Friday mailbag: Trade scenarios, fullbacks and the Super Bowl

Vikings fans are thinking about the future at QB while prepping for Brady/Mahomes

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Happy Friday everyone! Only a few more days until the Super Bowl, which means only a few more days after that until the offseason is officially on. So let’s get into all the questions Vikings fans had this week…

Jeff via email: let's say the following unlikely scenario occurs and the Vikings remain at that pick and have a choice of Kwity Paye, Gregory Rousseau, Rashawn Slater and Micah Parsons.  Whom do you think they'd select.

Personally I would go with the very versatile and more highly rated (on most big boards) Mr. Parsons.  Besides being a stud LB, he could even be used as a pass rusher in certain packages.  Thoughts?

I think they’d select Kwity Paye in that case. He has ridiculous upside physically. The type of monster talent that Andre Patterson seems like he’d appreciate. Plus you know Mike Zimmer is going to be pushing hard to improve the pass rush by any means possible.

I understand the Parsons take if the Vikings were going to move on from Anthony Barr. Otherwise he wouldn’t have anywhere to play.

@mattymatty2000 Who is the best team of all time?

Let’s say best team in the free agency era. I think 2013 Seahawks. Seattle beat Peyton Manning 43-8 in the Super Bowl. They had one of the best defenses ever, an elite QB, an elite RB, weapons all over the field. Unreal squad.

@SirSteve_1969 Please discuss potential LG,RG,DT, special teams, PK,KR,PR, Zimmer's job security, the exposed D, Dennison, OC, Nepotism, why Dozier was never benched, is Zim incompetent?, When will the @Vikings offense open up? When will Zim admit his D has been figured out? Who will play safety

There’s a character limit on these emails, you know that, right Steve? But hey, what the heck… the LG has to improve via FA or draft. RG is probably Cleveland. Need to sign and draft DTs. Need to stop drafting special teams and sign a veteran PR. No idea why Dozier played the whole year over Jones. Nepotism isn’t that big of a deal. Zimmer isn’t incompetent. The Vikings offense probably won’t open up until they change systems/coaches/QBs. Zimmer’s defense hasn’t been “figured out,” it’s always changing and last year they had very little talent. Some veteran free agent will be playing safety, I just don’t know which one yet.

@MarkEiken If the Vikings really wanted to trade KC, the dead cap would be dramatic. Can the Vikings do a "sign and trade". Somehow extend KC (maybe two years) to make it more manageable for the team acquiring him?

Yeah there’s two ways to reduce the cap hit. One is to have all parties agree to a contract extension before he’s traded and the other is to covert base salary to signing bonus before trading him. Cousins’s contract doesn’t make it impossible to trade him. The biggest holdup is what they’d be getting back and what Rick Spielman’s incentive is to trade a QB that they went all-in on.

@Jeffcn16 Do you see any surprises coming with OC hire?

I have been wondering this myself. They waited a little while on Gary last year and DeFilippo was after the Super Bowl in 2018 so there’s no huge rush to announce it when the NFL wants all the attention on the Super Bowl but have wondered if there’s any thought to getting someone from the outside. But the guy from the Giants has been the only reported interview so it still feels like they’ll go with Klint Kubiak or co coordinators with Klint and Rick Dennison.

@EvanSch14 Who is the quarterback, head coach, and GM of the Vikings to start the 2022 season?

If history follows the way it has in the past, the Vikings will go 10-6 or something and everyone sticks around. But the situation feels really tenuous, doesn’t it? It feels like it could just as likely be Eric Bieniemy, Spencer Rattler and some new GM none of us have ever heard of before.

@JoRo_NFL Will the Vikings miss George Paton?

Oh yeah, they will. He played a part in everything they did and played a role in building up the 2017 team. He was considered a top evaluator and Spielman’s go-to guy.

Will we be able to say “wow they missed on X or Y draft pick because George Paton left!” No, you won’t. It’ll be the people trying to replace his role(s) that feel that impact more than we can tangibly point to it from the outside.

@gunnerviking Which Vikings player has the most trade value, considering age, position, contract?

If it’s not Cousins purely based on him being a quarterback, it’s easily Justin Jefferson.

