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NFL week 18 officially gets underway this afternoon at 3:30 with the Steelers in Baltimore. Baltimore is resting most of their starters while Pittsburgh is trying to sneak into the playoffs. The night game should be decent with Houston rolling into Indy, for some reason Houston is favored by 2.5 despite being the road team and the teams having identical records.
Minnesota Vikings Discussion Topic of the Day
In all likelihood the Vikings season will end Sunday afternoon. Its a disappointing season and typically with disappointing seasons changes get made. Do you see any changes to the coaching staff or FO being made? I don’t really, other than possibly Brian Flores leaving for the NE job if it comes available.
Media Selection
Here’s some Music from one of my favorite bands as an adolescent
Minnesota Vikings News:
Minnesota ruled out right tackle Brian O’Neill (ankle), cornerbacks Byron Murphy, Jr. (knee) and Mekhi Blackmon (shoulder), safety Theo Jackson (toe), receiver Jalen Nailor (concussion) and defensive tackle Jaquelin Roy (ankle). Click here for the entire injury report
If this is Harrison Smith’s last game as it has been reported as legitimately possible, I will miss him and look forward to his induction into the Hall Of Fame, and the Vikings Ring Of Honor. If he does retire he’ll be one of the incredibly rare players these days to have played his entire career for one team. Even some of the greatest Vikings of all time, like John Randle, Adrian Peterson, or Kevin Williams didn’t finish their careers as Vikings.
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I agree with NLNV….Vikes aren’t bringing back Cousins…I think they go with Mullens and try to draft one in round 1 or 2.. If you aren’t bringing Cousins back, and I don’t think they are, no sense wasting money on a marginal bridge QB.
I disagree with NLNV….you don’t trade JJ.
Game thread up, join the party. Purple lose easy, go 7-10. Then it’s playoffs and mock hell.
Thanks!
I think Mullens plays so poorly today that we see Dobbs in the second half.
Honesty I think the most competitive game today will be FTP vs Chicago.
Think Mayfield is a FA, wonder what he’d cost.
He’s pretty well like down here in Tampa.
Guessing Bucs will offer a 3 yr deal of some kind.
Who would you want to lead your team? Cousins or Mayfield?
Cousins. No question.
But money will factor in to whatever the mad GM is thinking.
Yes, money is the thing with Cousins. He’s played very well since becoming a starter in 2015. When you compare his production to the other QB’s in the league over that time, he’s top 4 in TD’s and top 5 in yardage. This, while playing behind terrible O-lines and a different OC every year for the most part. The problem is, he’s out-priced himself. His market value is over $40M a year, but teams realize devoting that much money to one guy puts the organization in a cap bind. Cap hit is something GM’s have to factor into their team construction plan. Thus, finding a “cheap” QB who can do the job well enough to get you to the playoff’s year in, and year out is the ideal situation for GM’s.
Good luck with that.
You know that feeling where you have chicken and veggies every day because it’s good for you? Eventually you just want something else, even if it is not good for you.
That is where I am with this team. Time for change.
Laughing… well you’re about to get it… peanut butter and jelly for the next 3 years.
More like stale bread dry, but yes.
Just hoping by year 3 they can compete.
In my opinion, now that this season is done, the Vikings are going to be struggling the next 2 to 3 years. With this in mind, I could see KAM trading JJ for a ton of draft capital.
Trading JJ would alleviate a huge fiscal investment, and provide assets for the future. The Vikings will not have an accomplished QB under center next year no matter what they do (they aren’t bringing Cousins back, he’s too expensive). So it makes sense to get what you can for JJ now. Addison will take on the WR1 role. Also KJ Osborn is an unrestricted free agent this year, so the whole receiving corps will be overhauled.
I am fine with that. Trade anyone that has value for draft picks, and make this a hard reset.
Yep, right, wrong, good, or bad, that’s how I’m seeing the Vikings future unfold.
So. you think our young GM has what it takes to tear the whole team up, start all over, and then rebuild it into a contender?
Personally, I do not.
Not sure if he can. I just know he has messed up so far.
There are so many holes on the roster, and at least he is trying to get the cap hell Rick left him in far far behind.
I will reserve judgement for two more years. Year 5 of him and Coach, and the team is either contending or everyone gets fired imo.
I will reserve too – for now. But he already has a bit of history – like Cine pick and Davenport. Would prefer a bit more hitting some singles and doubles before swinging for he fences – and thst’s for his well beeing.
RIP Lacy Underalls
RIP Cindy Morgan… 69 years young.
Good morning all and SKOL. I fear today’s game is going to be tough to watch. I don’t see any way the team comes out victorious. Maybe there’s a miracle though and the Vikings prevail. Fingers crossed!
GM
I am fine with them losing. Nothing to play for other than a higher draft pick.
At least FTP did not win the division, and maybe the Bears can win today.
Well I guess I’m never fine with losing, but truly the season ended in week 8 for the Vikings. The rest is just muddling through.
Picked the wrong team to back then. Vikings, crushing hopes and dreams since forever.
I don’t know… currently the Vikings record is 544-465-11 over the course of their 63 seasons. 79 games over .500. They aren’t a losing organization per se.
That’s regular season and playoff games.
I understand that perspective. For the ownership it is certainly better to fill the stadium vs a full rebuild.
I feel KOC did some good things this season given the roster. He also really did poorly in a few games.
