Friday mailbag: Now the offseason really begins

Vikings fans have questions about the next steps in free agency and the draft

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By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday, everyone. Who’s excited about the XFL? Am I right? Anyone else but me? Well, anyway, we have lots to discuss about the offseason madness that’s on the way.

Before we do that I want to give a shout out to Purple Insider’s Paul Hodowanic. He just got a job as a writer for the PGA Tour website so he will be leaving us after next week to take his dream gig as a major golf nut. Paul has been a massive part of our operation since the beginning when he was Intern Paul. He’s grown into a phenomenal writer and has a sharp mind for football analysis. His contributions will be greatly missed but I’m incredibly proud of all the work he put in to get there. We’ll have an announcement on Paul’s replacement coming next week…I’m very excited about our new addition.

Alright, off to your questions…

@McNmndad Would a total darkness retreat keep me from hurting myself if Rodgers becomes a Viking?

I’ve always been under the impression that Rodgers wanted to stay away from the Favre parallels, even if there’s no avoiding how similar their career arcs are. That’s the only reason I could see him avoiding the Jets and if he does play for an AFC team he’s presumably ending his career there. Favre was a dude who couldn’t get enough football and would have played forever if he could. Rodgers seems pained to be asked to keep playing but also can’t quit being the center of attention or earning tons of money. I’d guess he plays one or two more years in the AFC and forgoes the Vikings portion of the Favre script.

@headcoach21 Your pie chart of what happens with Cousins this offseason??

Well, there’s four options: 1) No extension and plays in 2023 for the Vikings, 2) short-term extension with Vikings, 3) long-term extension with Vikings and 4) traded.

1 — 20%

2 — 45%

3 — 30%

4 — 5%

It’s really hard to know what they’re thinking right now but it still feels like a short-term extension that could allow for him to become a free agent next offseason a la Derek Carr is the most likely outcome.

@CoreyHermanson how much are fans going to melt down when Kwesi does the smart thing and moves down to acquire additional picks?

It’s going to take the wind out of the sails on draft night if that happens, no doubt. If we’re ranking the most exciting days of most teams’ year, draft night ranks toward the top. It gives everyone a chance for unadulterated optimism about what’s to come for their squad. Take that away with a trade down and folks are gonna be pretty sad, particularly with the results of last year’s trade-down festival not exactly working out in the Vikings’ favor. But if there’s any place in the draft to do it, moving from the late first to early second is the spot. In most years you end up with similar caliber prospects between like picks 25-50 and they need draft capital like I need more pizza. So, yes, it might work out that way. Fans are smart though. If it’s a good trade, they’ll get it. And if it’s not a good trade, we’ll spend the next three months debating it.

@BIG_dannn In your opinion does playing in a weaker conference (& my reasoning is the gauntlet of quarterbacks are nowhere near the AFC level) does it almost makes Kwesi have to go in every year? Due to his short contract I believe he has 3 years left.

The conference produced teams like the Eagles, Cowboys and 49ers, who were playing in different worlds in comparison to the Vikings this year. Sure, it isn’t the AFC with Mahomes/Allen/Burrow/Herbert etc. but there are a bunch of NFC teams who are about to get young QBs or build monster rosters with the capital they’ve built up from being bad. Teams like the Lions, Bears, Falcons, Panthers, Commanders etc. all look pretty rough right now but if you go back a few years that was the Bills/Bengals/Jets/ Jags. Things are always shifting around because they league is designed to do that. You’d much rather play the cards to compete for a Super Bowl long term rather than hoping everyone else stinks and you back into a deep playoff run.

@EricVikesfan28 If the Vikings are truly being honest with themselves about where this team is at. What would be the purpose of extending Kirk Cousins for 1 more year? If they aren’t going to be in true contention to win a Super Bowl then what is the point? Rip off the band aid!

No disagreement here. Over five years, Kirk Cousins has played some very, very good football and it hasn’t worked. His individual performance is about the best they ever could have hoped for when they signed him in 2018 and yet they’ve watched the divisional round from home every year except one. With his age, it’s hard to see this level of performance sustaining, which should take a long-term extension off the table. A short-term extension only helps the cap situation by so much and the team has so many needs. It just doesn’t really add up.

@JakeRyan9999 Do you think the Vikings will trade back ? If so what type of pick could they add ? Maybe a late 2nd ? If they stick and Pick what do you think about Cam Smith , Bijan Robinson , Will McDonald?

