vikes went for it instead of kicking, and my belief is Zimmer had no confidence in the kicking in those instances. So, the total points dropped is truly more than 26. - Just missed opportunities . . . closing out Seattle, not beating Dallas, kicks against Tennessee, and the let downs in Tampa and Chicago. The Vikes truly got their tails kicked in 3 games, but the fragile confidence of team chemistry just couldn't be rallied. When Kendricks was making plays out there, the defense was confident. Far too often, guys weren't where Kendricks and Harry needed them . . . is that coaching? Is that arrogance on part of the player? Is that just a lack of football intelligence and lack of physical ability? Ultimately, I don't know what really happened with Kendricks in pre-game, but a calf-strain taking him out for 4 weeks . . . do I smell something funny there? - When I look at the season, Cousins' play to start the season was bad -- period. When we look at those QBs I listed in the 1st paragraph, the difference in the team is truly how their defenses played, not how the QB did. Russell Wilson started the year on a tear . . . and he's been pedestrian the last 9 or 10 games. The Seahawks D was horrible to start the year and then they traded for Dunlap and got some guys healthy . . . they did what the Vikes couldn't, turn it up. The Steelers took a hit when Dupree went down . . . and how would've they fared had they lost TJ, Fitzpatrick and Heyward? Yes, the bodies in the NFL are special athletes, but even among them, there are tiers of talent and the Vikes' triple-depletion ran out of that on D. The Vikes D did not perform, and that was partly due to lost souls from last year and 2020. - Rush defense was especially poor and that falls on the big boys on the interior D-Line. I think Pierce opting out was a major blow, but had he gotten injured, we would've seen the same results. Tackling was a huge problem for this defense too. When they should've been shedding blocks and making a tackle for a yard or 2, they were instead making the tackle 5 and 6 yards downfield. Doesn't matter who was in there or what the combo was. Passing Defense -- 23 sacks is all I have to say. - Coaches being let go . . . Dom Capers was a horrible hire IMO (totally subjective there), regardless of the talent he had when they won a SB in GB. The ST coordinator should've been fired after Detroit and the 2 blocked punts. I hope Kubiak really comes back. His offensive scheme/game plans were great 14 of 16 games -- and it helps when you have horses like Cook, JJ, Theilen and the rest. - Ill-timed penalties seemed to help snake-bite the Vikes a ton this year. I think the team was penalized on defense about 15 times more than average (but I'm guessing on that stat). Offensive penalties killed drives early in the year, but I feel like they figured it out better as they started winning in the middle. So, where would I put penalties as game-changers? 30 were significant. - What we saw this season were 57 impact plays against the offense, 17 of 24 converted 4th downs against the D, 13 missed kicks, and 30 game-affecting penalties. Add that to the big-play TDs given up and we get what we got. - Looking around, I really like seeing Stefanski, Preiffer and the former Vikes making an impact in Cleveland. Hope they have a good showing in the playoffs, but Pittsburg is a rough place come January. I was happy to see Adrian keep pounding out yards and TDs, but not so happy to see Xavier Rhodes having a pretty darn solid year in Indy. Kinda ticks me off that a guy pulls his head out and plays lights out . . . which leads me to the environment around the Vikes. - $$$ is the name of the game. Overall, I like Zimmer and his structured approach to leading the team. Different coaches win different ways . . .I can't stand Pete Carroll and Seattle, but ya gotta give him props for having a winning team there. To think he started his tutelage under Floyd Peters. The chink in Zimmer's armor though is his inability to keep an OC and be more guiding than directing on the D. Think Bruce Arians with QBs. - I like where the team is at on offense, but they need massive OG help. I don't know what the heck they'll do on D, and the cap strap makes this year very challenging. Because of this, I don't see them bringing in FAs, even though they'll probably need to trade or cut some of the big ticket names. Can we really get addition by subtraction in 2021? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purplepride323 Posted January 9, 2021 Author Share Posted January 9, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, ArcticNorseman said: - I like where the team is at on offense, but they need massive OG help. I don't know what the heck they'll do on D, and the cap strap makes this year very challenging. Because of this, I don't see them bringing in FAs, even though they'll probably need to trade or cut some of the big ticket names. Can we really get addition by subtraction in 2021? I think the fact that we ended the season 6-4 in our last 10 games means we are on the right track. Considering all the injuries we had to our key players, that’s pretty impressive. I feel like we are one great draft away from being contenders next year. We have great young players and now we just need to build around them. I think a LG like Wyatt Davis could solve our problems on the O-Line. Four main positions I hope we improve through the draft are: LG, CB, DE, and DT. Also building through the draft will save us a lot of money again, so we won’t have to cut too many players to make cap room next year. Edited January 9, 2021 by Purplepride323 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vike daddy Posted January 16, 2021 Share Posted January 16, 2021 (edited) The offense posted the fourth-most yards in the league this season (6,292) but turned in the 11th-most points (430) due to turnovers and starting with poor field position. Cousins threw 24 TDs and only three interceptions in the final 10 games of the season, finishing with a career-best 35 passing touchdowns. ESPN’s Courtney Cronin wrote that the Vikings’ biggest takeaway from this season is figuring out how to get this type of play out of Cousins again. “Cousins is not standing in the way of the Vikings reaching their playoff goals,” she said. “His success, however, hinges on an improved offensive line and the resurgence of a rebuilding defense.” Improving the offensive line’s pass protection will be a point of emphasis this offseason after the unit finished with the league’s third-worst pass-blocking grade (55.5) by Pro Football Focus. Meanwhile, Minnesota must bounce back from finishing with the league’s worst pass rush if the defense will be anything other than a liability next season. https://heavy.com/sports/minnesota-vikings/gary-klint-kubiak-kirk-cousins-fired/?fbclid=IwAR2Sx9dbl_RURYU8rSyObgdXM2aUaNSY55K2tkjYk7OSfp9qQHYks0Lfg0s Edited January 16, 2021 by vike daddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vike daddy Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CriminalMind Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 Nothing we didn't know already: Cousins needs everything perfect around him. - improved OL pass protection - improved DL pass rush - improved Kicking game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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