Vikings Depth Chart - To Be Updated

[Vanimal46]

38 minutes ago, Danchat said:

A 37 year old Hitman isn't going to bump this defense positively in my opinion. He hasn't been in his prime for 2+ seasons and having to ramp up mid-season is probably going to lead to some bad early games for him... when he could have just showed up to training camp like the rest of the players.

Yeah I realize he's not the same. It's the irrational fan in me hoping he didn't just walk away quietly without an official announcement. He's been one of my favorite Vikings players since we drafted him. Ideally, Jay Ward is ready to move into a starting "traditional safety" role along with Theo Jackson... That way Metellus can go back to his hybrid role where he performs much better IMO. 

[Danchat]

5 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Yeah I realize he's not the same. It's the irrational fan in me hoping he didn't just walk away quietly without an official announcement. He's been one of my favorite Vikings players since we drafted him. Ideally, Jay Ward is ready to move into a starting "traditional safety" role along with Theo Jackson... That way Metellus can go back to his hybrid role where he performs much better IMO. 

I agree with that, Metellus is better when he gets to play LB/SCB rather than SS, which he is primed to be stuck at this year. Curiously, Jay Ward only played with the 2s during preseason and seems to be playing slot corner a lot, while Theo exclusively played with the 1st team at FS. So it looks like FS-Jackson SS-Metellus SCB-Ward. Jamal Adams looked like he was going to pick up some LB/SCB snaps ahead of Ward before he went down. But the Vikings unofficial depth chart has Ward clearly ahead of Jackson...

[TheLeviathan]

19 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I'm looking at the Vikings draft class once again. It's just as unfathomable now as ever, that KAM got fired because of his bad drafting, and they let the three guys who were most influential in his drafts (or secretly running it all along), do the job. 

They were NEVER qualified for that job. Did the Wilfs ever rationalize why they couldn't hire a new GM in February?

What was the Teasley interview like?

KOC: "Nolan, tell me about your draft strategy."

Teasley: "It's the exact opposite of what you guys have been doing up here for half a decade."

I think two things that seem somewhat contradictory but I believe they are totally reasonable:

KAM had TERRIBLE drafts.  I'm also not sure if he's a bad drafter.

Between the Wilfs pressuring him to competitively rebuild and coaches hounding him for "their guys"....I think he might have gotten hosed.

[Danchat]

20 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

If only the draft was filled with great centers last year, but taking an always injured out of shape guy was more important. 

There weren't any centers worth taking at #18, but yeah, their two picks at the end of the third round was a great time to take a shot. Instead they went with Tiernan who I liked and you could call BPA, but then they extended O'Neill so Tiernan might be a starter in 2029. And then Jakobe Thomas, who like Felton the year earlier I thought was a multi-round reach, a one year starter in college with a scary high missed tackle rate. This was a weaker draft class than previous years, but they didn't need to take projects with those picks who won't play for years. Centers Sam Hecht and Connor Lew would have been great selections there IMO.

20 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I'm looking at the Vikings draft class once again. It's just as unfathomable now as ever, that KAM got fired because of his bad drafting, and they let the three guys who were most influential in his drafts (or secretly running it all along), do the job. 

Yup, I think a lot of blame should go on Ryan Grigson, Kwesi's assistant GM who was essentially the top 'football' mind in the front office since Kwesi didn't have a background in that. Grigson was the Colts GM who somehow bungled the team in the midst of having Andrew Luck in his prime. The Wilfs also extended him a year ago, but Teasley made the smart move of changing his job title, prompting him to quit and probably saving the Wilfs a good amount of money.

My guess for the reasoning why is because the front office had already completed the scouting for the college season and scouts are almost always fired/promoted right after the draft. Which is strange given you let them do a great and then fire them. When new GMs are getting hired at the start of the calendar year, it's still usually the previous regime's scouts making the draft boards for the upcoming draft in the spring.

[Vanimal46]

Boom! Hitman is back baby!

[Danchat]

It's a base $8M deal, but geez, that's a ton of incentives for a guy who didn't exactly put up any notable counting stats last year. I hope he is ready to play in a week, I don't want to hear any excuses about him not having time to be ready.

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, Vanimal46 said:

Boom! Hitman is back baby!

37 is old for NFL safety

[nicksaviking]

I’ll take him back, but aren’t the eagles paying Greenard 25M, while the Vikings five months ago couldn’t afford to pay him 20M?

[TheLeviathan]

14 hours ago, Danchat said:

It's a base $8M deal, but geez, that's a ton of incentives for a guy who didn't exactly put up any notable counting stats last year. I hope he is ready to play in a week, I don't want to hear any excuses about him not having time to be ready.

Yeah, especially with two division games right out of the gate.  He took awhile to get up to speed last year and now he's one year older.

Happy to have the QB on defense back, but wish he'd have come back after the last preseason game and worked himself into shape with the team.

[Vanimal46]

16 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

Yeah, especially with two division games right out of the gate.  He took awhile to get up to speed last year and now he's one year older.

Happy to have the QB on defense back, but wish he'd have come back after the last preseason game and worked himself into shape with the team.

I’m not too concerned with him being out of shape…

 

[TheLeviathan]

Just now, Vanimal46 said:

I’m not too concerned with him being out of shape…

 

That's awesome...but he definitely did not come back full speed/full Hitman at the start of last year.

[Vanimal46]

1 minute ago, TheLeviathan said:

That's awesome...but he definitely did not come back full speed/full Hitman at the start of last year.

He did have that mysterious illness last training camp for the record. 

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

He did have that mysterious illness last training camp for the record. 

I thought the illness was not being in football shape yet. 
 

Not trying to be flippant, that just seemed to be what the unspoken narrative was.

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I thought the illness was not being in football shape yet. 
 

Not trying to be flippant, that just seemed to be what the unspoken narrative was.

They certainly left it open to that interpretation by not saying anything for weeks.