Minnesota Sports Forum

If Cousins restructured so we could upgrade the OL I think people would have to be happy with that. If I was him I wouldn't restructure so they could spend money on defense unless it was a real needle mover.

bleedspeed177 wrote:If Cousins restructured so we could upgrade the OL I think people would have to be happy with that. If I was him I wouldn't restructure so they could spend money on defense unless it was a real needle mover.

Cousins restructuring by himself isn't going to upgrade anything especially on the Oline. There has to be at least another move to open up space. I think the Vikings have enough moves they can make to keep guys and upgrade the roster mostly through the draft maybe a cheap signing but Cousins isn't the only move to be made but it's something that could help with the chunk of money they need to find to get under the cap and be able to do anything. I think it might be easy to sell Cousins on restructuring to keep someone than convince him on what they are going to bring in.

I agree with you there. I think his restructure would have be pitched as we could do abc vs bcd.

Will Russell Wilson get traded? He doesn't seem happy with the direction of the club.

It seems a lot like the Diggs situation in ways to me. He has the Saints on his list of places he would like to play which would be great for that franchise. My concern with him is his complaint about getting sacked, but he is typically a guy that holds the ball longer than most. I am not sure how much of the problem is the OL vs his ability to get it out quickly. I wonder if this takes into account his rolling out of the pocket which he seems to do a lot.

#LetRussCook

bleedspeed177 wrote:Will Russell Wilson get traded? He doesn't seem happy with the direction of the club.

It seems a lot like the Diggs situation in ways to me. He has the Saints on his list of places he would like to play which would be great for that franchise. My concern with him is his complaint about getting sacked, but he is typically a guy that holds the ball longer than most. I am not sure how much of the problem is the OL vs his ability to get it out quickly. I wonder if this takes into account his rolling out of the pocket which he seems to do a lot.

#LetRussCook

Well the Seahawks haven't exactly been able to build up a good oline for quite a while. PFF said this year was the best pass blocking they have had in quite a while. For a number of years they did the same things the Vikings did tried to get by with not using any draft Capitol on that unit. Then they threw some money at it and that didn't work out too well either.

Monster - I agree the OL was crap, but man it is interesting how some guys still find production.

Seahawks ended up being ranked 14th in leage by PFF. Vikings came in at 26th. Chargers were dead last. I will be curious how the Dolphins improving after starting 3 rookies in 2020.

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-final-2020-offensive-line-rankings

The offensive line has been an issue for multiple years now in Minnesota, and it remains one following a 2020 season where they graded out as the 28th-best pass-blocking offensive line in the NFL. Once again, it was the interior of the offensive line where most of the issues popped up.

Ezra Cleveland's 6.9% pressure rate allowed ranked 37th out of 40 qualifying right guards in his first year at guard after starting three seasons as Boise State's left tackle. In that same vein, Garrett Bradbury's 5.1% pressure rate allowed ranked 34th out of 36 qualifying centers, and Dakota Dozier's pressure rate allowed of 8.0% ranked 36th out of 39 qualifying left guards. None of their three starters on the interior cracked the top 32 at their respective position.

That's a problem, and it's one the Vikings will have to deal with this offseason.

Pretty much agrees with our eye rest. Does Cleveland project to become a starter at LT or not? This is the most interesting issue and if the line gets upgraded to merely avg we could do real good things on offense.

Then we still have the D Line which was bad as well.

If Hunter and Pierce come back next year that will help the DL a lot.

I am worried about Bradbury since he didn't improve enough in my eyes over his rookie year. I can't tell if that is because of bad guard play or not. I think am curious about what we do with Cleveland. I think he would have been better at LG due to his LT experience in college. I think we need a FA signing because I don't think we can count on a starting rookie OL, but since this draft is supposed to be strong there we need to draft at least 2 OL this year.

I read an article dealing with guards the Vikings could sign in FA. Basically the elite guards would get tackle money which the Vikings probably can't afford and the other guy wasn't a system fit. Everyone else was maybe not worth paying the extra money for. Other teams have oline problems too FA might not yield great results. Let's remember the Jets picked up Elfien and played him a ton because apparently that's how bad it was there they were a couple spots below the Vikings. Other teams need fixed too.

"Overall, however, it was a disappointing season for the offensive line in New York. They allowed pressure in 2.5 seconds or less on 28% of their dropbacks -- the worst rate in the NFL. The line wasn't creating many lanes in the run game, either. The Jets averaged just 1.1 yards per carry before contact per rushing attempt in 2020 (30th). Once again, they'll have to look to add pieces to their offensive line this offseason."

Basically improving the line via FA will be some under the radar signing that turns out to be a decent instead of bad player.

I heard from a friend tonight Fitz-magic was retiring but then I googled and they said he wasn't. What an emotional roller coaster it's been.