Friday mailbag: Replacing Barr and offensive tier rankings

Answering another round of interesting Vikings fan questions

Sign up for Purple Insider for $7 per month or $64 per year to get credentialed access inside the Vikings, from in-depth analysis to behind-the-scenes features to the ever-popular Friday Mailbag. Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings

---

By Matthew Coller

Happy Friday, everyone! Let’s jump right into your questions…

@TimRizzo Maybe @ArifHasanNFL knows the answer to this but which position of the starting 22 is the least valuable to success?

It turns out Arif did know the answer. Based on who the NFL pays, the least valued positions are left guard, linebacker, right guard and safety and the most valuable are QB, LT, pass rusher and WR. That passes the smell test, right? Though I think that there’s some flexibility here to say that certain positions are more or less valuable depending on who the player is and how the team wants to play. Aaron Donald is more valuable than most interior DL. Eric Kendricks and Bobby Wagner add more than your run-of-the-mill linebacker. It’s probably the case that when your team is either really great or really terrible at any position, these generalizations about positional value go out the window.

@brutusbird Which Vikings player (past or present) do you think would be the best at Madden?

Well, I know Teddy Bridgewater had a reputation as being incredible at Madden. Xavier Rhodes told me one time that Teddy threw an incredible back-shoulder pass to beat him on Madden and he just quit playing forever. Stefon Diggs even mentioned Teddy’s skill in a Player’s Tribune article. I wonder if there’s a difference between players who are in their early 20s and guys who are a little older. If you’re an early 30s Madden player, you grew up in the days where Madden was the game. Today there’s way more gaming options for the youths.

@thetuse Am I wrong in feeling adding Z Smith is a downgrade to losing Barr? The pass rush wasn’t a prob in ‘21. 2nd in sacks, 5th in hurries, I think Barr is more valuable at covering RB/TE than Smith is for the pass rush. Teams will dump the ball where Smith was. Your thoughts?

Za’Darius isn’t really replacing Barr, he’s replacing Everson Griffen. The guy replacing Barr is Jordan Hicks, which is a downgrade but I’m also getting the sense that Hicks isn’t going to be on the field as much as he was in Arizona. On a podcast that I just recorded with Doug Farrar of USA Today, he mentioned that teams are using dime packages more than base defenses in the NFL today, which speaks to them using three safeties more often rather than Zimmer’s two linebackers who never left the field. Smith is going to rush the passer 90% of the time if not more. Per PFF, he’s only been targeted in the passing game 13 times in his entire career. Not that I disagree about Barr, though. I think his salary shaded things a bit the wrong way when it came to how good he was on a play to play basis.

@HollandJohnD Which NFL QB throws/threw the biggest moon ball?

First thought was Russell Wilson and Daunte Culpepper. Both of them just heaved that thing up to the roof. Randall Cunningham throwing to Moss. Carson Palmer really liked letting it fly on those deep passes. Joe Flacco too. Those are the guys that come to mind when I think about QBs who flung it way in the air rather than throwing lasers like Favre, Elway, George, Bledsoe.

@cjnolden In light of the Kinlaw situation I am curious about how you/reporters you respect approach interviews w players and the balancing act of developing professional relationships w while also not just only lobbing softball questions?

So apparently Kinlaw got into it with a reporter who has been antagonizing him and the reporter acted like a complete dink about it. The term “reporter” might be a tad suspect here though. The fella seems to be more of a content creator whose dad is a really well known sports writer in the Bay area. This is an issue that I know the Vikings battle with: Wanting to be open and have more coverage while also making sure the people they’re letting in the building are going to act in a professional way. The “reporter” tweeting that he would get rich if any of the players did something to him was bizarre and unprofessional. Seems like a noob thing from somebody who hasn’t been around the block covering sports.

To your question, it’s not uncommon for players or coaches to take issue with things that are reported or questions/interactions in locker rooms. Generally it’s handled behind the scenes and nobody tires to build their brand off it.

I think everyone who has done this for a long time and paid their dues as a reporter knows how to carry themselves in both situations where you get along and don’t get along. You’re not trying to be their friend but you can certainly be friendly with players in a working environment. And when it’s something on the negative side, if you ask questions in a respectful way and write criticisms in a reasonable manner, there’s normally no major issues. If they don’t want to do interviews because you’ve criticized them, so be it. Things like the Kinlaw issue don’t happen too often.

