2022 Vikings Off-Season Thread

[stringer bell]

Cousins, in terms of ability, is much closer to Wilson, but that contract makes his value probably closer to Wentz. 

[Mike Sixel]

13 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Cousins, in terms of ability, is much closer to Wilson, but that contract makes his value probably closer to Wentz. 

The contract would be extended, and much closer to $35MM per year in cap hit (which is still a lot....). 

I don't think he'll be traded, but if he is, he's going to fetch more than some think.

[nicksaviking]

52 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

The contract would be extended, and much closer to $35MM per year in cap hit (which is still a lot....). 

I don't think he'll be traded, but if he is, he's going to fetch more than some think.

If Cousins is traded, I think he'd decline any extension offers. He's always been about betting on himself and maximizing his contract. Seems like he'd be leaving money on the table if he extended now instead of waiting to hit the annual inflation QB market.

If so, I'd think his trade value will reflect that. 

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

If Cousins is traded, I think he'd decline any extension offers. He's always been about betting on himself and maximizing his contract. Seems like he'd be leaving money on the table if he extended now instead of waiting to hit the annual inflation QB market.

If so, I'd think his trade value will reflect that. 

No extension means the draft pick return falls significantly IMO.

[Danchat]

I forgot to share this earlier, last week I published my annual Vikings Offseason Guide Article. Here are a few blurbs:

Quote

Vikings send QB Kirk Cousins to the Broncos for their 2nd and 2023 3rd round picks (Vikings eat $5M of Cousins’ 2022 salary).

It’s happening, again! I do not wish to start another Cousins debate here, but I simply cannot resist the idea of selling Kirk while his stock is sky-high and the QB market is woefully dry. Kirk looks to land another short and expensive extension, but I refuse to continue pushing our cap problems down the road and instead ship him to a team that is ready to win now. Kirk will be a considerable upgrade from Bridgewater and Lock, and he’ll take up $30M on their cap (which can be reduced via extension or void years). Denver keeps their first rounders and a 2023 3rd is more like a current 4th – it’s a fair price going off recent QB trades.

Quote

Free Agency

Sign CB J.C. Jackson – 5 years, $95M

Normally I tend not to spend wildly in my free agency plans, but our defense needs reinforcements, and a top-notch ball-hawking CB is available. Since I’ve opened some room on the cap, let’s go get him! $19M should be fair compared to other big CB deals (Lattimore, Ramsey, Humphrey).

Quote

Sign G Austin Corbett – 4 years, $40M

It has become an annual ritual… signing a guard, that is. Perhaps O’Connell will be able to bring in one of the Rams’ two interior OL free agents, that being LG Austin Corbett and C Brian Allen. Corbett has been the better player after he started to look like a bust with the Browns. His valuations range from $8M to $10M, so I will go with the higher side on this deal.
 

 

[TheLeviathan]

Sauce and JC Jackson sound great to me!

Though I much prefer piling assets into the DL.

[Mike Sixel]

Bears traded Mack....that's good for the short term (which I am not sure is good or not for the long term).

[cHawk]

Joe Buck is leaving FOX as well and will be the leading commentator for MNF. Now FOX needs both a new #1 play-by-play guy and a #1 color commentator. My guess is they’ll either promote Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen or find two new faces from outside the organization.

[Mike Sixel]

Big win for all of us, not having him on free tv. 

[Mike Sixel]

Add deshaun to the list of alleged awful people that goes unpunished.... That hurts Kirk's value.

[Vanimal46]

Not sure how to feel about this. 

[Mike Sixel]

Guess they aren't blowing it up. Look for a Hunter extension next. We'll see how much coaching matters!

[cHawk]

Welp…they better go all in now. I don’t want more 8-9.

[Danchat]

Eh, not a fan. This punts the decision down another year, and triples down on a QB who is not the guy who's going to help us win it all. This shouldn't prevent the new regime from taking a shot on their own QB prospect, though. I'll be interested to see how tradable Kirk is in 2023, but seeing how there is a void year in 2024, the dead cap to move him is going be considerably worse than this year.

For those wondering, here is the AAV for QBs right now:

#1 Rodgers $50M ??
#2 Mahomes $45M
#3 Allen $43M
#4 Prescott $40M
#5 Watson $39M
#6 Wilson / Cousins $35M

It's not as bad as the $40M that was initially reported [that he wanted], so it could have been worse...

8-9 here we come!!

[TheLeviathan]

I don't like it either, but I do hope we see a QB drafted this year or next year as a successor.  

New coaches but it's feeling like more of the same.