I do think they could trade back. Getting another second-rounder would be tough. It always depends on the desperation of the other team but I wouldn’t expect anything higher than a third if they slid back like 15 spots. I used this calculator based on the Jimmy Johnson chart (which, I know, the Vikings aren’t using) and came up with No. 24 for picks 40 and 70. That’s not exact science or even the same team but just trying to ballpark it.

As far as players, if they draft a running back in the first or second round, then what was the point of hiring the Analytics GM? It would be the worst draft decision made by the Vikings since I started covering the team in 2016…by far. This team has needs everywhere and they aren’t even a run-first team anymore. It would be downright wacky to pick a RB considering Chandler is intriguing and there’s a number of free agents who can do the job.

@sdilg539 I’m speculating but what about moving Cine to linebacker? He’s fast and apparently a big hitter

Let’s see him play a single game at safety first, shall we?

@MIvikesfan I'm 48. will the Vikings win a superbowl before I die? will they even get to another superbowl before I die?

How am I supposed to know when you’re going to die? To tell you the truth, that phrase is a little too morbid for me. I think that we like sports because of shared experiences with fellow fans, friends and family. If you only liked football for championships, you wouldn’t be reading a Vikings newsletter, so maybe we can try to keep it all in perspective.

@kyleshaner If you were named the NFL rules czar, what would you create and/or change?

First, bring in the XFL kickoff. Figure out a way to make onside kicks exciting again. Skyjudge would make an instant ruling on all catches in full speed and full speed only. If you have to slow it down to frame by frame and take 20 minutes to make a ruling, forget it. On the other hand, all 15-yard penalties are instantly reviewed in slow motion by Skyjudge. They create big swings in the game and are questionable way too often. Here’s an unpopular one: No regular season overtimes. Everyone would hate that but I think it’s the most fair way and would force teams to play for wins at the end of close games.

@ForehandFed Not suggesting an extension-is there any merit in belief yr 2 with KOC and his collaboration spirit to see more improvement? His years with Zim and hostile approach to me are 100% discounted for poor outcomes. Leading QB’s have great HC rapport

There’s plenty of reason to believe that the Vikings have their head coach for many years to come. And I think he’s self aware enough to improve on some of the things that gave him trouble last year. But improving on the record/results is tough to see. Go look at teams who won 13 games and didn’t have Brady/Manning/Rodgers etc. They almost never repeated that success the following year. In the long run, particularly if they draft the right quarterback at some point and pair that player with Jefferson, they will be set up to have a good future with O’Connell. In the short term, there’s some tough sledding ahead.

@singlepayer1978 If the Vikings draft a mobile QB, how big of an impact will that have on the o-line. Seems they would almost all improve with a QB who can get out of the pocket. So upgrade and multiple positions, even if it's a drop in QB at first at least.

Really depends on the player. Sometimes mobile quarterbacks can make life more difficult on their O-lines because they aren’t where the linemen are expecting them to be. The best mobile QBs are the ones who can create extra time even when things go wrong. If a guard blows an assignment, it doesn’t need to ruin the play because they can make something happen. Mobile doesn’t have to mean Jalen Hurts’ level of running ability. But generally speaking, we’re basically entering a world where every QB is going to have that as part of their game. Just like Steph Curry influenced the next generation of shooters, so has Mahomes/Jackson/Allen etc. with QB play.

@mnsportsguy0 Why would they bring in a new GM if they wanted him to follow the same strategy as Spielman?

It’s fair to wait for a bigger sample size on Adofo-Mensah before we say things like that, isn’t it?

@WarleyOwl Talk me out of the Vikings being 8-9 next season.

Well, for starters we’re nowhere near knowing what the roster is going to look like by the time we reach training camp. The NFL is getting closer to the NBA where shocking big moves come out of nowhere regularly and things can change wildly on a dime. So there’s that. We can also envision a world where the Bears aren’t anywhere near being a legit contender, the Packers are mediocre with Jordan Love and the Detroit hype doesn’t come to fruition. I’d say that 13 wins would be hard to project but 10 or 11 seems within reason if they take a “competitive rebuild” approach to the offseason and they get some breaks. It’s just so hard to say right now when we’re so far away from knowing who’s gonna be on the team. Maybe they’ll go for broke and trade the first-round pick for a star defensive player or something crazy aggressive. Who knows.

