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Vikings Select Andrew Booth Jr CB, Clemson at #42


SemperFeist

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2 hours ago, VikeManDan said:

I'd expect:

Boundary: Peterson, Dantzler, Booth, and Evans

Slot/Nickel: Sullivan and Hairston

That's 6 right there, not sure how many we kept last year but that leaves Boyd, Hand, and the rest of the bunch fighting for a spot or two.

Definitely seeing this as a problem spot this year but anything is better than last year. 

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In my line of work, it is often easier to get a college kid to learn something new than it is to get an old guy to change from the old way of doing things. I have no idea how true that is with teaching players defensive schemes, but I don't think that learning the playbook has to be a barrier preventing Booth from earning a starting spot. It seems just as likely to me that the barrier will be him learning to communicate with his teammates. Schools don't teach kids how to communicate much anymore.

Also, college players may need some work on technique that older guys don't need to work as much on. That may be more of an issue than the playbook too.  I've never played DB though so maybe I am way off and learning the playbook really is a ton harder for a rookie than for a veteran that is new to the playbook.

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  • 1 month later...

Digging into him more Andrew Booth could be an absolute stud.

 

Odd thing is they could have lost him in the 2nd with that trade, so it is very odd they did what they did.  They could have taken him at 34 yet passed on it, then McCreary was drafted and Kyler Gordon then Booth later with the Vikings.  Pretty damn big gamble, the Titans and Bears could have easily taken him over those two other corners.  Still unlike Cine, Booth has wildly impressive ball skills and production.  Very solid base for a corner, stable in his motions and super explosive in his read and react time with very strong hands.  Made some amazing plays on the football in coverage at Clemson and only real reason he dropped in the draft is he did not perform or run at the combine and did not workout at his Pro day which hurt him a lot.  Had an injury issue which he had in college at times as well so that could be a problem.  But if the dude is healthy he should be the starting CB easily by mid way into the season, Dantzler has experience but really doubt he will beat out Booth for the job which is good.  He is a great tackler in the open field as well and has no issues there what so ever, I would be more comfortable with him as a rookie starter than Cine because of his awareness and ball skills.  Cine will get the job though just because of lack of competition, Booth will and probably should beat out Dantzler, Boyd, Hand and Sullivan if they view Sullivan as an outside corner.  

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sucks he is not signed and has I assume done almost nothing since he was drafted by the Vikings.  Dude probably knows little to none of the playbook so the chances of his starting are pretty slim, I really want him to take the spot of Dantzler but he has some major catching up to do mentally and physically since he has done little real time action in awhile.  

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12 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Sucks he is not signed and has I assume done almost nothing since he was drafted by the Vikings.  Dude probably knows little to none of the playbook so the chances of his starting are pretty slim, I really want him to take the spot of Dantzler but he has some major catching up to do mentally and physically since he has done little real time action in awhile.  

Well, he has had plenty of time to learn the playbook as he recovers from his injury...just hasn't been able to put it into practice.  Because of his injury, he always was going to have a hard time catching Dantzler.  I've never expected him to start initially, but he'll get playing time.  

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I think Dantzler is going to surprise some people in Donatell’s system. I’m sure Booth is going to get a fair number of reps this season, but I always expected him to be the rotational/#3 outside CB this year. He’s Peterson’s long term replacement. 

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9 minutes ago, SemperFeist said:

I think Dantzler is going to surprise some people in Donatell’s system. I’m sure Booth is going to get a fair number of reps this season, but I always expected him to be the rotational/#3 outside CB this year. He’s Peterson’s long term replacement. 

Why?  Only reason he will be good is because the pass rush should be and will be better so it will make the entire secondary look better, and the run D should be improved as well because the edges should be so solid.  I am still not sold on Dantzler at all, he does not react quick enough and his confidence is very up and down and not consistent.  If Booth was fully healthy, signed and knew the playbook I would think he could take Dantzler's spot as the other starter easily.

 

Booth on film is more explosive, better reaction time, more ball aware and is a more forceful tackler with better ball skills in general.  

 

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7 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Why?  Only reason he will be good is because the pass rush should be and will be better so it will make the entire secondary look better, and the run D should be improved as well because the edges should be so solid.  I am still not sold on Dantzler at all, he does not react quick enough and his confidence is very up and down and not consistent.  If Booth was fully healthy, signed and knew the playbook I would think he could take Dantzler's spot as the other starter easily.

 

Booth on film is more explosive, better reaction time, more ball aware and is a more forceful tackler with better ball skills in general.  

 

I'm with Semper on this one.  I still blame Zimmer most for Dantzler's failures to this point, because he never put him in a position to succeed.  I've always been high on Dantzler's upside and still have faith he can deliver, especially with his rookie season's position coach back.  I've consistently viewed Booth as Peterson's replacement, not Dantzler's, as I fully believe it will be Dantzler and Booth in '23.