Assuming that a Jefferson trade is never, ever going to happen, it’s Danielle Hunter. Even if he’s coming off an injury and a guy who wants a new contract, we’re talking about an elite player in his prime. Everyone wants that. The league is figuring out that receivers are so good and schemes are so good that if you can’t pressure the QB, you just lose. Last year the top QBs had 120 ratings when they weren’t pressured. Everyone could use a Danielle Hunter.

After that, Harrison Smith, Eric Kendricks and Brian O’Neill would all draw a ton of phone calls if they were available. There’s a case for trading Smith because of his age and contract but that’s hard to see happening. Maybe Adam Thielen would get some interest with a first or second-round pick considering the value of receivers.

@gunnerviking Who’s your favorite Fullback of all time?

Sam Gash. I watched a game once where the Patriots shifted their protections and left Gash on an island with an unblocked defensive end and Gash shut the dude down. He was like when Randall McDaniel used to play fullback from time to time only for a whole career.

@jasdol07 Would a Cousins for Teddy swap make sense Lower cap hit with a still functional qb for Vikings

You’d probably need to fiddle with the cap to make that work. Teddy has a $22 million cap hit for 2021 and Kirk carries a $20 million hit if they traded him. Now if the Vikings worked out an extension or converted base salary to bonus, they might be able to make that work but it wouldn’t be a huge advantage for this year. In 2022, the difference would be huge and they could either walk away from Bridgewater or extend him to have a lower cap hit.

Carolina is an odd team. They’re in the perfect Bridge QB situation and yet they were making a serious run at Matthew Stafford. I mean, that’s just weird. Their roster is still really bad.

@PeteESunshine how great would having Gary Anderson be today? Dude who is nails from 40 and under but forces you to go for it after that. Everyone likes the big leg, but it’s kind of a curse minus desperation at the end of a game

This kind of made me laugh because you included part of his value as saving coaches from themselves and there’s definitely truth to that. I do think about what kickers’ roles will be in the future. Would you rather have a guy who can hit from 50+ because then you’re in scoring position all the time? Or would you prefer someone who makes all their extra points since teams should be (and already are) playing more for touchdowns? It’s a good question.

@smccullough5 Who wins the game and what's the craziest prop bet your pulling for?

I’m picking Kansas City and I very badly want the fat man touchdown to hit. Or how about a special teams touchdown. You all know how much I love a good kick return for touchdown.

@smccullough5 I know that trading Cousins is more dream than reality (and it's not even the death of 2021 if he isn't traded) but what's a realistic trade offer, in your mind, to get out of that contract? It's probably not anywhere near what the Lions got for Stafford.

If I’m the Colts, I’m calling and offering a first-round pick for Cousins. They’re in a position to win and they’ve got a really good offensive line and offensive system. If the Vikings can’t get an established QB out of the deal i.e. Jimmy G, they need a first-rounder. Anything short of that would make them look like they were completely tossing in the towel. If they get a first, they can say the offer was too good to pass up.

@HokNate What do you think of the vikings changing to a 3 4 defense. They barely made any pressures last season. Maybe changing to a 3 4 and having Barr pass rush more could help.

Barr is a good blitzer because he’s usually matched up with someone smaller than him. He’s like 260 and running backs are 210 pounds. Tight ends are 230 these days. But he doesn’t have that blazing fast quick twitch thing that 3-4 outside linebackers like Von Miller have and I’m not sure he’d be effective against the run with a 320-pound tackle blocking him as opposed to a guard who’s trying to get to the second level.

Barr’s pressure rates have always been good. Could he be used more to blitz all over the field? Maybe. But as a pure rusher? I can’t see it. He’s able to do too many different things in coverage and vs. the run in his current role.

@benjackson0812 Who are your worst to first teams and visa versa for the 2021 season??

San Francisco bouncing back wouldn’t be a surprise. Philadelphia because anyone can win the NFC East at any time. I can’t see anyone else. Denver might be good but not better than KC.

First to worst… hm…New Orleans? Pittsburgh could collapse too if Big Ben really falls apart.

