Vikings Message Board.Com

Antoine aside, are you concerned with the overall age of your defense? Jared's over 30, Chad Greenway's 30, Brian Robison's 30, Kevin's over 30 -- you've got young players, too, but those are players who might begin declining soon if they haven't already.

As long as they're playing at a high level, you don't get concerned about the number, and Jared is still demanding double teams. People still have to chip him. They still have to keep a tight end in. He can still take over a game. Chad maybe had his best season of his career. But you do have to begin to infuse some young talent and that's where this draft will play a major role in that. We have to address some things on our defensive line, at the linebacker position and ... in the secondary as well.

Chad gets knocked a lot by some of the online scouting services for his coverage. But your defense is built to have a void in the short middle at times. Is there much he can do about that?

Unless you really understand the coverage, it's hard to knock a guy if you're just doing it based off of tape. You don't always know exactly what's required and what you're asking the defense to do. There are times we want the ball thrown underneath in certain coverages we're playing, and then it's a matter of our being able to be good tacklers. Other times, we don't want the ball underneath and we're playing more man or whatever and then there are other things required. So, it's hard to pay a whole lot of attention to some of those services unless you understand what we're trying to do in each situation and the down and distance matters as well. So, it's a lot of factors.

With Jasper Brinkley headed to Arizona, what's your plan at middle linebacker?

Well, we've got the upcoming daft to try to address it and we'll also look at what's available in NFL free agency. It's definitely a position we need to address. We have a void there and we've got to find the right guy. It's a big part of our defense. We have to get better at the middle linebacker position.

Erin's not an option to be the starter there or even the starting nickel, right? You'd like to find someone who can be a three-down mike.

Erin has done it in the nickel situations. But we'd like to find a three-down guy, as you mentioned. That would be ideal. What E.J. (Henderson) did for us is what we're looking for -- a three-down guy. We need to find that.

You want one guy who stays on the field in nickel.

We do. We're looking for a guy who can play the run and still help us in pass defense as well. If we could find that person -- just like finding Harrison (Smith) down the middle of our defense helped us -- finding that middle linebacker, if we could the right guy, our defense will take a big step this next season. We're obviously lacking there right now.

Eli wrote:No surprises there. That's Leslie.

losperros wrote:I think Frazier is rather straight ahead on his answers, though he's polite enough not to throw anyone under a bus. That's probably one reason why there are no surprises.

I can see why players, even Percy Harvin, respect Frazier. He seems like a class act to me.

Eli wrote:No surprises there. That's Leslie.

losperros wrote:I think Frazier is rather straight ahead on his answers, though he's polite enough not to throw anyone under a bus. That's probably one reason why there are no surprises.

I can see why players, even Percy Harvin, respect Frazier. He seems like a class act to me.

Mothman wrote:Were you expecting surprises?

Eli wrote: Absolutely the last thing anyone would expect from a Leslie Frazier interview or press conference would be a surprise.

Mothman wrote:Here's a link to a great Q&A with Leslie Frazier. It's long, it covers a lot of territory and to me, it seems like Frazier's answers are very candid:

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/QA_w ... _key032013

Frazier discusses Winfield, the Harvin trade, the "crown of the helmet" RB rule and how it might affect AD, young players, the draft, the secondary, the importance of the offseason program, Brandon Fusco, the d-line and much, much more. It's good stuff.

This was very interesting:
The comments about Greenway's coverage responsibilities were interesting to me in light of come of the things PFF has said about him in their analysis.


I'm betting the Vikes are targeting a particular MLB in this draft but I have no idea which one. It's going to be interesting.

losperros wrote:Also, I don't see him stonewalling or outright lying like Childress did.

Eli wrote: Different means to the same end: saying nothing. I doubt that Leslie realizes he's doing it, unlike Childress.

Actually, all of the recent Vikings head coaches have suffered from this. Denny Green was so whacked out that you'd swear he was asked a different question. Mike Tice was too dumb to understand the question, and Brad Childress thought he was smarter than everyone else whenever he unleashed his double-speak. Leslie Frazier just seems to be perpetually tranquilized.

Would you feel confident rolling with Chris Cook, Josh Robinson and A.J. Jefferson as your top three cornerbacks, as the depth chart stands now? Or does something have to be done?

Oh, no. We want to definitely add more competition at that position. Chris has been injured throughout his career or he's been off the field for different reasons, and then Josh is going into his second season, so you're hoping he'll continue to ascend, but you don't know. Then, A.J. hasn't proven he can do it 16 weeks in a row. So, no, we need to address that position in this draft, for sure.

Was he one of the guys you relied on when it came to discussing how hard guys were working in practice and whatnot?

Without question. I have a group of guys that help me from that standpoint. He's one of them. I meet with them once a week and then sometimes more to get a gauge on where things are in the locker room, what do we need to change, what's going well. And he's a guy I've trusted to give me good input, not always tell me what I want to hear, and he's been very, very honest and frank and that's important when you sit in the seat that I sit in, to have guys like that in the locker room.

As you look at the defensive tackles right now, is it more important to get better play out of your nose or your three-technique?

I thought the combination between Letroy (Guion) and Fred (Evans) worked pretty well. Fred really, really improved a year ago. He came on, which was encouraging. Kevin is at that stage in his career where he's not the Kevin of, say, four or five years ago, but he's still playing quality football. We'll have to see how much he has left this next season, but we need Christian Ballard to really step up and come along. He's at that point in his career where he'll have to really show that he can hold that position down. So, probably, the three-technique is of a little higher priority -- and it usually is in our defense. That guy has to be a big player for us in our defense. So, getting more from that position will help our defense be even better this season.

Eli wrote: Different means to the same end: saying nothing. I doubt that Leslie realizes he's doing it, unlike Childress.

Actually, all of the recent Vikings head coaches have suffered from this. Denny Green was so whacked out that you'd swear he was asked a different question. Mike Tice was too dumb to understand the question, and Brad Childress thought he was smarter than everyone else whenever he unleashed his double-speak. Leslie Frazier just seems to be perpetually tranquilized.

Mothman wrote:I'd rather talk about what Frazier said then go any deeper into discussing the entertainment value of his interviews and press conferences. I actually thought he had some interesting things to say. For example, with the draft coming up, his comments regarding the corners, DTs and the MLB position were intriguing (to me anyway). I posted what he said about the MLB position but regarding the other two: