The rundown: Hunter to IR, Cook contract update and systems in Year 2

Wednesday was "media day" and there were a lot of interesting comments from the Vikings

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On Wednesday the Minnesota Vikings (and Packers head coach Matt LaFleur) spoke with the media about Sunday’s Week 1 matchup. There was plenty to take away from their comments. Here’s what we learned…

Danielle Hunter to IR

Each day during training camp we wondered when Danielle Hunter would return to practice after a “tweak” kept him out of every workout since the first day that players returned to the field.

Turns out it’s going to be awhile before he’s back. The Vikings announced Hunter has been placed on Injured Reserve, which means he will miss at least the first three games.

“A guy like Danielle, he brings a whole other type of game in and it’s going to be hard to replace a guy like that but we have guys who are hungry and want to step up too,” linebacker Eric Kendricks said.

Hunter’s presence would have made for a massive advantage on Sunday against the Packers because Green Bay still hasn’t said who will be playing right tackle yet. They appear to be moving Billy Turner from guard to tackle but an injury has put his status up in the air. Hunter versus a backup would have been a nightmare for Aaron Rodgers.

Instead we may see Ifeadi Odenigbo or Jalyn Holmes start at left defensive end. Eddie Yarbrough also mixed in at that position during camp so he could be a situational rusher.

The drop off from Hunter to any backup is enormous. Over the last two seasons he has 29.0 sacks. The Vikings will now rely heavily on Yannick Ngakoue to create pressure.

Cook’s contract situation

Dalvin Cook said he plans to play regardless of whether he comes to an extension with the Vikings or not. Photo courtesy of the Vikings

Dalvin Cook spoke to the media for the second time this offseason and the main topic of conversation in each Zoom call has been his contract status.

Earlier this offseason ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Cook was holding out of team activities until a new deal was done and then there was confusion over whether he would report to camp or stage a “hold in” where he was present at camp but didn’t participate. Neither of those things happened as he took reps every day throughout training camp.

Cook indicated he’s ready to play on Sunday.

“If Coach Zim calls my name, I’ll be out there,” he said.

Throughout the offseason we have seen numerous members of the terrific 2017 running back draft class sign contracts, including Christian McCaffrey and Joe Mixon both Aaron Jones and Alvin Kamara are reportedly close to extensions with their respective clubs.

“I’ve never been a guy to look at this guy or look at that guy,” Cook said. “Everybody is human. You go out and bust your tail and do what you’ve got to do and you expect a reward to come behind that. I just hope the Vikings and my agent come to an agreement of a deal that values me. Until then, I’ve just got to wait my turn.”

One source with knowledge of negotiations said that the holdup has not been the interest from the the Vikings to sign Cook, rather the guarantees that would come along with an extension.

There is a difference between fully guaranteed dollars and money guaranteed only in the case of a career-ending injury. McCaffrey, for example, received $30 million fully guaranteed whereas only $10 million of Mixon’s deal is fully guaranteed (though he is very unlikely to be cut after this year so it essentially guarantees closer to $20 million).

Those two deals give the Vikings good bookends to work with. Cook belongs above Mixon but not quite in the range of McCaffrey by his usage. They could settle somewhere in the middle around $25 million guaranteed.

We’ll see if there’s a last-minute deal to be had before Sunday’s game. The Vikings haven’t signed players to extensions during the season in recent years.

Year 2 of the Packers’ system

Earlier this week on the Purple Insider podcast, Aaron Nagler described last year’s Packers offense as a “hybrid” of things Aaron Rodgers liked to do in the past and noted that Rodgers looked more comfortable running Matt LaFleur’s offense in camp.

Zimmer said the scheme has often been a moving target for his defense.

“They’ve done so many different things since we’ve been here,” Zimmer said. “One year they’re all no-huddle, one year they changed personnel groups like every possession.”

The Vikings couldn’t be much more familiar of the basics of LaFleur’s system considering it is rooted in Shanahan/Kubiak style but Zimmer is expecting sharper execution from the players around Rodgers this year.

“Anytime you’re in the second year of your system that you’re running, you have more confidence,” Zimmer said. “And probably not Aaron, because it’s hard for him to be a little better than what he already is. But I think the players around him will understand it better, and he can communicate to them what he wants better. I think those kinds of things will improve.”

While teams can never predict exactly what new wrinkles will be included in Week 1 of opponents’ offenses, this year makes teams especially unpredictable because they haven’t gotten a look at the personnel on the other team during preseason games.

“The difference is maybe not seeing some of the players that they’ve added,” Zimmer said. “Where they’re going to line them up, maybe only seeing them on college tape as opposed to NFL tape or preseason tape. So some of the personnel things will be different. It’s going to be a game of adjustments like it always is, but probably a little bit more so this week.”

Rodgers and Zimmer have had many great battles since the Vikings’ head coach was hired in 2014. Since 2016 Rodgers is 3-3-1 against Zimmer with a 94.1 quarterback rating, nine touchdowns, two interceptions and 6.9 yards per pass attempt.

Zimmer always seems to get a kick out of playing against the future Hall of Fame quarterback. He talked about being wowed by Rodgers’s ability to make plays off schedule and dodge tacklers, especially in the red zone.

“He makes his hay in the red zone by moving out of the pocket and finding guys and buying time for his receivers, and the receivers do an unbelievable job of taking off and either heading back and changing direction, and then he’s able to find them with the great vision that he has,” Zimmer said. “I was watching some tape on him this morning, and some of the plays he makes take your breath away. It’s kind of like watching Barry Sanders run the football.” 

No fans Sunday

It will be surreal Sunday being inside US Bank Stadium watching the Vikings and Packers play without deafening noise on third downs. Instead there will be a subtle grumble of piped in crowd noise. The decibel level equates to less than half the noise you’d expect in a big situation.

The one benefit the Vikings have had in preparing for a murmur rather than something that sounds like a train coming through your living room is time to prepare. They scrimmaged at US Bank Stadium with the faux noise so it won’t be a shock to the system.

“I feel like we’ve already kind of known that going into the season so we’ve been mentally preparing for that,” Kendricks said. “We still have to get ready to play the game. We still have to get that energy ready. We still have to communicate and be effective when we’re out there.”

Mike Zimmer is certainly no stranger to bizarre circumstances. He harkened back to the team’s few seasons in between venues before US Bank Stadium opened.

“I kind of look at it like we’re back at TCF and we weren’t playing at our own home field, just borrowing the University of Minnesota’s field,” Zimmer said. “We had to go out and execute and play well. I don’t really believe the atmosphere or the energy of the juice, as you call it, will change. I think the players will still have plenty of that. It’s just nice to have your home crowd there backing you.”

Super Bowl odds

There’s lots of different places you can find Super Bowl odds and different predictive models. ESPN posted Bill Barnwell’s analysis of each team’s chances to win The Big Game this year. Here’s how the Vikings came out:

Chance to win Super Bowl LV: 1.9%
Chance to make the playoffs: 53.8%
Caesars' Super Bowl odds: +2800

The Vikings tied for 12th place at 1.9% chance with the Indianapolis Colts. In the NFC they ranked behind New Orleans, San Francisco, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and Seattle.

Minnesota’s spot seems about right until we can get some of the major questions answered. The most questionable one there is Philly. It’s hard to say how they got better than the last two years.

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