@PalpatinesRobes If the cap is around $185M (Vikings $3M over) as reported, how do the Vikings get to $20M in available cap space and who do they go after in free agency?

Cutting Kyle Rudolph and extending Harrison Smith and Riley Reiff could get the Vikings to something like $10 million. Restructuring Anthony Barr and cutting Shamar Stephen could get them in the ballpark. Cutting Reiff would definitely get them there. Trading Hunter gets them $5 million in space.

I think the second wave of free agency is going to be huge. I’ll have a series on free agents at each position coming soon, so I won’t name everyone that I think they should go after but if they have $20 million, it would probably be better spent across four or five players rather than one or two big names. Call it The Ngakoue Lesson. One good player for $12 million is worth less in terms of winning than three average players for $4 million. They need two defensive linemen, at least one guard (maybe two), a corner and a safety.

@thadeaus I know it won't happen, but hear me out. Send Cousins to SF for #12 pick and Jimmy G. Send #12, #14, 2021 3rd rounder, 2022 1st Rounder, and Jimmy G to Houston for Deshaun. Is that enough for Houston to bite (is more needed?), and do you do that deal if you are the Vikings GM?

Anything that results with the Vikings getting DeShaun Watson is a yes from me but I can’t quite figure out why the 49ers would be giving up a first-round pick to trade a good QB for a good QB.

Maybe there’s some smoke where there’s fire. I didn’t think the Vikings would trade Stefon Diggs last offseason either but I’m remaining skeptical that the 49ers are so desperate to have Cousins that they do something that reckless.

If I’m the 49ers, my first choice is to trade the farm for Watson rather than opening the door for the Vikings to potentially get him.

@KyeBaxter Am I the only person who would rather have Leftwich as my head coach than Bieniemy if my choices are the SB offensive coordinators? Call me crazy, but Leftwich played quarterback in the NFL and the ghosts of Childless past still haunt me.

I’m not sure I follow. Bieniemy was a good player in the NFL too. Both guys have spent a lot of time under two of the best coaches of the last two decades. I’d feel pretty confident that either one of them would know what they’re doing.

@eleysium I remember the Lyle Alzado SI cover story in the 80s on his steroid use. With guys now being huge, fast, freaks of nature, it seems logical that steroid use is rampant in the NFL. Is the Brady era going to be seen as the MLB steroid era equivalent in the future?

It’s always been fascinating that the conversation about steroids has mostly disappeared across sports. Maybe the legal ways of getting jacked are so efficient now that they don’t need the Barry Bonds stuff or maybe science has surpassed testing to the point where there’s no way to legitimately police it.

I do remember a lot of cases of steroids in the early 2000s like Brian Cushing etc. But even if you go back to the late 80s, that’s when the size of NFL players seemed to really take off.

I don’t think we’ll ever look at football the same way as baseball. People bring up the importance of records but I also think it’s because there’s never been a major scandal. That could be just the NFL looking the other way or having such loose guidelines that it’s hard to break the rules.

@RonFran10499339 Who wins in a three way fight: Mike Alstott, Daryl Johnston, or Lorenzo Neal?

The 90s and early 2000s were just different, weren’t they? All three of these dudes were warriors. How about the combined pad size of these three. Crazy. I’ll go with Lorenzo Neal because he was stocky and super powerful. Think of how much Emmitt Smith and LT owe Neal and Johnston. Long live the fullback.

@_Born2Early_ Since Vikings have always made the NFC champ game at least once a decade, when will it be in the 2020s?

I’ll go with 2025. Either Cousins is still here and the roster has fully matured and there are stars at a bunch of positions or the Vikings started from scratch at QB and they’re built the roster around a developed QB on a rookie contract.

But with all the QB talent in the AFC at the moment, maybe it could be sooner than that.

@vikesfan1930 Pie chart !! Chances of Kirk Cousins 1. New extension/deal ( lower cap hit) 2. Walking away after 2022 3. Traded in 2021/before 2022 League year 4. New Coach trades him/doesn't want him 5. Replaced by a rookie drafted this year in 2022 or 2023

Some of these are overlapping. This kind of breaks into two pie charts. One is whether he’s going to be here or not long term. That’s 50-50 in my mind. I could see it breaking either way. They might have decided this just doesn’t work and it’s time to see what’s out there or they might see his season last year as proof he can have back-to-back years with QB ratings over 100 and he’s in the right offense.