@mattverick Any player(s) you're looking forward to getting to know better this season once you're back in the locker room?

It’s crazy to think that Justin Jefferson only knows us as a bunch of floating heads on Zoom or people in masks staring at him while he’s at the podium. It’ll be nice for all the younger players to actually meet us up close but the biggest advantage is getting to talk to players for interviews on subjects that are a little unique. For example, in 2019 I asked every wide receiver and tight end about the hardest route to run. In order to get that many interviews during COVID times, I would have had to ask PR for phone calls from like nine players. That would have taken all season rather than two weeks. I asked Ameer Abdullah one time if he thought I could catch a punt. I couldn’t have done that otherwise. I wrote about how Jaleel Johnson handled the music in the D-line room. That was cool. Those are little bits and pieces that are really tough to do when you only have press conferences.

@GBeckTV The NFL creates a system for cloning and each team is allowed to clone exactly 1 player from their team. Which player would be the best for the Vikings use two of? Another JJ? A 2nd Irv Smith to save the TE room? Eric Kendricks? Harrison Smith? Kirk to backup Kirk?!

It’s gotta be Jefferson. The last time the Vikings had two receivers who ranked in the top five in the NFL, they operated one of the best offenses of all time with Carter/Moss. The only other candidate would be Danielle Hunter. An edge rushing duo of Hunters would be incredibly tough to stop. Two Brian O’Neills? One plays guard?

@rm4213 I agree with your take that the Vikings were not lucky or unlucky in close games last season. However I think they forced themselves into unnecessarily close games. I.e… whenever they got a lead they got conservative on both offense and defense

My point on the podcast concerning the close games is that it isn’t predictive in this case. It’s not like they went 2-12 in one-score games and had a bunch of bad breaks to lose those games. They went 6-8 and had an overall point differential that suggests they deserved to be an 8-9 or 9-8 team. I think it was Justis Mosqueda on Twitter who said that every middling team believes that everything that went right last year will go right again and they’ll just fix the things that went wrong and get to the top. Being more aggressive might work, unless it results in more turnovers. Remember the Vikings rarely turned the ball over last year. Some things can definitely be improved in terms of game management and aggressiveness though.

@headcoach21 What are some games on the schedule where you say “if the Vikings win these games it would feel different than the last 2 years”??

I’m not sure that I can pin down games that they couldn’t win before. They just need to win more of them. Every year we could pick out a game or two that they won where we said, “Oh that’s a big one,” but it didn’t last. At Philly in 2018, at Dallas in 2019, at GB in 2020, home GB in 2021. After every important win, there was a big disappointment around the corner. If they were to go 3-1 or 4-0 down the stretch against the Colts, Giants, Packers and Bears — which isn’t a crazy ask for a legitimately competitive team — to make the playoffs or win the division, that would be different.

@werdholmes Thoughts on the need (or lack there of) for CJ Ham in this new offense? Is this a band aid we need to rip off sooner than later?

It feels like some fans make CJ Ham the poster boy for Zimmer being too old school and Cousins checking down too much. But Ham is a really versatile and effective player. He can move to a bunch of different spots and make plays when called upon. When he’s on the field, it offers something that opponents don’t see very often and that’s an edge. Putting him outside or in motion can give coverage indicators or create mismatches with other receivers. He’s terrific on special teams. There’s no reason to want that guy off the team.

@Ricco666 Can you set the team now, and then again after training camp? Just for kicks.

The starting lineup is pretty set outside of right guard.

QB - Cousins RB - Cook WR - Jefferson, Thielen, Osborn OL - Darrisaw, Cleveland, Bradbury, Reed/Davis, O’Neill

OLB — Hunter, Smith DT — Phillips, Tomlinson LB — Kendricks, Hicks CB — Peterson, Dantzler, Sullivan S — Cine, Smith

@skiyouMeeko Who are some members of the 90’s Vikings who would have been better players in today’s game?

David Palmer comes to mind because they would have found more ways to get him the ball. Maybe Rich Gannon would have been a lot better earlier in his career if the offense was designed to fit him. Henry Thomas was known as a really good player then but he might have been a 10-15 sack guy with all the passing now.