[Mike Sixel]

17 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

I don't like it either, but I do hope we see a QB drafted this year or next year as a successor.  

New coaches but it's feeling like more of the same.

Let's give them more than 2 months to determine that...

[TheLeviathan]

11 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Let's give them more than 2 months to determine that...

Sure, just waiting for something to change my mind on that.  I'm thrilled Zimmer is gone and will give these guys every chance, but it'd be nice to feel like things are seriously moving away from that regime.  Just don't have evidence of that yet.

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, TheLeviathan said:

Sure, just waiting for something to change my mind on that.  I'm thrilled Zimmer is gone and will give these guys every chance, but it'd be nice to feel like things are seriously moving away from that regime.  Just don't have evidence of that yet.

They don't appear to be blowing it up, so the difference will be better (?) drafting and better coaching. As I've said, I'm not sure that is the right choice, but I'm also not sure it is the wrong choice. The NFC is NOT the AFC.....

[Vanimal46]

I may have missed another transaction, hard to keep up with all of these sports updates! So far I’ve seen Xavier Woods sign a 3 year $15 million deal with Carolina, and Mason Cole sign a 3 year deal with Pittsburgh. Not too worried about it yet. 

What I am worried about is we’re 2 days away from the new league year, a ton of players are already agreeing to contracts, and we’re still $1.6 million over the cap. Nothing insurmountable, but I’m confused why we’re waiting until the very last minute to be cap compliant. Let alone sign a free agent. 

[TheLeviathan]

3 years and 20M for run stuffer Harrison Phillips.  We have spent a lot of money on run stuffers it seems.

[Vanimal46]

21 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

3 years and 20M for run stuffer Harrison Phillips.  We have spent a lot of money on run stuffers it seems.

Pierce is almost certainly a cap casualty with this signing. 

[Mike Sixel]

25 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Pierce is almost certainly a cap casualty with this signing. 

Yes. 100%

Bills fans are angry, that's a good sign 

[Vanimal46]

23 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Yes. 100%

Bills fans are angry, that's a good sign 

Last time we purged the Bills NT he turned into my favorite player in Pat Williams. Hopefully this one works out just as well. 

[TheLeviathan]

18 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Last time we purged the Bills NT he turned into my favorite player in Pat Williams. Hopefully this one works out just as well. 

This guy is a fun, lunch pail type.  He might end up playing some 3-4 end for us.

I love that he's only 26.

[Danchat]

Phillips is a nice signing - stuffs the run really well and is young. He provides zero pass rush, but that's fine since we badly need run defense help. I am still not happy with how many quality players are flying off the board, especially on the IOL, and the Vikings apparently have been getting outbid on most of them...

But I am also having fun mocking the Jaguars for all their awful overspending so far. Good gracious, $18M a year for Christian Kirk and $8M for Zay Jones? ?

[Mike Sixel]

4 minutes ago, Danchat said:

Phillips is a nice signing - stuffs the run really well and is young. He provides zero pass rush, but that's fine since we badly need run defense help. I am still not happy with how many quality players are flying off the board, especially on the IOL, and the Vikings apparently have been getting outbid on most of them...

But I am also having fun mocking the Jaguars for all their awful overspending so far. Good gracious, $18M a year for Christian Kirk and $8M for Zay Jones? ?

Jax ....WTAF are they thinking?

[TheLeviathan]

17 minutes ago, Danchat said:

Phillips is a nice signing - stuffs the run really well and is young. He provides zero pass rush, but that's fine since we badly need run defense help. I am still not happy with how many quality players are flying off the board, especially on the IOL, and the Vikings apparently have been getting outbid on most of them...

But I am also having fun mocking the Jaguars for all their awful overspending so far. Good gracious, $18M a year for Christian Kirk and $8M for Zay Jones? ?

That GM....how does he still have a job?

[Vanimal46]

Friendly reminder that winning the first day of free agency isn’t always a good thing… 

[Danchat]

39 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

That GM....how does he still have a job?

Trent Baalke is something else... ousted Harbaugh in a power struggle in SF and then exposed for the fraud he was, yet he somehow landed another GM gig in Jacksonville. Probably because their owner has no idea what he's doing, but Baalke signed off on the Meyer hiring, and they couldn't get Leftwich in at HC because he wouldn't work with Baalke. They're a tire fire.

[Vanimal46]

As expected. Maybe in a different timeline Pierce would have worked out. 7 games in 2 years is a bad first impression. And I don’t mind a bit transitioning from a 30 year old Pierce to a 26 year old Phillips.