The other pie chart is whether he’s traded or leaves. If he’s not here by 2022, I’d say 90% chance it was a trade. They’re going to get something for him. I’d also go with a good chance they draft someone in 2022 either way.

@SchielBrian Vikings have the draft capital to move into the second round. I don’t expect them to do that as Rick thinks he’s too clever to be so pedestrian. What do you expect?

Judging by their recent history in the second round, it seems pretty important to have a pick there. But I also think the league is wise to the fact that there’s a lot of starting talent in the second round. If there’s a year to aggressively move up rather than continuing to move down over and over to stockpile later picks, it’s this year.

I know I’m usually Team Trade Down and I say that desperately drafting for this year is not a great idea but this roster needs talented players in a lot of positions. They don’t need a bunch more projects. So I wouldn’t count it out.

Mike Via email: number of people I know who worked in the legal system swear Night Court was the show that captured the spirit of working in a courtroom the best because it got the camaraderie of working together. What sports movie do you think captures things the best? And, if football is so much more fun to watch than baseball, why are baseball movies better? Finally, is Major League the best baseball movie or best sports movie ever?

I think The Sandlot best captured what it was like to grow up in a time where kids got together themselves in a neighborhood and played baseball. I was lucky enough to have that experience. From the old stories I used to hear covering the AHL, Slap Shot is more realistic than you think. Friday Night Lights (the movie) seems ridiculous to some but in Texas, that’s what it’s like.

Major League is definitely one of my favorites. I like funny sports movies much more than true life stories. Give me a 30 for 30 all day over a reenactment (sorry, Miracle!).

@SamRoot43 10am Friday, Schefter announces that DeMarcus Robinson does not clear COVID Protocol and will be inactive for the SuperBowl. 2pm Saturday Chiefs announce Tajae Sharpe will be activated. 9 pm Sunday, Sharpe catches go ahead TD with 26 seconds left. Tell a more Vikingsy story.

Patrick Mahomes needs a two-point conversion to win the Super Bowl. Cheifs surprise everyone by going big personnel with an extra lineman. Mahomes runs a play-fake, rolls out, turns back and throws a fluttering ball across the field for a touchdown pass into the waiting, wide open hands of Mike Remmers, who declared as a receiver on the play and caught the game-winning pass.

@SuperSandrue Do you think Rick will draft his son JD Spielman? And do you think he could develop as WR3?

I can’t say I’ve seen enough of his games to have a feeling for whether he’s an NFL prospect or not. Just from some googling around, seems like he’ll be picked in the later rounds or go undrafted. So if they pick him in the seventh or sign him as a UDFA, it would be a nice story and maybe he has upside but nobody who’s taken in that area of the draft is ever expected to develop into a key player at their position. It would still be a long shot.

@AES64 I appreciate Sirles and you discussing domestic violence in the podcast and Wheeler specifically. However, it would have had a lot more impact to mention it when discussing the Chiefs--who choose to extend Hill instead of cutting him, and traded for Clark. Domestic violence is committed serially.

There are some things where I feel like I have clear-cut takes and opinions. How the NFL should handle players who have domestic violence issues is not one of those things.

Flatly demanding that players who have anything like that in their background should be banned forever is… a tricky stance. Do no second chances exist? Is there a difference between what Wheeler did and Kareem Hunt, for example? Where’s the line for throwing somebody out for life?

I can stand firm in saying the NFL is putting players in a violent environment and then more or less throwing up their hands when it comes to things like this. They’ll never stop it completely but can they curtail domestic violence with a better effort than just saying “yeah that guy’s out of the league … if he isn’t good.”

But I’ll admit, it’s a very difficult subject. I don’t have all the answers on this one.

@TheWiscoDave Do you think ownership now (as opposed to right after OT W in New Orleans) believes this team is closer to cratering than getting to SB? The fan base seems to see this. Big$ QB who doesn’t make players around him better ≠ SB in today’s NFL. They r closer to 4-win team than 12.

