2019 Season General Thread (News, Notes, Interviews, etc)

[PurpleKoolaid]

Yay, Ricky re-signed an under performing LB, and a verified mental case DE. Hes such a hard worker! He got his business degree from walmart.com.

Hey mister my friend has a son who is a Wal Mart greeter and cart retriever. Hes a wonderful kid with issues so I really dont appreciate that comment. You were just putting him down right there by comparing him to Slick Rick. The kid is a huge NFL fan, and he would have made better O line decisions in the past few years . So that was mean to put down the Wal Mart employees by comparing them to Spielman say your sorry my friend

So foe me. Wal Mart is the last place on earth I would look to for quality. Honestly couldnt care less where some friends kid works.

[CharVike]

So this s show of an OL is fine then. Hate to bring it up but our center couldn't block anything. We had problems across the board on offense. One thing I see is we don't have a WR that makes teams shake. Yes the two we have are good but we don't have the blow the top off the house guy. Were teams always need a guy over the top or the game is up. Our back who is good misses time every season. I know we need to play it out another x number of years first. He's injury prone period. You must be a Case K guy.

The Oline couldn't run block, and they were not good at pass blocking, but they were serviceable in that area. A better QB could have made it work. Whether they got rid of the ball quicker or scrambled to buy time. It is by far the weakest area of the team, especially since there are only 3 starters currently on the roster.

Not a Case guy. I wasn't on here when Case was starting, but my guess is a number of people who rip him now, would have defended him the same way they are defending Cousins when I told them Case was journeyman backup for a reason, and that he was not the answer long term. Funny how people's opinion change...

There were no better QBs available. Yes we could have resigned Case but why. Unfortunatly this OL won't be fixed in one off season. We could use 4 new guys. If we get one draft pick who starts and plays like O'neil did it will be a great pick. And I don't expect multiple draft picks to start. The best OL will fly off the board early like they always do. So it's an uphill battle and I don't know how if it can be fixed quickly. Maybe we get lucky and some young guys develop. But who is that? Isodora? Easton? Maybe I guess. This 18th pick will be interesting. Hopefully their eyes are open and don't just focus on OL. I'm hoping that QB Drew Lock falls but I'm reading the Giants are interested. They have no interest in the Ohio St guy. So he might fly off the board early and can learn from Eli for a year. Maybe Shurmur did the right thing last year. Time will tell.

[CharVike]

This CAP stuff is very confusing for me. The Saints were broke and yet they sign Murray. The bottom line is the CAP is anything a team wants it to be. It has zero bearing on what a team can do.

Brees restructured his contract to free up cap space but his cap hit next year is MASSIVE. They are definitely in win now mode. Eventually you pay the piper.

But you can pay the piper a hundred years from now. I don't think the CAP stops any team that knows how to manage it. At least it shouldn't. With the Saints it's more than one guy. They gave somebody from NE money. So it's unlimited for them. And I'm not knocking Rick either. Yes he gave Cousins a boat load. Probably more than he should have but we had no choice. Many teams were after him and we had nothing. It was either him or go into full rebuild and tank 2018 and get a top draft pick and then the development cycle. Again the Saints were in win now mode last year and they are in it again. It won't stop until Brees is done. Once he's done the game is up because they have zero behind him.

[halfgiz]

What would it accomplish signing an OT. Guards is what we really need.
O we could convert Reiff to a guard and pay him tackle money.
Bottom line we have had 4 years to put together an OL and Rick has failed.
Last season should have been OL in the first round but instead we took a luxury pick.

But we took OL in the 2nd and still made out with that pick so is there really a difference between O’Neill and Hernandez given how they both played this year? No. The chances of Spielman taking back to back lineman is probably slim. It would have been great but slim chances. So given his history, who cares if we did it in round 1 or 2, we still got a good offensive lineman out of it and possibly our LT of the future which is the toughest offensive line position to find

I still think that Rick got very lucky with O'Neil. I would like to see where O'Neil was originally on Ricks list.
Where would we have been last season if O'Neil wasn't ready to play...we would have been pretty much screwed.
Think what shape we would be in right now if we would have got both Hernandez and O'Neil.

