2022 schedule

[Pondering Her Percy]

Exactly. It won't happen because I don't expect us to be last. Though I do expect Chicago and Detroit to improve. But I can't picture a scenario where we would clean house like we did, and then fire a brand new staff after one season. It just won't happen. And shouldn't happen.

Detroit? Improve?

I can honestly say I think Detroit will be much better than Chicago. I dont see any way Chicago improves. I think they have the worst roster in the NFL by far. Only team close may be Houston. But Chicago's roster is disgustingly bad.

[CharVike]

Come on really? I do not expect Vikings to make the playoffs with a new coaching staff and learning a new system

It looks like the Wilfs expect them to make the playoffs based on their public statements. The way it looks to me, they felt the major change needed for the team to return to the playoffs was to replace the GM and head coach to get more out of the talent already on the team.

If KOC doesn't turn out to be more effective at getting the most out of the existing talent than Zimmer was able to get, I wonder how the Wilfs will react.

On the bright side, the actions of the Wilfs and of the new GM will allow their various theories to be put to the test. If the thing holding the Vikings back from success was the GM-coach combo, replacing both while holding the talent steady should result in an improved W-L record and/or playoff success. For KAM, his trades with divisional rivals (who both selected receivers, not ironically) will allow everyone to see twice a year if his theory on the relative flatness of the talent pool between picks 12-75 was accurate. The Vikings also get an early Monday night matchup against the Eagles this season, so we can all see if passing on Jordan Davis validates that as well since I'll be shocked if Davis doesn't start that game. Will we see Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth jumping in front of passes and flying up to blow up running plays, or Jordan Davis absolutely wrecking the interior Vikings OL when the Vikings hand it to Cook? Should be interesting to see. I'm willing to give KAM the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think it will take very long to see if he read it right or he's full of hot air and really doesn't know what he's doing.

Pointing out Davis is an interesting deal. Flat talent pool between 12-75 makes little sense to me. I'm not a genius though. It will be interesting to see where those 3 players are at. Cine needs to beat out a converted CB who is learning the position. If that's not easy for him then there's a problem. Booth don't have much in front of him either. He was considered a 1st round talent by some.

[CharVike]

I dont really understand the whole "we should have blown the roster up" take. Teams like the Bears blew their roster up by getting rid of Mack and Robinson. That was the extent. Blowing your roster up usually consists of a team with maybe a couple good players left on it with inflated contracts and the rest of the roster is pretty bad. You dont take a roster with top 12-15 talent in the NFL and just cut every worthwhile veteran on it.

In what world does or would a team ever get rid of Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, Harrison Smith, Eric Kendricks, and Patrick Peterson (who makes pennies so I'm not really sure why he was on your list) all in one offseason? That's just not even realistic and honestly unheard of. I'm glad they didnt take that route. We didnt have the team to do it regardless. I think the future still looks very bright with this new regime and what they have brought in.

The bears didn’t really need to release or trade anyone, they got 120 million in cap next year. If we struggle and have more holes than predicted,How much cap do we have next year? I got lots of bears fans as friends, our organizations took polar opposite approach’s to “rebuilding” we will
know in 3 years which one did it the right way.

The Bears future will come down to Fields. If he turns into a solid pro they will be in good shape. If not then it's back to starting that search all over again.

[Texas Vike]

By "hard reset" I'm talking about shedding core players, especially those with big contracts, so, yes, Cousins, but also guys like Hunter, Harrison Smith, Kendricks, Cook, PP, etc. Lots of fans thought we would go into a more aggressive rebuild this offseason with new GM and coach. Instead, they chose to do what they are calling a "competitive rebuild" which is somewhat euphemistic and a way to hedge their bets IMO.

I personally think the NFC East is weak. If we can't beat teams like Dallas and Wash at home, we aren't even close to being a playoff team. The north is weak too, so we should prosper. If we don't make it to 10 wins, we need to blow the roster up, starting with Cousins.

But what you're saying — jettisoning big contracts — is pretty much what they're doing. They're just not doing it this year.

They drafted Cine to eventually replace Smith, Booth to replace PP, Asamoah to replace Kendricks, Evans to (likely) replace Dantzler (not a big contract but potentially a better player), and Chandler to replace Cook. Unless there are injuries, those replacements won't happen in 2022, but you can bet that's the long-term plan. If that plan works out, then Kwesi's competitive rebuild will be an apt description. If it doesn't work out, then the Vikings aren't any worse off than if they'd dumped salary and fell back to being a 2.0 version of the Bears.

