Friday Mailbag: Reacting to preseason action

Answering questions about Thursday night's game and what it means going forward

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By Matthew Coller

What’s this? A weekend mailbag? Well, it’s a first but we have a preseason game in the bag so more reaction is needed. Let’s dive in…

Jason…. He is playing decent so this question might seem out of place. Value wise, the only relief the Vikings get for release Reagor is a roster spot, correct? There is no cap benefit?

That’s correct. The only way to move on and get extra cap space is by trading him. I suppose they could try to give someone a late-rounder to take him off their hands if a team needed a punt returner. I don’t think he’s been bad in camp and he had a very good game against Seattle. It comes down to Reagor vs. Powell. Maybe notable that Reagor got the first run at punt returns.

OldDrummer55… Who impressed you in the first half?

The skill players were on point. Addison did what everyone wanted to see in making a few very nice catches, Ty Chandler ran physically and showed off his burst and Powell and Reagor both had good games. I always feel like Luiji Vilain shows up when he gets a chance. Obviously Ivan Pace Jr. had a good first half and I noticed Akayleb Evand had good coverage on a few plays even if he didn’t get targeted. Overall it was a quality showing by the “starters.”

Rzuppelli… Any injuries we should be concerned about?

There’s a few I’m curious to get more information about whenever we can. Jalen Nailor has been out since the first practice. O’Connell was relatively vague about when he could come back but it sounds like the training staff is holding him out longer than expected to make sure he doesn’t re-injure his leg. Maybe we see him this week. Kene Nwangwu being out has taken away the whole RB2 conversation and O’Connell did not give a timeline. I would have liked to have seen DT Jaquelin Roy but he appears to be banged up and was working off to the side on Saturday. I’m not sure what happened with Brian Asamoah. O’Connell said that he would have played if it was the regular season so I’d expect he’s practicing later this week.

Andrew… Have you noticed a difference in the number of times 99 is inexplicably being asked to jam slot receivers before starting his rushes?  Aside from “not covering anyone until five yards past the sticks” that was the worst part of last year’s “game plans”. 

Of all the players that Ed Donatell used wrong, I’m not sure I’d put Hunter in that category considering his production. It was the second highest PFF grade of his career overall and in pass rush and second highest career pressure total. (And worth noting that he was only in coverage 31 snaps the entire season). He transcends scheme or usage. Brian Flores said it best though: “We like him going forward.” He’s going to rush the passer and be good at it.

@CJ_Johnson28 I know it’s preseason game 1, but the vikes showed a lot of under center 12 personnel and play action. Has that also been a trend during the open camps this year with the ones? If so, very interested to see Kirk operating from an under-center play action attack.

I would expect that to play a much bigger role in their attack than it did last year. They went after Josh Oliver for a reason. They want that man on the field blocking dudes in the run game and forcing the opponent into heavier personnel packages where they can run deep routes off play-action. Last year was the first time Kirk Cousins hasn’t been awesome by the play-action numbers and they are putting in effort to change that. I like it as a change up.

@J_B_ROSE On a recent pod you had mentioned draft decisions being debated in the moment between coach and front office. Which happens all the time. Do you have any shareable examples from Mike-Rick in either direction? Players involved-who won out…

I remember hearing something about Zimmer being very concerned about trading down rather than just drafting Christian Darrisaw with the pick that they had…all’s well that ends well there. Sometimes you hear things about disagreements but normally these teams have all the draft scenarios pretty well plotted out before draft night and go with their board. They also don’t show guys yelling it each other in those draft room videos so I’m sure there were many debates over the years that stayed internal.

@kyleshaner There’s always a player or two who’s inactive for almost every game. With that, and the new third QB rule, it seems there’s almost no downside to keeping three quarterbacks if Jaren Hall shows even a hint of being an NFL caliber player. Do you agree?

Yeah, the only issue is taking up a spot on the 53-man roster and whether they think they can get Hall to the practice squad. The new rule allows for teams to activate an extra quarterback and not have it count against the 46-player gameday roster but you still have to have the guy on the 53. It’s a good rule and I want it to inspire teams to keep more QBs around and give them chances to develop rather than just discarding everyone who isn’t good right away. At the same time, are we really concerned about the Vikings ending up at QB3 in a game?

@headcoach21 do the stark differences in the 2022 draft class and 2023 draft class show how drafting is random??