@bobh332 How about trade JJ for a Russell Wilson-like haul?? Doesn’t make me too popular and you would need a good scouting team, nail the draft, and great player development. Worked for Patriots. But then they had Brady and probably cheated too.

So, every day since the Vikings lost to the Giants someone has asked me whether trading Jefferson is an idea they should consider and every day the answer is absolutely not — unless he tells the front office that he’ll never sign a long-term extension in Minnesota. Think about it this way: Kirk Cousins throwing to Justin Jefferson has a 112.6 QB rating over three years. Since 2020 Aaron Rodgers has the best rating in the NFL at 108.0 and Mahomes is 103.8. Jefferson is young, handles superstardom as well as anyone you’ll ever see, competes like crazy and is following a Hall of Fame track. If you trade him away, you’re not only robbing the next QB of a cheat code but you’re betting on draft picks, which don’t always turn out. JJ is a guy you want to be a Larry Fitzgerald who spends his entire career in one spot.

@spardisjx If Anthony Richardson falls past the Top 10, should the Vikings seriously consider trading up for him? We need to find a successor to Kirk at some point and QBs with his physical gifts don’t come along very often. I think Minnesota would be an ideal situation for him.

Yes. There’s no debate here. Even the biggest Kirk enjoyer would have to admit that based on the upside of Richardson, the age and expense of Cousins, the state of the roster and the ideal situation of sitting Richardson for a year would all be the best case scenario for the draft. And if anyone tells you that they know whether or not Richardson will be good, ask them if they had Lamar Jackson or Jalen Hurts at the top of their draft boards.

@MN_Rube_84 Jalen Raegor - RB1 - 2023? Better question - where does he fit into the 2023 offense? Or doesn’t he fit?

Well, not RB1 but I think trying him in the backfield is an interesting idea. His body type kind of reminds me of Jerick McKinnon. The details of his play as a receiver might not be there but he’s a natural ball carrier. Assuming they don’t try that, he’ll just be the punt returner again.

@jCHERNY2 Kwesi is going to have to make hard choices to not only get under the cap, but create additional cap space to add weapons, especially on D. What players are likely cap casualties and which ones get restructured?

That’s a very hard question to answer because it could be a bunch of players or almost nobody. They could restructure Thielen, Smith and O’Neill, extend Kirk and cut Hicks and Cook and be cap compliant. Or they could scorch some earth and move/cut Thielen, Smith, Za’Darius Smith, Eric Kendricks and Cook and completely re-do the roster. If I had to bet, I’d say it’s the former rather than the latter but there might be somebody who goes that we don’t expect. They’ve got tons of different avenues they could take with the cap.

@slowmotion4muh On a scale of 1-Philly fans... how bad are Philly fans?

Philly fans are by far the most aggressive in the league, that’s true. Aside from their fans being abusive toward Vikings fans at the 2017 NFCC game, is there any other case for Minnesotans to dislike the Eagles? Feels like they are what you should want your team to strive toward. I’ll understand if everyone unsubscribes after this answer.

Kyle…I noticed a couple questions during Flores’ intro presser that I thought were pretty bad, one asking for comments on his ongoing lawsuit and one about whether or not he’d jump into a head coaching job next year. Now I understand that sometimes it’s more about the info you get in the answer than the actual question, but is that all there is to it? Those seem like painfully obvious questions that A) won’t get answered and B) seem somewhat disrespectful to even ask. It seems like at least once per interview a reporter asks one of these questions (one of my “favorites” is the “how did that loss feel?”) As a media member who’s in the room for these questions I’d love to hear your take on this and see if there’s something I’m overlooking or if this is just some outdated practice.

Well, you’d be surprised how often an obvious question like “how did that loss feel” gets an interesting answer. Obvious questions can be like that. Judd Zulgad asked Mike Zimmer, simply, “Mike, are you mad?” when Kirk missed camp practice in 2020 for the whole covid thing and Zimmer said everything we needed to know about how he felt.

In the case of Flores, there are questions that absolutely have to be asked, even if we think we know what he’s going to say. The man is suing the NFL. How can you not ask him about that? That’s unprecedented and hugely significant to him being here. Whether he wants to be a head coach again is also relevant because it matters whether he sees Minnesota as a stop off on the road back to being an HC or if he is done chasing that dream because of the lawsuit.

Of course there are questions that get asked where I wonder if there was any purpose or thought process behind it. We all swing and miss on Q’s sometimes. But overall, everyone in the room usually understands what we’re aiming to learn and we try to get those boxes checked. We asked multiple scheme questions, multiple personnel questions, why he picked Minnesota, why he’s going to work well with O’Connell etc. I thought that presser was fine.