Just because lots of fans thought they would go into a more aggressive rebuild right away this offseason doesn't make that the correct course of action. And it was never a given that it would be the only course of action. It's just what many people assumed.

To clarify, I think KAM chose the right path. It seems several posters erroneously thought I was advocating for a 'hard reset' / full rebuild. I'm not. Cliff asked me to clarify what I meant with that term, so I did.

Shedding big contracts would have been a hard reset and it would have started with Kirk. It would have acquired whatever it could in draft picks for guys like Hunter, Kendricks, and Cook. Most likely, they looked into those options and didn't like the compensation.

Kapp what you're talking about is EXACTLY what they mean by "competitive rebuild;" that was my point. It's just a euphemism for building a team for the future while you are attempting to compete the best you can now, i.e. the approach of nearly all teams in the NFL.

PHP: PP makes pennies on this new contract, but his previous one was expensive for his talent level at this stage in his career and a team in a full on rebuild cuts fat wherever they find it. Zoom out, time-wise, to understand why I included him in the off-season decisions KAM made. In other words: KAM said, "I'll take you back, but only at this cost."

[Texas Vike]

Detroit? Improve?

I can honestly say I think Detroit will be much better than Chicago. I dont see any way Chicago improves. I think they have the worst roster in the NFL by far. Only team close may be Houston. But Chicago's roster is disgustingly bad.

I agree that Detroit is heading in the right direction. They are building talent and have a coach that the players seem to be responding to, as the latter half of last season showed for them. Chicago is interesting as they chose Poles as their GM, a guy who had been rumored to be in the running for the Vikes. His approach has been different from KAM's, so it is an interesting juxtaposition.

[fiestavike]

I agree with Chicago Purple: both our favorable schedule and the fact that our new GM and coach chose to NOT do a hard reset makes me expect playoffs. Anything less will call for some major changes, not just a "competitive rebuild" but a much more thorough one.

What is a "hard reset" in your opinion? They've cleaned house with coaching and management. Perhaps because they didn't do things like cut Cousins or something?

As far as the ease of schedule ... it's not a gift, the worse your team the year before the easier your schedule is supposed to be. That said, the fact is we just don't know how tough the schedule is. Teams change quickly in the NFL.

If no playoffs I would definitely fire KOC. The guy seems like a real lightweight, so if he's not the wonderboy they probably hoped he'd be, no point in wasting time keeping him around.

[Pondering Her Percy]

Part of the reason they have $120 million is indeed because of guys like Khalil Mack and Allen Robinson like I mentioned above.

Even if they kept both they’d still be 80-90 million under the cap. However the bears have realized by the time they’re competitive there older veterans will be way on the down side of there career. The Vikings seem to want to keep players like Smith, Kendrick’s, Cook , Theilen (all players that are starting or will be starting to decline in the next 3 years) I’m assuming they’re keeping these guys because they believe they can win within that window, so I’d assume the organization believes they can win now, so why are we not expecting playoffs? Seems like you agree we should be.

Right and I think that was a smart move because the Vikings may have some aging veterans, but they also have a talented group of young players. Jefferson-elite, O'Neill- very good, Darrisaw- promising, Cleveland- solid, Osborn- solid, young promising RBs, Hunter- still only 27 and elite, Watts- solid, Dantzler- solid, etc. Like Chicago didnt even have that. They didnt have anything close to that really. It was as simple as getting rid of a few guys like Mack and Robinson and just like that they were down to a bare bones roster. If we cut some of our aging veterans as you can see above we'd still have a good chunk of solid players. So a full rebuild with this team didnt make much sense. You'd be wasting years with JJ, Oneill, etc and to be honest, JJ probably wouldnt stay past his rookie deal. Especially if we had nothing in place at QB.

However, doing a competitive rebuild like they did, we didnt have a whole lot we needed on the offensive side of the ball. Outside of a RG and C that was really it and Kwesi and KOC noticed that. So we went hard after defense in free agency coming away with 3 very good players in Phillips, Smith and Hicks along with some other solid players and depth pieces. Then added to that even more via the draft with Cine, Booth and Asamoah. There's no doubt in my mind this was the best option going forward with this franchise.

