What's behind the secondary struggles?
What's behind the secondary struggles?
Mike Zimmer was frustrated by defensive back breakdowns in near meltdown against Steelers
By Matthew Coller
ZOOM — When the Minnesota Vikings said goodbye to Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander following the 2019 season, they planned to rebuild the cornerback room through the draft. They picked Jeff Gladney in the first round of the 2020 draft, Cam Dantzler in the third and Harrison Hand in the fifth.
By the next training camp, Gladney was released and Dantzler was in the doghouse. Hand showed a flicker in the Christmas Day against New Orleans but not enough to convince Mike Zimmer that he was the next great development project.
In 2021, the Vikings changed course and elected to restock the cupboard through free agency. First they signed future Hall of Famer Patrick Peterson and then brought back Alexander. Late in the offseason, Bashaud Breeland was added to the mix. From the moment Breeland was healthy enough to practice, he took Dantzler’s position across from Peterson. At one point, 2019 seventh-round pick Kris Boyd worked his way ahead of the struggling Dantzler.
At the time of the signings, there were reasons to think the patchwork plan would work but a number of red flags went along with the trio of one-year deals. On the plus side was a stat that Peterson, despite two down years in Arizona, had still be effective when playing zone coverage. The idea was that a Zimmer adjustment could fix what ailed him in the desert. Breeland started on a Super Bowl-winning team in Kansas City, so they felt his experience could help. Alexander had been a fine nickel corner for the Bengals in his one year away from Minnesota.
On the flip side, in 2020 Peterson graded 61st of 66 starting cornerbacks in coverage grade (different from his overall grade) by PFF’s metrics. Breeland was 18th but committed the eighth most penalties. Alexander’s stats were solid all around but he returned to the Vikings for under $1 million — a sign that the league wasn’t biting on him as a starter.
Coming off games in which the Vikings gave up a game-winning drive to Jared Goff and nearly allowed a 29-point lead to evaporate versus the Steelers, we have enough of a sample size to say that the moves have not been a success.
Peterson is 57th of 85 in coverage grade and leads the NFL in missed tackle percentage. Breeland ranks 80th and Alexander is 83rd. Breeland is the 10th most penalized corner and he’s top 10 in missed tackle percentage as well.
Opposing quarterbacks are posting a 112.6 rating when throwing into Breeland’s coverage (71st), 112.4 against Peterson (70th) and 108.5 when targeting Alexander (65th).
Dantzler’s QB rating against is the best of the group by a country mile at 77.2 but his coverage grade still ranks 43rd and he’s allowed two game-winning throws in his direction.
The Vikings also traded former first-round pick Mike Hughes, who has a solid 72.4 PFF grade in 307 snaps (before Sunday’s game), for the Chiefs.
Following the win over the Steelers, Zimmer showed his frustration with the cornerback group, which was largely responsible for giving up 308 yards and three touchdowns to a broken-down Ben Roethlisberger. The Vikings’ head coach listed his grievances in Friday morning’s press conference. Here’s a rundown of his comments:
“A guy got a cut [tight] split and they line up head up on the guy and give him a chance to get there. The guy is supposed to be on top of the receiver, [but] they’re running hip to hip with him. Those kind of things are really disappointing.”
“Allowing 50-50 balls”
“We got guys in wide splits and we’re lined up head up on them instead of being inside. We didn’t tackle a couple of times on the perimeter. The ball got outside the corners a couple times on the perimeter in the run game.”
“I thought Boyd competed really well. He had the one poor penalty. He did a nice job on things like tackling, but if he’s on top of that receiver, that ball is not thrown or has to be a back-shoulder fade, which is a much, much tougher.”
“And I don’t think Dantzler played very good in the red zone.”
That was just one answer.
Zimmer said he planned to give the team the weekend off from practice and meetings to reset their batteries but made it clear that they were in for a hard week of practice leading up to a pivotal game in Chicago.
“I really feel like if we start being more disciplined in our alignments and our techniques and where we’re supposed to be and what we’re supposed to do, we don’t have to make it like this,” Zimmer said. “That’s what I’m going to stress to the players. When they come back next week, they’re going to get a full dose.”
“We need to fix it quick, because we got one month left in the season and we need to fix these things,” Zimmer added.
Later in the morning, Patrick Peterson took the Zoom stage and agreed with his coach’s assessment.
“The minor mistakes that’s costing us those losses but that shouldn’t cost us losses for the remainder of the season,” Peterson said. “It can’t be no more, ‘My bads,’ it can’t be no more, ‘I shoulda been there, I shoulda made that play.’ We have to be there, we have to make those plays because everything counts.”