I feel the 1998 roster was the best chance at a championship in my lifetime. Zombie Favre in 2009 is next, but even if Favre runs/limps for the first down instead of the INT, I think he would be dead in the SuperBowl.
Good morning, SKOL! I’ll be watching, but the season really ended Week 8 when the team lost their starting QB.
Agree with your analysis, not sure if Queasy can pull off a rebuild and lay the foundations for a contender… so far, he hasn’t shown that he is capable of doing that. We might suck for quite some time, unfortunately.
Yes, unfortunately…
Think starters will walk through our D.
The game day thread will post in the morning
Go Minshew. Sign him.
Minshew isn’t really all that good.
Bridge QB.
Bridge to nowhere though.
He isn’t, but he’s also better than any QB on the Vikings active roster
He looks awful.
Minshew didn’t look particularly impressive last night. Might still be serviceable as a cheap bridge QB.
Agree, i’m off that wagon. He hands off fairly well.
There are a lot of guys who can play QB for the Vikings next year at the Minshew level.
Ravens game is tough sledding for both teams. TJ Watt looks injured for Pittsburgh.
7-7 with under 2 minutes left in the third quarter.
Pittsburg wins.
My SIL is happy.
Nice… looks like Mike Tomlin did it again.
Never a losing season.
So is my BIL.
Camera lenses on game wet, can’t see well.
Steelers running the ball down the Ravens throat at the moment.
somebody needs to tell the camera operator to wipe off the lens.
duh.
Think watching Campbell post season will be fun, what a maverick.
I’m guessing they lose round one because of the maverick.
Gess i’ll give 1st game a shot. Ravens resting. Looks very wet.
Ravens built for this kind of weather. Best rushing game in the NFL.
And yet I believe Steelers have won 7 of last 8 and 3 in a row in Baltimore.
Learn something new every day.
Say a guy yesterday that reported you nephew is doing really well and far ahead of schedule – all will be fine.
My nephew?
Some folks here affectionately (half way anyway) say you are QB1’s uncle. I just used the phrase to pass along a status report.
All great news really. Thought you’d be interested.
Can really find out more, specifics, in a couple of weeks.
Well, most of their commentary is not intended to be affectionate.
Happy to hear Cousins is doing well in his recovery. Sucks that his injury occurred this year. He was playing very well in his second year in a system (finally). I seriously doubt the Vikings will re-sign him though, and we’ll see what happens in 2024.
New year – trying to be positive about most things and people – except maybe the presidential election since our team is run by idiots.
And think you are were right, GM is far more of numbers guy than I suspected..
Yes, and 2024 is a financial crossroads for the team. Too many good players to sign to big contracts. Darrisaw, Hunter, JJ… in all though, the Vikings have 27 unrestricted free agents in 2024 to re-sign, or release and replace. 2024 is where KAM will make his mark on the team. He’ll either establish a foundation for a Championship team, or he won’t.
Actually, the Vikings have 39 players under contract for 2024 cap purposes. 3 are void year contracts, Which means 36 are under contract. There are some restricted free agents included in that.
So if the vikings draft 7 players, that means there are 9 spots to fill.
It’s really not an issue IMO.
Ummmm look here:
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/minnesota-vikings/
Umm look here:
39 players under contract.
3 are void year contracts.
Hmmm two sites with completely different data
The Vikings have elevated cornerbacks Joejuan Williams and Jaylin Williams from their practice squad a day after ruling out cornerbacks Byron Murphy, Jr., and Mekhi Blackmon.
Jaylin Williams is an undrafted rookie who has been elevated from Minnesota’s practice squad the past two games and made his NFL debut against the Lions in Week 16. He’s played 13 defensive snaps and 17 on special teams.
So we got that going for us.
Might as well see what the youngsters can do.
Then Hope/Pray KAM doesn’t screw up the higher draft pick too badly.
Mocks are already driving me nuts.
Me too, and they’re always wrong anyways.
Yeah, I do not care for Mocks.
However, reading about Kwesi trying to trade up last year to take Anthony Richardson gives me hope that the Vikings have a plan to get the QB(OTF) that they need.
If that guy they want falls to 10 or wherever they pick, fine. Otherwise trade up and get him.
No more putting band-aids on a stuck pig. Rebuild is here and now.
I read that too, Bot wondered how accurate (true) was it?
Seems real hard to get to hard truth with all the BS that gets pushed.
Saw Daniels latest. Stay tuned.
Yuk
Yeah, it was good to see that maybe they are thinking that.
Should have done that from the start. Have to move on from Kirk soon.
Just do it already. No more delay.
Just ask Washington how that works out… sold the farm for RGIII… he was supposed to be awesome… he lost his job to Cousins and never was great the rest of his short career.
Headed out to lunch and Saturday errands, but wanted to say I hope Cook gets on the field in the playoffs with the Ravens, and does great.
Plethora amount of football talk.
Overwhelming
Same.
Good morning to all.
Would guess no coaching changed.
Read something this week thought strange – that our ST coach was ranked top five in league. Frankly, from purely eyeballing, didn’t think our ST’s were that good. What do I know.
Coverage and return units were good, the punter was meh and Joseph… well he was about as good as possible
What Ben said.
I don’t see any major coaching changes happening. I also believe that the qb situation will continue to be unresolved for the future. We will continue to just apply a band-aid to the position. We wasted Cousins time here and we will have a turnstile approach going forward.
Such are the words of VP the Seer.
First auto rec