I'm not really sure why fans think doing a complete tear down is what we needed. If we did that, you could pretty much kiss guys like JJ goodbye. It's like just because we got rid of our coaching staff and GM that was what was required. No. Whether fans like to admit it or not, Rick Spielman put a lot of talent on this roster. I've said that for years now. Sure they havent won a SB but it's also not Spielmans job to coach these men as well. I can tell you that if Kwesi and KOC, coming into this team fresh, thought it was limited talent wise, you would've seen a full rebuild. It was easy for Poles in Chicago. He had to cut ties with two players and some other minor ones and boom, he has a stripped roster. Our situation was just nowhere near the same as Chicagos

[Pondering Her Percy]

I can honestly say I think Detroit will be much better than Chicago. I dont see any way Chicago improves. I think they have the worst roster in the NFL by far. Only team close may be Houston. But Chicago's roster is disgustingly bad.

I agree that Detroit is heading in the right direction. They are building talent and have a coach that the players seem to be responding to, as the latter half of last season showed for them. Chicago is interesting as they chose Poles as their GM, a guy who had been rumored to be in the running for the Vikes. His approach has been different from KAM's, so it is an interesting juxtaposition.

Yeah I was all about wanting Poles here given he came from KC but I'm glad we didnt go that route now given his plan was probably to tear down this roster which I dont agree with whatsoever.

[VikingsFan84]

Detroit? Improve?

I can honestly say I think Detroit will be much better than Chicago. I dont see any way Chicago improves. I think they have the worst roster in the NFL by far. Only team close may be Houston. But Chicago's roster is disgustingly bad.

But they are the Lions, they are a terrible franchise

[CharVike]

CBS strength of schedule https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2022 ... est-slate/
Of course the Cowboys have the easiest ride. We are at 20. Looks like the Rams have the hardest.

[Pondering Her Percy]

I can honestly say I think Detroit will be much better than Chicago. I dont see any way Chicago improves. I think they have the worst roster in the NFL by far. Only team close may be Houston. But Chicago's roster is disgustingly bad.

But they are the Lions, they are a terrible franchise

haha yeah I mean the Browns were once a terrible franchise and are getting better now. When you pick top 5 year after year after year, I'd hope you somehow get better over time.

[J. Kapp 11]

But what you're saying — jettisoning big contracts — is pretty much what they're doing. They're just not doing it this year.

They drafted Cine to eventually replace Smith, Booth to replace PP, Asamoah to replace Kendricks, Evans to (likely) replace Dantzler (not a big contract but potentially a better player), and Chandler to replace Cook. Unless there are injuries, those replacements won't happen in 2022, but you can bet that's the long-term plan. If that plan works out, then Kwesi's competitive rebuild will be an apt description. If it doesn't work out, then the Vikings aren't any worse off than if they'd dumped salary and fell back to being a 2.0 version of the Bears.

Just because lots of fans thought they would go into a more aggressive rebuild right away this offseason doesn't make that the correct course of action. And it was never a given that it would be the only course of action. It's just what many people assumed.

To clarify, I think KAM chose the right path. It seems several posters erroneously thought I was advocating for a 'hard reset' / full rebuild. I'm not. Cliff asked me to clarify what I meant with that term, so I did.

Shedding big contracts would have been a hard reset and it would have started with Kirk. It would have acquired whatever it could in draft picks for guys like Hunter, Kendricks, and Cook. Most likely, they looked into those options and didn't like the compensation.

Kapp what you're talking about is EXACTLY what they mean by "competitive rebuild;" that was my point. It's just a euphemism for building a team for the future while you are attempting to compete the best you can now, i.e. the approach of nearly all teams in the NFL.

PHP: PP makes pennies on this new contract, but his previous one was expensive for his talent level at this stage in his career and a team in a full on rebuild cuts fat wherever they find it. Zoom out, time-wise, to understand why I included him in the off-season decisions KAM made. In other words: KAM said, "I'll take you back, but only at this cost."

Cool man. I misunderstood your position.

For the record, I don’t have any idea or strong opinion as to whether this approach will work. I don’t have a crystal ball. What I DO believe is that both KAM and KOC deserve a couple of years to prove it either way.

Also, it isn’t fair to simply say that KAM is in over his head because he didn’t handle the draft the way someone else would. The Vikings clearly took a different approach than to get the baddest stud out there. They saw the talent pool as flat after the first few picks, so they set about to get as many quality players as they could. It’s OK to criticize the strategy, but not the results. If the goal was to maximize picks in the 25-75 range, KAM clearly succeeded. He’s not a sap or a patsy. He was simply going for a different outcome.