Ownership questions are always hard because they don’t talk very often and don’t have people close to them who are… let’s say, accessible. But they tend to go in the direction they’re told by the HC and GM. And I think Zimmer and Spielman both see next year as a chance to be right back in the hunt. The most likely offseason direction is them trying to fill holes and bank on players developing and sustaining the quality offense they had last year. I’ve never gotten the feeling that they think they’re super far away.

@alstrain Why do you hate both Jim and Pam on the office?

This could be an entire essay in itself — and I’m aware people get upset about this take — so I’ll keep it simple. No disrespect to anyone who enjoys their characters, I just find neither one of them to be funny or compelling. Jim is a bully who’s lone act is projecting his own failures on everyone else who’s selling more than him (and then he sucks at being in a management position) and Pam led on two people at once, played mind games with Jim and Roy and ran away from her dreams the minute things got hard.

They’re such bad people sometimes that it makes me legitimately uncomfortable. Pam kissing Jim at the Dundies, Jim dressing up like Dwight to mock him, Jim dumping that one nice girl and acting like Karen wanting to make his life better is a burden. On and on…

Eh. Though I’ll admit that most of it would be fine if they were hilarious. After they get together it’s bruuuuuuutal.

I watch for Michael, Creed and Moes.

@Skol1960 I just want to say I listened to the Anthony Barr podcast and want to say great take. Have a little better appreciation for his skill set and value. Q - What is reality we trade Hunter. We are up against the cap so new deal at top pay seems hard given our many needs

I’ll go 75% chance they do not trade Hunter. There’s so many spots on the defense that they already have to fill, creating another one doesn’t feel like something they want to do.

The only scenario where it happens would be similar to Diggs: They wait until somebody comes with the price tag they want and then pull the trigger. What that price tag might be, I’m not sure. It’s gotta be a lot with Jamal Adams and Jalen Ramsey getting two firsts for their services. You never know when another team might decide Hunter is the answer to all their problems.

Still, I can’t see it. They’re super proud of Hunter. He’s a massively successful development project and an incredible player. He’d have to leave town with Mike Zimmer dragging him by the leg.

@BillErchul Any interest in trying to get in a three way trade with Miami and Houston where the Vikes end up with Tua?

So maybe Houston just wants draft picks from Miami and Tua ends up on the market and the Vikings acquire him for a couple picks? Or does this end up with Cousins being traded somewhere?

The two best positions to be in are having an elite QB or having a cheap QB. So if there’s a situation where they land someone on a rookie deal who has potential or DeShaun Watson, you make that happen. It might mean taking a step backward in 2021, which the coach/GM do not want to do, but it would allow them QB flexibility even if Tua went bust.

We also can’t be sure about any QB until their second or third year. Think about Miami. They got Josh Rosen. Didn’t work out. Move on. They get Tua, maybe it’s not going to work so try for Watson or draft Fields. The Vikings might have run away from that approach by extending Cousins but it’s always an option to keep swinging (and hope you don’t end up in a long rut of bad luck).

@realmatthewamos Is the flea flicker a “official” trick play?

My podcast pal Jeremiah Sirles says yes. I guess a lateral of any kind makes it tricky but it’s the lowest trick play on the trick play ladder. The least tricky of the tricky. Throwing a pass to an outside receiver and then having him flip it to the slot receiver, now that’s a trick play.

@PeteESunshine How come nobody runs the “pro form” I used to smash with on madden? Lots of teams with multiple capable backs and they do it out of the gun sometimes but never under center

Man, I loved the Pro Form. How about teams that would run that inside trap play all the time. The 49ers did this for years and years with Roger Craig and Tom Rathman and then later when Steve Young was throwing checkdowns to William Floyd and Terry Kirby.

I think the reason it went away is that all those concepts changed to 3WR sets. So let’s say you used a slant-flat combo. Back in the day, they would have had the fullback run the flat. Now it’s the slot receiver. Maybe some team will bring it back someday.