[CharVike]

But we took OL in the 2nd and still made out with that pick so is there really a difference between O’Neill and Hernandez given how they both played this year? No. The chances of Spielman taking back to back lineman is probably slim. It would have been great but slim chances. So given his history, who cares if we did it in round 1 or 2, we still got a good offensive lineman out of it and possibly our LT of the future which is the toughest offensive line position to find

I still think that Rick got very lucky with O'Neil. I would like to see where O'Neil was originally on Ricks list.
Where would we have been last season if O'Neil wasn't ready to play...we would have been pretty much screwed.
Think what shape we would be in right now if we would have got both Hernandez and O'Neil.

Rick did get lucky with O'neil no doubt. But give him some credit also. He was considered a project by most. Mainly due to strength. He played better than Hernandez. But he liked Hughes and based on the time he played he did some good things but was also picked on. That's expected for a rookie CB. At least he picked a pass off which showed something positive and something we have lacked getting TOs. And very few teams take back to back positions. I think the Pack took back to back DBs and what did it do for them? Not much. But they were rookies so who knows going forward. I'm starting to see as most this OL needs much work. But it's hard for me to see us fixing it via the draft quickly. But it's possible. I also don't want to miss a better player for need. Maybe Saprano dying hurt this group big time which can be expected. Maybe that was Elf's main problem along with injury and he will be OK this year. That would be great for us. Hard to get last years non playoff off the mind. Perhaps that champ game gave me false expectations. I should have know better. It was a season that just fell together in many ways.

[MrPurplenGold]

What would it accomplish signing an OT. Guards is what we really need.
O we could convert Reiff to a guard and pay him tackle money.
Bottom line we have had 4 years to put together an OL and Rick has failed.
Last season should have been OL in the first round but instead we took a luxury pick.

In 2020 Reiff's cap number will be 13.2M. He can be released and save 8.8M with only 4.4M in dead money per overthecap. My guess is, without a restructure, this is Reiff's last year with the vinings. The biggest question is do they see O'Neill as the LT of the future. If they see him better as a RT then moving Reiff to guard and drafting a LT makes sense. A standout LT is also much more difficult to find than a standout interior lineman. So, if a LT prospect falls to the vikings, i think they should take him. My favorite tackle prospects for a zone blocking scheme are Dillard and Risner. If we drafted Risner i would say we would move O'Neill to LT and Risner at RT and hopefully you have your bookend tackles for the next decade. We would then move Reiff to guard and hope elflein gets better. If we went interior i like garret or lindstrom. Either way, we are going to need multiple lineman out of this draft. I wouldn't be surprised if we spent the first 2 picks on OL with it being a deep DL draft.

[S197]

Brees restructured his contract to free up cap space but his cap hit next year is MASSIVE. They are definitely in win now mode. Eventually you pay the piper.

But you can pay the piper a hundred years from now. I don't think the CAP stops any team that knows how to manage it. At least it shouldn't. With the Saints it's more than one guy. They gave somebody from NE money. So it's unlimited for them. And I'm not knocking Rick either. Yes he gave Cousins a boat load. Probably more than he should have but we had no choice. Many teams were after him and we had nothing. It was either him or go into full rebuild and tank 2018 and get a top draft pick and then the development cycle. Again the Saints were in win now mode last year and they are in it again. It won't stop until Brees is done. Once he's done the game is up because they have zero behind him.

Not really, as I mentioned did you see Brees' cap hit next year? If you keep rolling it forward you will be paying dead money for a guy who retired 10 years ago. You can only restructure so much.

Also I'm not sure if you're aware but cap isn't an acronym.

[CharVike]

But you can pay the piper a hundred years from now. I don't think the CAP stops any team that knows how to manage it. At least it shouldn't. With the Saints it's more than one guy. They gave somebody from NE money. So it's unlimited for them. And I'm not knocking Rick either. Yes he gave Cousins a boat load. Probably more than he should have but we had no choice. Many teams were after him and we had nothing. It was either him or go into full rebuild and tank 2018 and get a top draft pick and then the development cycle. Again the Saints were in win now mode last year and they are in it again. It won't stop until Brees is done. Once he's done the game is up because they have zero behind him.