As for 2022, looking at the home and away opponents, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Vikings win 12 games if they stay relatively healthy. At the same time, it wouldn’t shock me to see them go 7-10. After all, these ARE the Vikings we’re talking about.

[Texas Vike]

To clarify, I think KAM chose the right path. It seems several posters erroneously thought I was advocating for a 'hard reset' / full rebuild. I'm not. Cliff asked me to clarify what I meant with that term, so I did.

Shedding big contracts would have been a hard reset and it would have started with Kirk. It would have acquired whatever it could in draft picks for guys like Hunter, Kendricks, and Cook. Most likely, they looked into those options and didn't like the compensation.

Kapp what you're talking about is EXACTLY what they mean by "competitive rebuild;" that was my point. It's just a euphemism for building a team for the future while you are attempting to compete the best you can now, i.e. the approach of nearly all teams in the NFL.

PHP: PP makes pennies on this new contract, but his previous one was expensive for his talent level at this stage in his career and a team in a full on rebuild cuts fat wherever they find it. Zoom out, time-wise, to understand why I included him in the off-season decisions KAM made. In other words: KAM said, "I'll take you back, but only at this cost."

Cool man. I misunderstood your position.

For the record, I don’t have any idea or strong opinion as to whether this approach will work. I don’t have a crystal ball. What I DO believe is that both KAM and KOC deserve a couple of years to prove it either way.

Also, it isn’t fair to simply say that KAM is in over his head because he didn’t handle the draft the way someone else would. The Vikings clearly took a different approach than to get the baddest stud out there. They saw the talent pool as flat after the first few picks, so they set about to get as many quality players as they could. It’s OK to criticize the strategy, but not the results. If the goal was to maximize picks in the 25-75 range, KAM clearly succeeded. He’s not a sap or a patsy. He was simply going for a different outcome.

As for 2022, looking at the home and away opponents, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Vikings win 12 games if they stay relatively healthy. At the same time, it wouldn’t shock me to see them go 7-10. After all, these ARE the Vikings we’re talking about.

I agree with all of your points here, and my head nodded most strongly at your last one: I could see us winning the division, and I could also see us wallowing in .500 mediocrity once again. Just once in our lifetimes! Please!

[vikeinmontana]

Exactly. It won't happen because I don't expect us to be last. Though I do expect Chicago and Detroit to improve. But I can't picture a scenario where we would clean house like we did, and then fire a brand new staff after one season. It just won't happen. And shouldn't happen.

Detroit? Improve?

I don't know. They won three of their last six. Beat the Packers and us. And the Cardinals. And I feel like they were fairly competitive in most of their games. I'm not saying they're Super Bowl bound, but I have a hard time laughing too hard at a team that we couldn't beat when we really needed a win for playoff aspirations.

[psjordan]

To be completely frank, I was not at all impressed by the moves KAM made in this draft... in KAM's case at least, the decisions he made in this last draft offer a unique opportunity for more direct comparisons with his publicly-stated logic and reasoning behind those decisions than most GMs

Well that's an opinion, and yes KAM made some "unconventional" moves in the draft. Did you see our draft room? I did not get the sense that anyone there was saying or implying "hey KAM, go ahead, but if this doesn't work by this time next year you're fired".

There is no "Mel Kiper vs. Jets" outrage about KAM's approach. Most articles/recaps I've seen by anyone reasonably close to the game at worst have said it was a head-scratching gamble and lets-hope-this-works for the Vike's sake. Some have been very upbeat if not complimentary. But to fire a brand new GM after one draft? That would have to be close to the worst draft of all time, and it's woefully premature to put this draft in that category.

I'm just glad I don't work for some of the folks on this forum - one year and your'e fired? That's more than a bit unfair unless there is complete and total malfeasance - and there is no way this draft qualifies for that description.

I get people didn't like it. I get there are now two more decent WR's in our division. But I'd ask again, where on the list of GM duties is "keeping divisional teams from getting better"? Wouldn't that that be about 77th on the list of things to tackle as GM? KAM is solely concentrating on making the Vikes better. He took into consideration what he was trading to DET and GB, and STILL thought it was good for the team. The Wilfs hired him for his thoughts on the methodology to make that happen. I'm more than positive (if there is such a thing) that trades with NFCC teams were discussed in the draft room and agreed upon, from the owners on down.

What I don't get is the "give it one season" logic in terms of firing. And it's not that some fans feel that way, it's that some feel that would be a logical thing to do.

The goal in hiring KAM KOC is to change dozens of years of mediocrity, it's not to change it in one draft.