Yes with an asterisk. Some of the 2022 draft decisions just didn’t seem emblematic of a GM with a deep background in analytics. The trade down was pretty meh, the positional value wasn’t great and the risks on a reach guard and serious injury history cornerback seemed like bad plays when it happened. But here’s the random part: If Lewis Cine was starting at safety right now we would be singing a different tune. It’s not like he was some bizarre prospect. MockDraft Database had him as 34th best prospect in ‘22.

So I’m conflicted on how much to criticize because I didn’t like some of the process when it happened but Cine did seem like a potentially game-changing player. Also sometimes taking risks on guys with injury history works and Booth Jr. is a high value position player. We can’t ignore that Akayleb Evans is starting right now. I’d say the book is still being written on the class.

There is no doubt that the 2023 class both made more sense with the GM’s modus operandi and general draft logic of taking premium positions with players who had really good college production, but if Addison wasn’t playing well right now we’d be talking differently.

But on the whole, I’d say yes it does show the evidence of randomness. Same people making the picks, very different results. You can say that for many Spielman drafts.

@davidkan Andrew Booth, Jr. is 1.5 years younger than Mekhi Blackmon. Do you think some of Booth's issues are experience/age related? And can he could work through those?

Always possible that he could have it click. I don’t like to count that out until it’s really over but it doesn’t seem like age or inexperience are the problem. Not being on the field because of injury is the main problem. That’s a lot of practices and games missed. Corners also do a lot more these days than just line up and cover dudes. All the CBs have said that Flores asks them to understand how all the moving pieces work together. If he doesn’t grasp the techniques or details, he’s not going to see the field. Blackmon isn’t just older, he seems to be mature and have a competitive edge that fits with his DC.

@twinsfanwyoming Here’s a question: Will DeWayne McBride make the Vikings team?

If they sign a veteran, he could certainly be cut. Opportunity will still be there for him to prove that he’s worth a roster spot but so far he hasn’t done enough to keep them away from bringing in an XFL guy and Kareem Hunt for a visit. It wouldn’t be unusual to see a seventh-round running back get cut out of camp and put on the practice squad. It’s a huge jump from UAB to the NFL.

@FouhyStan Will Jordan Addison be another linear of Vikings great receivers?

Could be. When you see a player catching everything thrown their way and making plays like the sideline catch he made the other night, it stands out. Addison makes hard stuff look routine. But talent alone isn’t enough. He’ll need to stay healthy, master the offense, play with toughness and fearlessness, beat people that are a lot bigger than him off the line of scrimmage, play under pressure, handle himself properly off the field etc. It takes a lot of elements coming together to be great in the NFL. It’s rare. But he has the first part, which is lots of skill.

@KAAAAAHN_tk421 Over/Under on the number of times Kwesi has called Dalton Risner's agent since last night?

I’m sure it’s more complicated than saying they should just sign him but…. they should just sign him. If this is Kirk’s last year, go for broke with this offense and do everything you can to protect him.

@ramseykincannon Nick Sirianni lapped the league in analytically determined decision making (4th downs, timeouts, etc). While KOC was better than Zim, I found a few decisions lacking (not going for 2 down 15 vs the colts among others). Any evidence of changing/improved mindset this year?

No disagreement here. I thought he was fine in the decisions but sometimes questionable in the execution and he certainly didn’t go full Madden player on us and start breaking the game. I’d guess that it doesn’t change much but one thing he can be better with is not trying too hard to be creative or catch the opponent off guard. Sometimes you just have to slam into the line for one yard and move the sticks on fourth-and-short.

@Sladetrade Is Ed Ingram really the answer at guard? Seems like they need to consider a change there to not get Kirk gasping for air again

Offensive linemen are the hardest to figure out whether they are going to make progress or not. Sometimes there’s something they can fix or that can be corrected with experience and other times it’s something fundamental that keeps them from ever maximizing potential. Think about how small the differences are between bad and good linemen. If you allow three pressures per game, you are terrible. If you allow two, you’re pretty good. If you allow one, you’re in the Hall of Fame. Is Ingram going to cut down that one pressure per game? Can we know that based on a preseason game? Regardless of the analysis of his play, it’s significant that he did play in terms of analyzing where they think he stands but we really won’t know until the real games start happening.

@dantaylor26 Which current Vikings player would make the best future coach?

CJ Ham seems like the easy answer here. He knows so much football from playing in tons of different offenses and every facet of special teams. Jordan Hicks has position coach vibes. I could see Garrett Bradbury coaching some high school in Minnesota 10 years from now. Josh Metellus is young but he has the smarts and natural presence to maybe do it down the road too.