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6 minutes ago, swede700 said:

I'm with Semper on this one.  I still blame Zimmer most for Dantzler's failures to this point, because he never put him in a position to succeed.  I've always been high on Dantzler's upside and still have faith he can deliver, especially with his rookie season's position coach back.  I've consistently viewed Booth as Peterson's replacement, not Dantzler's, as I fully believe it will be Dantzler and Booth in '23.

That would be great but to blame everything on Zimmer is a bit much.  Based on that the entire team and majority of the players will look completely different under new coaching.  Maybe that is the case but with Cam the dude showed some fight and spunk in college in a few big games which got him attention, that and being a tall long corner.   However he has not shown that in the NFL and seems afraid out there not confident.  If he is the starting CB all season this year I would be surprised, lucky for him if Booth is not signed or is still hurt, out of shape or does not know the playbook there is not much if any competition for Dantzler for the spot unless Evans really impresses.  I would not be shocked if Dantzler is benched at some point this year and Evans gets some run or they play with how Sullivan can do on the outside.  Even Peterson last year struggled at times and he is the best one they got and could be worse this year, so CB is by far the biggest issue on the roster currently.

 

If the front 7 are great it might not matter as much, lucky for them, because it is by far the biggest issue on the team.  Having Cine back there could help but is he going to have 100+ tackles, 2 forced fumbles, 3 INTs and 10 passes deflected?  Will see because that is what Woods had who was decent back there, not great and overall the secondary kind of sucked.  Vikings paid him little under $2 mil last year and Carolina is paying him  $5 mil a year for three years, so either that is an awful deal or the dude can play and I think Woods can as a safety.  Sure hope Cine improves his ball skills.

  

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It would be too much to blame Zimmer on everything, but if there was one thing Zimmer absolutely did not do, it was that he did NOT build confidence in his players, especially rookies. He was literally said to lead through fear. So, if a major problem with Dantzler is confidence, it should definitely help not to be under Zimmer's reign anymore. Will it be enough is a question yet to be answered, but I don't think it's unfair to say that Dantzler was not set up to succeed under Zimmer (like most young players/rookies).

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5 hours ago, swede700 said:

I'm with Semper on this one.  I still blame Zimmer most for Dantzler's failures to this point, because he never put him in a position to succeed.  I've always been high on Dantzler's upside and still have faith he can deliver, especially with his rookie season's position coach back.  I've consistently viewed Booth as Peterson's replacement, not Dantzler's, as I fully believe it will be Dantzler and Booth in '23.

And Dantzler was our best graded CB last year. You could even tell that just by watching the games. He was simply better than the guys that were playing in front of him. He appears to be a victim of Zimmer's doghouse. 

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39 minutes ago, wcblack34 said:

And Dantzler was our best graded CB last year. You could even tell that just by watching the games. He was simply better than the guys that were playing in front of him. He appears to be a victim of Zimmer's doghouse. 

That was kind of the point I was trying to get at...it always seemed that when he made a mistake (sometimes certainly boneheaded), Zimmer benched him, not letting him play through it, learn and get better...it's no wonder why his confidence got shaken.    It's sort of what happened with Waynes too.  Now Waynes certainly got better, but it wasn't until Zimmer was forced to actually play him that he was able to get better.

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1 hour ago, wcblack34 said:

And Dantzler was our best graded CB last year. You could even tell that just by watching the games. He was simply better than the guys that were playing in front of him. He appears to be a victim of Zimmer's doghouse. 

Top graded?  That is not saying much, compared to what Peterson and Alexander two of the lowest rated corners in the league and Dantzler was right there with them.  No way did Dantzler have a better year than Peterson, who did struggle but Peterson played 885 snaps, Dantzler only played 686 so that is a lot less time to mess up.

 

I am just not sure his ceiling is all that high compared to Booth who has a much higher ceiling as a prospect if healthy.  

 

 

Is kind of nuts Anthony Barr has not been signed yet, or even Mac Alexander but I guess it depends on who gets hurt in training camp around the league.  

 

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1 hour ago, wcblack34 said:

And Dantzler was our best graded CB last year. You could even tell that just by watching the games. He was simply better than the guys that were playing in front of him. He appears to be a victim of Zimmer's doghouse. 

Based on who’s grades? He was graded as our best initially by PFF, but with their recent robust improvements to their formula/etc, Peterson is now the best of our CBs of 2021.

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46 minutes ago, Duluther said:

Based on who’s grades? He was graded as our best initially by PFF, but with their recent robust improvements to their formula/etc, Peterson is now the best of our CBs of 2021.

And I forgot Bashaud Breeland at CB, another real gem of a CB there.  I recall near the end of the season Peterson, Alexander and Breeland all being like rated 70th or below out of all the CBs in the NFL.  Not sure where Dantzler was in that possibly he was in that 70ish range.  

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