gunnarthor

Seems fair. I like Lee but someone has to be the low man on him and Klaw might be the high man on Rodriguez.

Honestly, that seems low. They looked really good against SF. I think KC might get the doors blown off them.

The last five minutes of Cincy/KC was sort of effed by the refs. Bummer, it was a pretty good game. Can't imagine how angry Bengal fans must be today. I'm sure it's just a coincidence but KC/Philly is the game the NFL was hoping for. Lots of story lines to get sick of in the next few weeks: Kelce brothers, two great young QBs, Andy Reid v. Philly. Should be a good game too. I assume the Eagles will be favorites.

Cincy/KC is good so far. Think the refs are giving a few calls to KC but maybe I'm just rooting for Cincy too much. :-)

I can't believe someone looked at this roster and then said to themselves "this is a 100 win team." Insane. Absolutely insane. This might not be a .500 team. We will see what it looks like when ST arrives but right now the biggest thing this team has going for it is that we play in - by far - the worst division in baseball.

I would assume a few things. 1) Buxton will get a lot of starts at DH, probably never play CF three days in a row. 2) Kepler is going to be moved.

Probably low but he's only had 700 minor league at bats. COVID probably ****ed up his development a lot. Give him more time.

Jay got hurt, too. I mean, pitchers are so fragile anyway but I am positive that if he didn't get hurt, he would have been a solid ML arm. I think we'll regret the Petty trade. Loved the Lee and Gordon picks at the time. Sabato and Cavaco I was a bit unsure about but ... Also, the Twins used 1st round picks on Matt Wallner, Brent Rooker and Noah Miller. I liked the Miller pick. Wallner and Rooker were confusing as they were massive bats without obvious defensive positions. But Wallner might play a lot this year.

Vikings are interviewing Sean Desai for DC position. I'd be ok with this hire. Young. Carroll likes him. Seattle was better than they should have been. https://www.dailynorseman.com/2023/1/22/23566317/minnesota-vikings-request-permission-speak-seattle-seahawks-assistant-sean-desai

Really like watching Burrow. Might be my favorite QB right now.

I'm ok with the trade, I like the throw in players - both seem like solid lottery tickets - and I've never been that high on Arraez. I think we did a nice job of trading him at his peak value. But the FO also has to be right on this one. Not another Dyson or Mahle injury thing. Lopez better make 45+ starts the next two years. And he better be good.

I will say that I remember Roger arguing on Twinkietown years ago that Arraez was a top prospect while most of us had him off the top 30 because he was so small. Roger kept saying, "look at what he's doing." I'm glad you were right. I'm ok with the trade but can feel your hurt.

I actually remember being quite high on him in the 2017 draft and mentioning him as a possibility of a guy we could pick for below slot and grab others later. I would love to grab him and give him a chance in a corner. And I think Seth made a lot of good arguments on why Adell could still be a good fit.

Positives - Darrisaw and O'Neil look like better than good tackles, Cleveland improved at LG. He misses some blocks but he's good and he's really good on double teams. I like Ingram and think he'll be better with a season under his belt. Since I was mostly worried about the O-line coming into this season, this was a nice surprise. Jefferson + Hockenson + Osborn look like they'll be a solid core of receiving options going forward. (I think Theilen gets restructured). Reager didn't get a lot of looks but I wish they had given him more opportunities. They might have some solid depth without needing to add too much. Negatives - the defense was horrible. The 3-4 scheme didn't work, the umbrella coverage allowed other teams to move at will, we were bad against the run. Kendricks, in particular, looked completely out of place in a 3-4. Hunter covered RBs on obvious passing downs instead of rushing. That's on the coaches. Scheme better. I'd invest all the draft and FA capital into the defense. Looks like the draft has a number of good CB and a few DL that could fall to us at 23 but also some good depth behind that. Get a new defensive coordinator and strongly reconsider the 3-4 scheme. I think Hunter and Wonnom are better in 4-3 scheme as DEs. I think Smith can be an OLB in a 4-3. (admittedly, maybe I'm wrong). The secondary is a huge mess. Not sure what to do but try to upgrade everyone. (I assume Peterson is gone in FA and Smith retires). I don't think the defense can go from 31st to top 10 in a year but if we could get a solid line, make it harder to rush, and generate more pressure without blitzing as much, maybe it could protect a bad secondary? Make them a top 15-20 defense to go with a potential top 10 offense? That could be a fun team to watch.

Everyone give one thought and a prediction for Sunday. Thought: KOC learns and the Vikings will rush more this time. Giants defense is bad against the rush. We had 18 rushes (not including Cousins rush) against 48 passes against the Giants last time. Vikings win 31-21.

This is a good thing. Glad to have him back.

Well, I predicted 15-2 this year based on our easy schedule so ... 10-7, earliest prediction!

Damn.

O'Neil has a partially torn ACL and won't be back this season. Team is hopeful he can be ready to start next season. Pretty rough. O'Neil and Darrisaw are a really nice tandem of book ends but if they can't stay healthy, we're in a bit of trouble, long term. I don't know what the draft looks like in regards to interior linemen but I would assume that's an area the Vikes would focus on.

I don't want the starters to sit. I want to watch a good football game. I want the Vikings to win and get the 2 seed. I think the injury risk to JJ and Cousins is overstated. Both have shown to be quite durable. And, after last week, it would be nice to have the offense clicking going into the playoffs.

You really need to stop with the new FO kool-aid. Wacha was worth 3.3 WAR which would have led this team. And he did it in the AL East. And he was a good pitcher for a while. I trust him a lot more than AAAA guys like Ober and Dobnak. But it also might depend on what you think the Twins should be doing. If you think rebuild, then he doesn't make sense - except maybe as a guy you flip at the trade deadline. If you think the Twins are going to compete for the AL central, well, then you need to start signing better pitchers than what we have b/c we have a bunch of really bad pitchers.

That would suggest three per team. I expect our pipeline to create those. If the Twins go all-in (and it looks like they will) on this 4-5 inning opener concept, they'll be sub-.500 in the easiest division again while making the game nearly unwatchable. Our staff is mostly junk, we had three players who managed to be worth at least 1 WAR - Gray, Ryan, Duran. They need better pitchers and a better philosophy. But Wacha is fine. He's probably our best or second best pitcher.

uff-da. Obviously, Damar Hamlin is the more important story but the Vikings o-line is really going to have trouble in the playoffs. SF must be salivating at the thought of playing us.

I like Wacha and, depending on the deal, this could work out. The problem is that he's unlikely to do more than pitch 130 innings. We need arms that can soak up innings or 30+ arms on the staff over the course of the season. But he - like Gray - is a real ML pitcher. It's good to have a few of them to go with everything else we have.

Just enjoy the run, guys. Enjoy the run.