@SKOLSTAHL If the Vikings sign Kareem Hunt, you think he'd split carries with Alex Mattison or would Alex still be the "lead" back in that committee?

If they sign Hunt, I’d guess that Mattison is still very much the bell cow back. Hunt would most likely be a change-of-pace back if the running game was stalling or just a backup in case Mattison gets banged up. Right now it doesn’t seem like they can trust any of the backup RBs (though Chandler did seem to play well vs. Seattle).

@CalebA923 Do you think things like the excessive penalties in this first preseason game can/will carry into the regular season?

Happens every year. The refs are emphasizing certain things so the beginning of the year always seems to have a bunch of penalties and then it gets dialed back as we go along.

@NorthStarsNHL Pie chart the chances they sign Risner, Darby or Hunt (3 different slices of pie) in percentages.

We need a How Do Pie Charts Work challenge. These three each have individual percentage chances and aren’t connected to each other so it can’t really be a pie chart… anyway, I’ll go with Risner at 30%, Darby 25% and Hunt 50%. It feels like the Risner train has passed but I wouldn’t count it out based on how some of the depth on the O-line looked. Darby has had some health issues in the past that could be concerning, though they are lacking even a single veteran in the cornerback room. Hunt seems more plausible. O’Connell seems hesitant to fully endorse Ty Chandler as someone they trust in all situations at the moment and we’ve seen very little of Nwangwu because he’s been banged up. Hunt does seem to have interest from multiple teams though.

@jtone01 Any chances that Hunt becomes starting rb if signed?

Not as long as Mattison is healthy. They really like Mattison. Hunt hasn’t often been a starting running back during his career either. After his rookie year, he has two seasons of 150-plus carries and no 1,000-yard seasons so he’s either been a backup or rotational player and I’d expect that if he comes on board.

@zang100 Will they start the season with 6 receivers?

Maybe? The way Trishton Jackson was playing, he might be deserving of a spot. Maybe it’s JJ, KJ, Addison, Jackson, Nailor and Reagor or Powell. Of course, the new practice squad rules have made it easy to keep guys like that. It’s not super likely that someone picks up Jackson if they cut him. When I do an updated 53, I’ll likely have five.

Josh….Preseason game 1: Chandler reminded me of Ricky Watters...maybe it’s the 32, but damn he looked good. Who says no, Lance for Cine and a 4th? Dude looked utterly dejected on the sidelines. Not sure what to make but, Taylor Mays comps are starting to creep into my head. Finally, this team is 1 Cousins injury away from a top 5 pick. Really thin depth #preseasonOVERREACTION.

Love the #32 Watters reference. One of the GOATs. Ricky had that straight up running style and was physical. Where he was really special is catching the ball. We do have to give Cine some leeway considering the injury. He did look pretty hesitant on some plays vs. Seattle. There isn’t an aggression to his game that we expected but I’m willing to see more before we call it. Everyone in the league knows where he stands at the moment so there’s no trade value and that Lance idea has probably sailed. I have a lot of respect for Mullens. He did a good job of getting the ball to the receivers despite some spotty O-line play. The guy is never going to be Joe Montana smooth out there. It’s probably true of 90% of teams that if the starter gets hurt the season is over.

Ben… We have yet to hear Kwesi confirm whether or not Flores also wears sweats. Should we be concerned about the culture this season?

I’m sure you’re just kidding around but I’ve noticed this trend of people on the interwebs who seem to be keeping a log of things that Kwesi has said over the last year-plus so they can pick on him about and I’ll be honest, I don’t understand that at all. Do you want an old scouting football robot? Did you hate the hire from the start so you’re reaching on things to criticize? That’s just not how I do business here. I’m going to assess moves and analyze what’s said about football decisions. The only person who gets mocked around here for their personality is Aaron Rodgers and he earned that.

From the critics, I just wonder what they done from a front office perspective since he arrived that is supremely questionable? In a win-now year, they brought in Za’Darius Smith and won 13 games and then didn’t buy the 13 wins and run it all back — which is extremely rare and was the right thing to do. The overall direction and thematic moves around it make a lot of sense considering they aren’t in a position to sink to the bottom. They’ve changed the culture completely and have a team that can both make the playoffs and set up the next QB for success with all the weapons. We’re going to see how it plays out but we’re not at a point to be slamming the GM.

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