@Scott_Roberts25 Why do almost all teams that make the right decisions initially end up waiting until the house starts burning down to admit it’s burning and end up in scramble mode? Rick proved capable of building a roster once same with Zimmer. Stubbornness/being unrealistic is what kills them

It’s like Jurassic Park. The scientist sees all the amazing things that having a ton of dinos in a park would bring to the world and he is blinded from all the things that could go wrong. And then Jeff Goldblum comes along and says “nature finds a way.” The scientist laughs him off and then everyone gets eaten.

That’s kind of how last offseason felt. We wondered aloud: Will rookie corners really be able to handle this? Can you really rely on these unproven D-linemen? Shouldn’t you try to improve at guard? It felt like they assumed it would work because it had been (largely) working in past years.

It’s harder to be realistic when you really, really want your decisions to be right. Like how I keep holding onto hope that Josh Rosen becomes a star in 2026 because I thought he’d be good coming out in the draft.

It’s why listening to objective criticism is a good thing to have in your life.

@danomn I think I’ve heard you or Courtney state this before, but why don’t we draft a QB every year? The way slick Rick collects draft picks, that should be possible, and I would think we would find one to develop eventually. Does any other team do something like that?

I don’t know if there’s a team that takes one every year. There’s a few ways to look at that blanket statement. The way I see it, there have been opportunities over the last few years to take a QB just because it was good value. Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts are the best recent examples. Did those picks fit the need? No. But drafting for immediate need doesn’t often result in spots being filled immediately anyway and most quarterbacks need years of development.

The idea is that the QB position is so vital to winning versus anything else that it’s worth it, even if it doesn’t help in the short term and even if it could still go bust (like any pick). So what Philly did last year with Hurts or Baltimore with Jackson, those were both smart moves even though their fan bases might have been confused at the time. I’d say the same for the philosophy of the Packers picking Jordan Love, even though I wasn’t really a believer in him as a prospect.

Picking a QB in the mid-late rounds usually means lighting a pick on fire, so I’m not sold on that idea unless it’s a dynamic player who’s being kinda weirdly overlooked like Dak Prescott.

@Dinzeo82 Who is your favorite person to cover all time and why?

My favorite of all time is David Leggio, an American Hockey League goalie who I covered on my first beat. He was one of the most competitive athletes I’ve ever covered and he went from a walk-on at Clarkson to having a long pro career. I learned that there’s a heck of a lot more to success in the pros than being skilled. Plus he was just a character. He’d debate with the media whether it was close enough to summer to wear shorts and which golf courses he should play and then after the game he’d be fuming mad if they lost. It’s a great experience to see up close how someone can achieve far more than their talent suggests.

Now I’m sure you meant football players, so I’ll give you a few:

— Latavius Murray: Very smart about the game. Thoughtful. Willing to talk when things were going great or poorly. Interesting person. No chip on his shoulder. Another overachiever.

— Terence Newman: If you cared about learning, he’d teach you. An elite trash talker.

— Tom Johnson: Smart, smart guy. Another one who wanted you to understand how stuff worked. Honest and friendly.

The best guys to cover is ones who will point you in the right direction. I asked Terence Newman about route running and he said, “what do you know about it?” I said “nothing.” So he said, “I’ll break it down for you…” Stuff like that is invaluable.

There’s a different category of players who I enjoyed covering because they were fascinating, not because they were particularly good interviews but maybe that’s for another mailbag.

@thetuse Super Bowl week. Media Questions: Do you believe in voodoo, and can I have a lock of your hair? If you could be any bird, what kind would you be?

Funny story. Covering Super Bowl media day is as chaotic as you think. When the Super Bowl was in Minnesota, they held it at the X. The stage was where the ice would normally be and there were so many media people that you couldn’t move, plus fans in the stands who had little ear pieces to hear the interviews. So you’d look one way and there’s Peter King and the other way and it’s a dude dressed up as Colonel Sanders or something.

So I walk over to Jason McCourtey and there’s a smart reporter asking him about defenses. He’s giving some really cool scheme answers. And then someone else walks up and shouts out, “how hot is Tom Brady on a scale of 1 to 10????”

I think McCourtey gave him a 9. But the kicker is: I was expecting it to be some wacko from E! News or whatever. Nope. Local reporter. I never tracked down the story but I was stunned. That night is madness.

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