I would say your last point is spot on. Kluwe was easily good enough to go another year or more. He didn't fall on his face last year. The got lucky with Walsh, not omniscient. If they expect that to happen again, they could be in for quite a rude awakening.CalVike wrote:I don't like it. Here's why. Last year they turned PK from a liability into a differentiator. This year, on their high horse, they thought let's use the magic and turn the P into a differentiator. But there's far less upside to spending a 5 on a P than a 6 on a PK, even if the hot shot left-footed new P is top notch. And he may not be, history is filled with top draft P who flopped. Kluwe was good enough to go another year, at what is actually far less than top of the league P salary.
We'll see after this year. If the Vikings go 10-6 or better again, Spielman will feel empowered (not that he doesn't already) and you could see even crazier/dumber moves in the future. If not, maybe he'll be brought back down to earth.To me, GM Rick Spielman got too cute on draft day, dropping a 5 on a P and a 3 and a 4 in a trade. He may regret the opportunity cost of dropping the non-P players he would have picked 3, 4, and 5.
American hero?As for Kluwe's outspokenness and the role it played, there's not much there. The Vikings deserve the benefit of the doubt that they acted in good faith in that regard. There is a fair performance argument to be played. This was done because of the tremendous success of the Blair Walsh Project, not to silence am American hero, which he truly is.
Kluwe just had a big mouth and got on everyone's nerves. He was easy to dislike if you were a Vikings coach.