At times this year coverage breakdowns have been a product of the defensive line’s lack of pressure. Goff, one of the worst QBs under pressure in the NFL, was only under duress on 12 out of 45 dropbacks. In the first half against Roethlisberger, the Vikings sacked the immobile QB several times, including on pass-rush packages that fooled the Pittsburgh offensive line. In total, however, Roethlisberger was only chased on 15 of 46 dropbacks and he went 4-for-7 with 90 yards against Zimmer’s blitzes with two “big-time” throws (per PFF).
Even worse, the Vikings allowed four of Big Ben’s five deep passes to be caught. The Steelers gained 134 yards on throws traveling more than 20 yards through the air. Coming into the game, he was just 14 for 48 on deep throws.
“With us being a little bit more aggressive and having a different mindset going into those situations, I think it’s going to be better for us going forward,” Peterson said. “Like Zim talked about last week, he’s approaching every play like it’s 3rd-and-7, having that aggressive mindset, not playing too loosely, still making it hard on the quarterback to make the proper decision, make the right throws.”
But how much can really be fixed over the final four games?
One thing that might help is that two of the games come against the Chicago Bears. The Windy City passing game isn’t just bad, it’s horrendous. Prior to Sunday’s game against Green Bay, the Bears entered 30th in Expected Points Added through the air and dead last in passing yards per game. Adjusted for sacks and interceptions, Chicago ranks 32nd in yards per pass attempt.
If there was ever a get-right game for the corners, it would be against the Bears.*
*Soldier Field curses not considered in this sentence.
Chicago’s receivers aren’t what they used to be. Allen Robinson has just 339 yards receiving this season and is sporting the worst PFF grade of his career. Darnell Mooney is the only receiver grading in the top 35 receivers.
Zimmer has also historically made life very difficult for rookies. Per Pro-Football Reference, the Vikings have given up just one 300-yard passing game to rookie quarterbacks during Zimmer’s tenure and allowed only two rookie QBs (out of 12 games) to post greater than 100 quarterback ratings. To take it a step further: First-year QBs have eight touchdowns and 13 interceptions versus the Vikings since 2014.
Justin Fields, who has already had a rough year, has appeared in 10 games and cleared 200 yards passing just twice.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Vikings’ other two opponents have quarterbacks that are very experienced against Zimmer’s defense. The Rams and Packers sport explosive passing games and receivers who rank No. 1 (Davante Adams) and No. 2 (Cooper Kupp) in the NFL in PFF grade.
There doesn’t appear to be an easy answer to combating those two teams. The numbers point to playing Dantzler over Breeland but that doesn’t appear to be in the cards.
What the Vikings’ secondary does have going for it is Harrison Smith. The veteran safety ranks eighth in PFF coverage grade, allowing just a 71.8 QB rating on throws into his coverage.
That’s not unusual by any means for the All-Pro safety. Over his career, opposing QBs have thrown the ball in Smith’s direction 309 times and produced 14 touchdowns, 29 interceptions and a 58.3 rating against.
“I call ‘X’ the ‘Silent Assassin,’ and Harry, he’s the commander. He's the commander by not even saying much,” Peterson said. “His ability to impact the game the way he did last night, it's special. He means a lot to this defense. He means a lot to this organization. It just goes to show, us old guys can still play."
The Vikings will need Smith to be at the center of game-changing plays, as he was against San Francisco and Pittsburgh. Turnovers may be the only answer to slowing opposing offenses but the Vikings haven’t been ball-hawking. They presently rank 18th in turnover percentage and 16th in interception percentage.
Zimmer has always been known for making adjustments on the defensive side. This time that may have to come in the form of techniques and assignments that they are requiring of their struggling corners because there is no other button to push.
“I think when we get back we need to really hone in on being more disciplined in the things that we’re asking the players to do and then making sure they do it the way we want it done,” he said.
As for the future of the cornerback position, with Boyd and Hand penciled into reserve roles and zero corners taken in the last draft, the entire position group will likely have to be rebuilt again next offseason. For now, the performance of the current corners may determine whether the offseason will start after Week 18 or later in January.
Playoff picture update
Following wins by San Francisco, Atlanta and New Orleans and losses by Washington and Carolina, the Vikings still sit in the No. 8 seed.
— Washington presently owns the tiebreaker against the Vikings based on win percentage against conference opponents.
— The Vikings have the tiebreaker against Philadelphia because of games against common opponents.
— Minnesota also has the tiebreaker against Atlanta because of conference opponent record.
— The analytics website FiveThirtyEight gives the Eagles the best chance of the teams running for the No. 7 seed but not by much. Here’s now the numbers go: Philly 38%, Minnesota 33%, Washington 28%, New Orleans 20%.
Support the businesses that support Purple Insider by clicking below to check out Sotastick’s Minnesota sports inspired merchandise:
The situation with Jeff Gladney was a real kick in the crotch for the Vikings. Dantzler seems to have almost regressed from last year. The two players that were picked up from the scrap heap in free agency I think are a direct result of what my favorite sports writer continues to point out of over paying a middle of the road Quarterback leaving little money to pay better players.