2023 Sign, Draft, or Promote: Starting CBs (2 Outside and Slot)

[perrynoid]

In lieu of targeting a slot corner via FA/draft, might we sign Shelley to start at one of the outside spots and then move him to the slot?  I thought that is what we did with Winfield years ago, and that worked out pretty well.

[SemperFeist]

Shelley isn’t a nickel CB. Chicago tried to move him there and it didn’t work out. He didn’t want to play inside. 

[dc_vikingfan]

Sign outside CB and draft a slot CB. The Vikings have a lot of young outside CBs.  Sign Murphy, Oliver or Bunting. 

[Scottish_Viking]

The only upside of having so few draft picks, is having Evans and Booth bach healthy will feel like 2 extra picks. I don't follow college football much as it isn't shown over here. But are there any big bruising centres, guards and good linebackers we could potentially get in the draft?. We are obviously set at tackle and I do have faith in Ingram. Also any big nasty NT's in our area of the draft

[vike daddy]

On 2/22/2023 at 11:42 AM, Scottish_Viking said:

The only upside of having so few draft picks, is having Evans and Booth bach healthy will feel like 2 extra picks.

you can add to that philosophy that we spent a pick on TJ Hockenson, and got him already started on the team.

[swede700]

1 hour ago, vike daddy said:

you can add to that philosophy that we spent a pick on TJ Hockenson, and got him already started on the team.

It didn't seem to bother many people when they used their pick to acquire Jared Allen eons ago.  I consider this more similar to that deal than the Bradford one, which I know many were annoyed with, even though I never agreed with that take.

[Ozzy]

Assuming Peterson and Sullivan are not brought back, this is the Vikings track record of corners the last four years.  Currently have Booth and Evans two rookies who did not play a ton last year.  What a crap show at that position recently, not sure any team in the NFL has that bad of performance at the CB spot four years in a row.  

 

 

C. Dantzler - released
P. Peterson - Not resigned
C. Sullivan - Not resigned

 

B. Breeland - released
M. Alexander - released
 

Jeff Gladney - released
Holton Hill - released

 

Mike Hughes - Not resigned
Trae Waynes - Not resigned
Xavier Rhodes - Not resigned
 

 

 

I would be fine with any of these guys in the 1st round, especially if Bijan is gone by the Vikings pick, and all can arguably play slot corner but the best I would say at that would be Phillips.  Athletically Forbes performed the best with his speed but he is pretty light but has great ball skills.  But they did just cut a Miss State corner who was long, on the thin side, got his hands of a lot of passes but granted he was not where near the athlete that Forbes is and not as productive in terms of getting interceptions.  

 

Antonio Johnson
Clark Phillips III 
Emmanuel Forbes Miss State JR CB

 

[PrplChilPill]

18 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Assuming Peterson and Sullivan are not brought back, this is the Vikings track record of corners the last four years.  Currently have Booth and Evans two rookies who did not play a ton last year.  What a crap show at that position recently, not sure any team in the NFL has that bad of performance at the CB spot four years in a row.  

 

 

C. Dantzler - released
P. Peterson - Not resigned
C. Sullivan - Not resigned

 

B. Breeland - released
M. Alexander - released
 

Jeff Gladney - released
Holton Hill - released

 

Mike Hughes - Not resigned
Trae Waynes - Not resigned
Xavier Rhodes - Not resigned
 

 

 

I would be fine with any of these guys in the 1st round, especially if Bijan is gone by the Vikings pick, and all can arguably play slot corner but the best I would say at that would be Phillips.  Athletically Forbes performed the best with his speed but he is pretty light but has great ball skills.  But they did just cut a Miss State corner who was long, on the thin side, got his hands of a lot of passes but granted he was not where near the athlete that Forbes is and not as productive in terms of getting interceptions.  

 

Antonio Johnson
Clark Phillips III 
Emmanuel Forbes Miss State JR CB

 

Good thing they have new leadership and what happened before isn't relevant. 

[Ozzy]

8 minutes ago, PrplChilPill said:

Good thing they have new leadership and what happened before isn't relevant. 

Well, that new leadership brought in Sullivan who is a dog poop slot corner....so I would not say they are totally out of the woods yet.  

 

And they drafted Lewis Cine instead of Kyle Hamilton at safety but sure that is not a corner position.  Sure got another pick then got Booth instead of getting Cam Taylor-Britt who did perform better last year for the Bengals than Booth did for Minnesota, I had Taylor-Britt above Booth based on Booth's injury history and Taylor-Britt being a better athlete.  But disregard that and take the Evans pick, and other corners around then were Jack Jones who was very solid for the Patriots and has slot corner abilities and clearly the Vikings had zero slot corners last year.  Or they also passed on Joshua Williams who is a tall talented CB who did very well for the Chiefs or Cobie Durant who is a great slot corner and has a lot of upside for the Rams.  Not to mention also passing on Tariq Woolen who was a Pro bowler and Zyon McCollum as well.

 

So I am not sold on the "new leadership's" ability to draft corners just yet....   

[PrplChilPill]

31 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Well, that new leadership brought in Sullivan who is a dog poop slot corner....so I would not say they are totally out of the woods yet.  

