Friday Mailbag: Packers week

It’s a big weekend for the Vikings as they face their biggest rival

Photo courtesy Minnesota Vikings

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By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday, everyone. It’s been a really fun week getting ready for Vikings/Packers. Let’s dive into what’s on fans’ minds….

Ben… Do you think a big reason for the Vikings being 3-0 is that they are asking many different players to do a little instead of ask a few players to do a lot??

I might phrase it a little differently. I would probably say that they are asking a ton from the players who can handle a ton. Andrew Van Ginkel, Josh Metellus, Harrison Smith, Stephon Gilmore, Jonathan Greenard, Harrison Phillips, Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones, Christian Darrisaw, Brian O’Neill… these guys are beasts who have been around the NFL for a long time and can handle just about anything the coaches put on their plate. That allows role players to be able to fit into their spots effectively rather than being asked to do too much.

If you have a player as physically talented as Jihad Ward playing 20 snaps doing exactly what he does best, that’s a heck of a good place to be talent wise. You can only do that if Greenard and Van Ginkel play 50 snaps.

It’s a really good roster, man. That’s something that went underappreciated as the universe was picking them last in the North.

Christopher K… Has Ed Ingram done enough to avoid being replaced at right guard when Risner is ready to play?

So far Ingram has given up the fifth most pressures among all guards in the NFL and has the second lowest PFF pass blocking grade. He is 30th out of 63 in run blocking grade. Last year Risner ranked 20th of 58 in pass blocking grade and 49th in run blocking.

The sample size is pretty enormous at this point of Ingram too many taking fast losses in pass protection. The absolutely wild stat about the O-line right now is that Darnold is facing the second highest percentage of his pressure from the right guard (per PFF) in the NFL and the tackles have gone against Burns, Bosa, Anderson/Hunter. Cut that number down and there’s a better chance of Darnold sustaining his play.

PurpFoolio… I was kinda sus of the cutsie factor that KOC & Kwesi had fallen into. The odd trick plays at weird times or bad TO’s, not firing Ed in 22’. Or the rookie move of moving back for more picks when the ten year starters are usually in the top 15. Fine, I’ll get over not drafting Hamilton even though it was a no brainer. But come on, what do these guys gotta do now to get an extension? KOC has turned a lot of these broken dudes into all pro’s and Kwesi’s off season might be an all timer. What are the Wilfs doing?'

I know it’s not the point and didn’t like the trade back in ‘22 but I wouldn’t call that a “rookie move” so much as a move that matched up with historical data about the draft. But just like it might be better to attempt a fourth down conversion, if you miss then everyone will say you shouldn’t have gone for it. Hamilton was obvious to you, that’s great, but he wasn’t obvious enough to the league to go higher and the rest of the guys from that range in the ‘22 draft have all turned out to be bad.

Anyway, I’ve never had a problem with the Wilfs not signing them to extension when they aren’t entering the final year of their deals. If they were both going to be free agents after this season, then I would be saying differently. They can wait until they see how everything looks in the light of 2024 before deciding if they want to go all-in on the KOC/KAM leadership for the next four years or if they want to slow play it a little bit more. That seems like a business-like approach.

In my opinion, they have become the gold standard for environments for players around the NFL, which matters a lot, and it’s very clear that Adofo-Mensah was able to follow through with the entire “competitive rebuild” roster plan from 2022-2024 and come out on the other side as a very talented team. I’d be very confident moving forward with both under long term contracts and let them see through the winning window that they have opened.

Biggest Monke… What would a possible Camryn Bynum extension look like?

The top tier safeties are just starting to touch around $20 million per year but players with his role are still hovering around $8-$10 million. Maybe something like Justin Reid’s three-year, $31 million would make sense. Bynum is a very good player who fits really well into his spot. The higher number of key pieces they can keep in place from the present version of this defense the greater chance that it continues to play at this level going forward.

Thomas S…. Matthew: Do you think opposing teams might begin deploying a hurry-up offense to limit the Vikings defense’s opportunity to play “cat and mouse” and make adjustments before the snap?

Yep. At US Bank Stadium something like this might be pretty hard to do against the Vikings defense but I wouldn’t be shocked if we see more tempo against them on the road. I’m not sure if that’s the antidote though because the Vikings get their initial call against the offense’s initial call. If the offense doesn’t change anything, they just run into the first version of the Vikings’ defense before the adjustments.