Teams stream press conferences for content but I think they are insanely boring for fans to watch. That’s why you read articles about what was said. Unless it’s Matt Daniels, they aren’t entertaining. They are for gathering information to transfer to fans to update you on what’s going on and information gathering is not often exciting.

@ramseykincannon If hiring Flores was a recognition of KOC's growth, what other things do you think he could do that would highlight his changing attitude after a year with this team? could be schematic or otherwise.

There’s going to be things schematically that we won’t know about, I’m sure. Big picture wise, O’Connell found out how difficult it can be to manage the game and call plays. He mentioned assessing that part (not that he suggested he’s giving up play calling or anything like that). If I had to guess, he might look back at the way things went down with the defense and wish he’d been more involved from Day 1. Really, if you aren’t reassessing pretty much everything every year, you’re not going to be a good head coach anyway because the league changes so quickly that you’ve always gotta be growing. Self aware coaches usually rise to the top.

@jtlaurie I've been looking into some draft prospects, especially WR in round 1 if we CB in free agency. One name that intrigues me is Jalin Hyatt. Why isn't he getting as much buzz? I mean....the guy is a huge deep threat and had 5 TDs in one game against Alabama for crying out loud!

Until the Combine happens, it’s really hard for me to tell you too much about where certain prospects stand. From what I know about Hyatt is that he was really limited in the routes he ran. Basically a pure burner and not used as a complete receiver. That doesn’t mean he can’t be more in the NFL because we saw how Jefferson’s college role didn’t properly tell the story of him as an NFL receiver but that might be the hesitation. I’m with you in terms of taking my chances with a crazy fast dude from ‘Bama, maybe in the third round? I’m not in Draft Sim shape yet.

Conor M….The way I see it is it’s not the stats that are important with Kirk, it’s the mentality. Vikings need a QB with a different mentality one that stays consistent with their aggressiveness (never know what Kirk you are getting ) and is WILLING ( doesn’t have to be a true runner) to break the pocket and buy a few more seconds. After this past year I am a firm believer that a QB with that type of mindset might put up worse stats but I believe could actually improve the impact of the offense. So in a way you could “downgrade” the position but become a more consistent , dangerous offense.

Yeah, it’s so interesting that when you look at the pure boxscore numbers, it’s hard to find too many QBs that are better but every great quarterback has a tool that goes way above and beyond. Brady or Manning picking apart defenses, Mahomes’ creativity, Allen’s arm strength and sack avoidance, Burrow’s accuracy, pocket movement and aggressiveness. There isn’t really an answer when things go wrong and that often creates a ceiling.

@MySKOLReport What do you think about my current free agent wish list Washington DT Daron Payne who is a free agent and Miami dolphins might possibly cut Byron Jones because he's due a 14 million cap hit coming off an injury and he was B flo first free agent acquisition as the dolphins coach

Let’s not make B-Flo a thing. It’s a brutal nickname. We have to do better than that. I think your ideas are reasonable. The issue, of course, is that there’s a lot of teams who can out-bid the Vikings for free agents’ services. Those are good players who can help them but they could help 25 other teams who have more cap space too.

@JoshuaR_Smith What Vikings defender from the past 30 years would you most like to see play in Brian Flores’ blitz-heavy scheme?

I’ll go with Robert Griffith. Smart, tough, violent player who he’d love to send after the QB. How about Xavier Rhodes 2015-2017? Lock him onto the top receiver and blitz everyone else. Maybe there’s a Christian Wilkins/Henry Thomas comparison of a penetrating defensive tackle. Deep cut: He’d use Kailee Wong as an outside LB.

@ExTwinsNews I’m almost certain Harrison Smith is back and eventually retires as a Viking. Maybe after 2023. Maybe after 2024. Who knows. But I’m going to be intentional in watching/rooting for him. He will go down as one of the greatest Vikings. Let’s take it all in.

Yeah, that’s a solid take. He’s a Ring of Honor player who played in a way that you really had to see every week to fully understand.

@Just1SBB4IDie Your top 5 players to ever wear a Neck Roll.

Sam Gash. Mike Alstott. Brian Cox. Charles Haley. Howie Long.

Those are the ones that were the most beautiful but there are dozens from back in the day that were just fantastic. RIP, the legendary neckroll.

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