 

And they drafted Lewis Cine instead of Kyle Hamilton at safety but sure that is not a corner position.  Sure got another pick then got Booth instead of getting Cam Taylor-Britt who did perform better last year for the Bengals than Booth did for Minnesota, I had Taylor-Britt above Booth based on Booth's injury history and Taylor-Britt being a better athlete.  But disregard that and take the Evans pick, and other corners around then were Jack Jones who was very solid for the Patriots and has slot corner abilities and clearly the Vikings had zero slot corners last year.  Or they also passed on Joshua Williams who is a tall talented CB who did very well for the Chiefs or Cobie Durant who is a great slot corner and has a lot of upside for the Rams.  Not to mention also passing on Tariq Woolen who was a Pro bowler and Zyon McCollum as well.

 

So I am not sold on the "new leadership's" ability to draft corners just yet....   

And I'm not convinced they are bad. First time you say something positive, I'll be shocked. 

[wcblack34]

[battle2heaven]

2 hours ago, PrplChilPill said:

And I'm not convinced they are bad. First time you say something positive, I'll be shocked. 

Revisionist history is so fun, isn’t it?

[ArcticNorseman]

Corner-wise, who's been on the team more than 3 years?   That's the problem.

There seems to be an abnormally high rate of young athletes across college who get drafted because they can run and jump.  The percentage of those kids failing to handle the nuances required of a NFL CB seems to have blown up in proportion to other positions.   Look at the Lions complaints on Okudah . . . Not every CB drafted will be a Jalen Ramsey or Sauce Gardner.

I had a lot of hope for the position when Zimmer was coaching, but burning pick after high pick . . . Well, we know the story.  We need a new generation of power tandem, new Carl Lee-Isaac Holt duo.  Add in an Antoine Winfield type (umm, Duke), and they might have something.  

I can see Booth returning strong and Evans being better.  Shelley is a strong fit, but beyond that?   I'm thinking bring back PP one more time, or two.  Then what?  

Without stopping the run and pressuring the QB (consistently), CBs aren't winning alone.

[sparkyjoe1]

6 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Assuming Peterson and Sullivan are not brought back, this is the Vikings track record of corners the last four years.  Currently have Booth and Evans two rookies who did not play a ton last year.  What a crap show at that position recently, not sure any team in the NFL has that bad of performance at the CB spot four years in a row.  

 

 

C. Dantzler - released
P. Peterson - Not resigned
C. Sullivan - Not resigned

 

B. Breeland - released
M. Alexander - released
 

Jeff Gladney - released
Holton Hill - released

 

Mike Hughes - Not resigned
Trae Waynes - Not resigned
Xavier Rhodes - Not resigned
 

 

 

I would be fine with any of these guys in the 1st round, especially if Bijan is gone by the Vikings pick, and all can arguably play slot corner but the best I would say at that would be Phillips.  Athletically Forbes performed the best with his speed but he is pretty light but has great ball skills.  But they did just cut a Miss State corner who was long, on the thin side, got his hands of a lot of passes but granted he was not where near the athlete that Forbes is and not as productive in terms of getting interceptions.  

 

Antonio Johnson
Clark Phillips III 
Emmanuel Forbes Miss State JR CB

 

Out of those listed, who would you have brought back or not released? Looking at your list, it seems they made the right decision every time. Should they have brought in other options?  Sure, but they didn't. We don't have unlimited resources. We can't draft or sign every player that would help our team. I see a lot of "we could have drafted player x", but maybe our FO is planning on filling that position with somebody on the roster or maybe, just maybe, they realize we don't have 22 first round picks to adequately fill all of our percieved (by fans) holes this year. Sometimes we may have to pass on player X because the cost benefit analysis tells us we should spend our limited resources elsewhere. We can't fix all our "problems" this year. 

[Ozzy]

7 hours ago, PrplChilPill said:

And I'm not convinced they are bad. First time you say something positive, I'll be shocked. 

True, but if you think I am just saying this in a hindsight is 20/20 situation, no I made similar comments after the draft go look, and thought the same thing then and in terms of year one, yah it was correct.  That could change but "new leadership" absolutely missed in the draft more than once and bought in a crap corner in free agency from Green Bay, that I also said at the time.  But you can all stand by Sullivan like you did when they brought him in.  That is support of the team?  Ok.    

 

2 hours ago, sparkyjoe1 said:

Out of those listed, who would you have brought back or not released? Looking at your list, it seems they made the right decision every time. Should they have brought in other options?  Sure, but they didn't. We don't have unlimited resources. We can't draft or sign every player that would help our team. I see a lot of "we could have drafted player x", but maybe our FO is planning on filling that position with somebody on the roster or maybe, just maybe, they realize we don't have 22 first round picks to adequately fill all of our percieved (by fans) holes this year. Sometimes we may have to pass on player X because the cost benefit analysis tells us we should spend our limited resources elsewhere. We can't fix all our "problems" this year. 

Maybe they can but fact is the issues they had were brought on by the "new leadership" and the players they drafted or brought in, so a lot will be told by what they do now with an apparent clean slate.