Not really, as I mentioned did you see Brees' cap hit next year? If you keep rolling it forward you will be paying dead money for a guy who retired 10 years ago. You can only restructure so much.

Also I'm not sure if you're aware but cap isn't an acronym.

I'll admit I don't know much about the cap.

[J. Kapp 11]

What was that?

I was wrong. not the first or last. Hopefully all works out. No doubt he is a very good player. Now we'll see about the mental stuff.

Just giving you friendly grief.

I'm glad he's back, assuming it's a reasonable deal. He's still a good player, and probably not replaceable by anyone currently on our roster. Weatherly does a nice job, but he's not Griff, at least not Griff at his best. Let's hope he's past his emotional issues.

[Husker Vike]

I think Elflein will be fine and we should leave him at center,he will and would be better if he did't have two ham sandwiches playing guard next to him.

[Bowhunting Viking]

Hey mister my friend has a son who is a Wal Mart greeter and cart retriever. Hes a wonderful kid with issues so I really dont appreciate that comment. You were just putting him down right there by comparing him to Slick Rick. The kid is a huge NFL fan, and he would have made better O line decisions in the past few years . So that was mean to put down the Wal Mart employees by comparing them to Spielman say your sorry my friend

So foe me. Wal Mart is the last place on earth I would look to for quality. Honestly couldnt care less where some friends kid works.

Man buddy that was written in the spirit of ironic fun, hence the laughing emoji at the end. Was coming from the angle that the kid is actually smarter than Spielman when it comes to the O line, and saying in jest that it was a discredit to the kid. Wow sorry , u took offense to a blatant joke.
I really thought that would be clear. I guess everyone's got a different sense of humor. I apologize, will just keep any posts serious from now on. I've never foed anyone and really have never had an issue with anyone here.
Again sorry u didn't see the context of the post as it was intended

[PurpleKoolaid]

So foe me. Wal Mart is the last place on earth I would look to for quality. Honestly couldnt care less where some friends kid works.

Man buddy that was written in the spirit of ironic fun, hence the laughing emoji at the end. Was coming from the angle that the kid is actually smarter than Spielman when it comes to the O line, and saying in jest that it was a discredit to the kid. Wow sorry , u took offense to a blatant joke.
I really thought that would be clear. I guess everyone's got a different sense of humor. I apologize, will just keep any posts serious from now on. I've never foed anyone and really have never had an issue with anyone here.
Again sorry u didn't see the context of the post as it was intended

Hah, Ive been told I am slow when it comes to sarcasm. I figured you were one of those people who thinks Rick can do no harm.

[PurpleKoolaid]

I think Elflein will be fine and we should leave him at center,he will and would be better if he did't have two ham sandwiches playing guard next to him.

Ive heard a few people say Elf is good, or close to being good. Based on what? Certainly not his stats, he has proven hes one year away from being a bust. And I bet the Vikes know this and will draft a C in the draft, and maybe try Elf at guard. I think Kuiak will try a few people at guard this year. And O'neil is nothing to write home about. He wasnt expected to play, so he has that in his favor, thats about it. Neither of these draft picks were very good. But we finally have a few guys coming into the Vikings that actually know something about an offense.

[Bowhunting Viking]

Man buddy that was written in the spirit of ironic fun, hence the laughing emoji at the end. Was coming from the angle that the kid is actually smarter than Spielman when it comes to the O line, and saying in jest that it was a discredit to the kid. Wow sorry , u took offense to a blatant joke.
I really thought that would be clear. I guess everyone's got a different sense of humor. I apologize, will just keep any posts serious from now on. I've never foed anyone and really have never had an issue with anyone here.
Again sorry u didn't see the context of the post as it was intended

Hah, Ive been told I am slow when it comes to sarcasm. I figured you were one of those people who thinks Rick can do no harm.

No not at all. I have a very creative sarcastic mind. Lol all good

[J. Kapp 11]

Did we mention the Shamar Stephen signing?

Three years, $12.45 million, $6 million guaranteed.

He didn't grade out all that great on PFF, but he did start 15 games for Seattle, and Zimmer loves him, calling him "The Big Fundamental." Maybe a poor man's Sheldon Richardson? He's got more size than Richardson, so that could help against the run.

Thoughts?