NFL Snooze News: Volume Four, Por Favor

[RpMc]

Larry Warford cut

[Cearbhall]

8 minutes ago, RpMc said:

Larry Warford cut

Oh. It is time to use some of that free cap space.

Get 'er done, Rick!

[vikingsrule]

27 minutes ago, Cearbhall said:

Oh. It is time to use some of that free cap space.

Get 'er done, Rick!

Terrible fit for a ZBS. 

[Cearbhall]

4 minutes ago, vikingsrule said:

Terrible fit for a ZBS. 

You're right. He does show aggression in his run blocking.

The Saints are a zone blocking scheme, aren't they? Warford looked pretty good to me.

This seems a case of laying the ground work for an excuse for Spielman not making a move. There is always an excuse.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Cearbhall

[RpMc]

9 minutes ago, Cearbhall said:

You're right. He does show aggression in his run blocking.

The Saints are a zone blocking scheme, aren't they? Warford looked pretty good to me.

Not a wide zone team, typically, like we are - they’re an inside zone team than relies more on vertical displacement that the horizontal displacement that we do - they also run quite a bit of duo  

That being said, Warford is no worse a fit for our scheme as a Dakota Dozier who isn’t a plus athlete. Warford actually has him beat in the 3-cone. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by RpMc

[SteelKing728]

4 hours ago, RpMc said:

Not a wide zone team, typically, like we are - they’re an inside zone team than relies more on vertical displacement that the horizontal displacement that we do - they also run quite a bit of duo  

That being said, Warford is no worse a fit for our scheme as a Dakota Dozier who isn’t a plus athlete. Warford actually has him beat in the 3-cone. 

Even if he's not an ideal fit, is he better than Elflein?

[RpMc]

I doubt he’s someone that we actually go after, but I figured the upgrade the OL still crowd would appreciate the name being thrown out. 

[Klomp]

34 minutes ago, SteelKing728 said:

Even if he's not an ideal fit, is he better than Elflein?

Is Elflein even the projected starter at this point?

[Cearbhall]

10 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

Even if he's not an ideal fit, is he better than Elflein?

He is far, far better than Elflein.

[Cearbhall]

9 hours ago, Klomp said:

Is Elflein even the projected starter at this point?

It is disappointing that this is a legitimate question. The Vikings right now barely have warm bodies to fill the position. Given that, they may still be relying on Elflein, which is a very unfortunate state of affairs.

[Cearbhall]

10 hours ago, RpMc said:

I doubt he’s someone that we actually go after, but I figured the upgrade the OL still crowd would appreciate the name being thrown out. 

I do appreciate you bringing his availability to my attention. 

And I given Spielman's history, I understand why you or anyone else would doubt we go after him. It is really, really difficult to remain optimistic about such things with Rick in charge given what we've witnessed for the last several years.

You are probably right that the Vikings won't go after him, but we have to try to hold onto hope. It is terrible to be so disheartened that your knee-jerk reaction is to start making excuses for a move Spielman doesn't make even before he hasn't made the move.

[vikingsrule]

42 minutes ago, Cearbhall said:

I do appreciate you bringing his availability to my attention. 

And I given Spielman's history, I understand why you or anyone else would doubt we go after him. It is really, really difficult to remain optimistic about such things with Rick in charge given what we've witnessed for the last several years.

You are probably right that the Vikings won't go after him, but we have to try to hold onto hope. It is terrible to be so disheartened that your knee-jerk reaction is to start making excuses for a move Spielman doesn't make even before he hasn't made the move.

Bringing in Warford would actually seem like a typical move Spielman makes. They’ve regularly relied on signing other OGs who teams release or don’t want to bring back. Kline is a good recent example. They’ve relied on vets rather than just letting a young and unproven player start in many cases. This year, why not give that opportunity to Samia? I don’t think Warford is a LG, and they’ve got Reiff to potentially fill that void.

[Cearbhall]

1 hour ago, vikingsrule said:

Bringing in Warford would actually seem like a typical move Spielman makes. They’ve regularly relied on signing other OGs who teams release or don’t want to bring back. Kline is a good recent example. They’ve relied on vets rather than just letting a young and unproven player start in many cases. This year, why not give that opportunity to Samia? I don’t think Warford is a LG, and they’ve got Reiff to potentially fill that void.

I was heavily in favor of directing additional draft resources towards the position for next year. In the meantime, they still need someone to play this year.

As far as your claim that they have regularly relied on signing other OGs who teams release or don't want to bring back, that is a strange definition of "regularly". Since 2012 the team has went into seasons with 16 guards their planned starting guard. How many of those 16 were players they picked up in the offseason that other teams released? How many of those 16 were players other teams didn't want to bring back? Boone and Kline for one season each.

Would you really consider a signing of Warford this year as on par with a signing of Kline last year?

As far as Samia, it would be great if he earned some playing time this year. He would be showing good improvement even if he showed the coaches they could rely on him to be active on game day as a backup. Even if things worked out well for Samia, the team still needs another guard to start.

[Cearbhall]

Here are the Vikings starting guards from 2012, when Spielman had full control, through last year:

Charlie Johnson - Converted from being the starting LT the previous year 
Brandon Fusco

Charlie Johnson
Brandon Fusco

Charlie Johnson
Joe Berger - 4th year with the Vikings

Brandon Fusco
Mike Harris - Converted after a year with the team as a T 

Alex Boone - Free agent that didn't work out
Mike Harris

Nick Easton - Acquired via trade and developed 
Joe Berger

Tom Compton - Newly acquired, journeyman that was mostly a utility backup to that point
Mike Remmers - Converted from T

Pat Elflein - Converted from C
Josh Kline - Newly aqcuired
 

I count three guys that were signed to start at guard. Of them, only one was a high priced free agent that could reasonably be considered in the same tier as Warford. This does not show a pattern of regularly relying on bringing in free agents to plug the hole. It shows a pattern of relying either on guys the team had developed and relying on guys that had previously failed at other positions on the line.

 

[perrynoid]

1 hour ago, vikingsrule said:

Bringing in Warford would actually seem like a typical move Spielman makes. They’ve regularly relied on signing other OGs who teams release or don’t want to bring back. Kline is a good recent example. They’ve relied on vets rather than just letting a young and unproven player start in many cases. This year, why not give that opportunity to Samia? I don’t think Warford is a LG, and they’ve got Reiff to potentially fill that void.

To the best of my knowledge, he has always played RG.  That being the case, why not sign a 3-time Pro Bowl RG and start him at RG.  Then, have Samia and whoever else is left at IOL vie for the starting LG spot?  We need to upgrade the OL if we are going to go anywhere this season.