Next Season

A forum for the hard core Minnesota Vikings fan. Discuss upcoming games, opponents, trades, draft or what ever is on the minds of Viking fans!

Moderator: Moderators

PurpleMustReign
Starting Wide Receiver
Posts: 19150
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 5:48 pm
Location: Crystal, MN
x 114
Contact:

Next Season

Post by PurpleMustReign »

Guys, I am so pumped, excited, and amped for next season... And it scares the hell out of me...

This is going to be a long 8+ months until football returns! :?

:govikes:
The Devil whispered in the Viking's ear, "There's a storm coming." The Viking replied, "I am the storm." ‪#‎SKOL2018
cstelter
Pro Bowl Elite Player
Posts: 818
Joined: Thu May 15, 2003 9:08 pm
Location: Training Camp Central
x 7

Re: Next Season

Post by cstelter »

Enough went right this year and not too much of it what I could call 'Fluke' (if anything, the bad this season seems to fall better into fluke). The biggest fluke stuff that went our way was we seemed to catch a lot of teams down a key player or at just the right time.

Expectations will be high next season I think. We seem just a move or 3 away from overcoming some of the problems we had this season.

I don't have time to look up the stats, but what I recall from the season as I watch the playoffs is:

SB contender: Denver-- we played them to the end and only lost by 3-- *in Denver*
NFCC contender: AZ-- we played them to the end and only lost by 3-- *in AZ*
Division contender: SEA-- We outplayed them and came up one missed FG short at the end of the wildcard game
Division contender: GB-- we beat them when it counted most for the division title *in GB*
Division contender: KC-- held a good O to 10 *in KC*. Granted-- caught them at the right time, but it was a solid win

We only went 2-6 against the playoff teams, but lost 3 of those games by 7 points combined. Young team still learning how to win like champions.

This is the most optimistic I've felt since the late 90's.
Craig S
Image
User avatar
Mothman
Defensive Tackle
Posts: 38292
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2003 11:48 am
Location: Chicago, IL
x 409

Re: Next Season

Post by Mothman »

cstelter wrote:Enough went right this year and not too much of it what I could call 'Fluke' (if anything, the bad this season seems to fall better into fluke). The biggest fluke stuff that went our way was we seemed to catch a lot of teams down a key player or at just the right time.

Expectations will be high next season I think. We seem just a move or 3 away from overcoming some of the problems we had this season.

I don't have time to look up the stats, but what I recall from the season as I watch the playoffs is:

SB contender: Denver-- we played them to the end and only lost by 3-- *in Denver*
NFCC contender: AZ-- we played them to the end and only lost by 3-- *in AZ*
Division contender: SEA-- We outplayed them and came up one missed FG short at the end of the wildcard game
Division contender: GB-- we beat them when it counted most for the division title *in GB*
Division contender: KC-- held a good O to 10 *in KC*. Granted-- caught them at the right time, but it was a solid win

We only went 2-6 against the playoff teams, but lost 3 of those games by 7 points combined. Young team still learning how to win like champions.


I think you gave them an extra loss to a playoff team there. They beat KC and GB and lost to DEN, GB, SEA, AZ and SEA again.

Plus, they beat the Chiefs in MN, not in KC.
mondry
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8455
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:53 pm

Re: Next Season

Post by mondry »

This team has a couple of big pluses going for it. A lot of the high draft picks and key players we've been collecting over the past 2-3 years have really started to pan out. Outside of Patterson, I can't really think of any high round guys or expensive free agents that look like busts. All of them have pretty much been at least "serviceable" and some of them look like real upcoming stars.

This tells me that Spielman is on track and knows what needs to be done. I believe a GM is just like any other job, you can learn from past mistakes, improve, and so on and Spielman has been on fire. Zimmer is the real deal, he turned this defense around and along with spielman got the players he needed to be successful. A top 5 defense is pretty much the blue print to continued success year in and year out and no that is not a fluke.

They've made some moves in the coaching department, a sign they understand there was a problem and are taking steps to fix it.

And most importantly they have a bright young QB in place with a ton of upside and potential and they seem to have a foundation in place for what kind of team they're trying to be. No more man corners in a soft cover 2 zone defense for example, everyone's on the same page.
mike2mike
Starter
Posts: 184
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2014 9:40 pm
x 11

Re: Next Season

Post by mike2mike »

Well here's a brief offseason guide.

We will come to a 90 man roster sometime shortly after the draft... And eventually we will have to reduce that to 53 again.
Spielman typically adds 10 draft picks and around 10 UDFAs.

So that means between resignings and FAs and trades he will probably get this roster to around a 70 man roster before the draft. Ifhe wants to add more than that, cuts have to come to make room.

So between the upcoming free agents and the potential NFL free agents and our current roster you have to count 70 of them with the top 53 fitting under the cap.

You can come up with a few scenarios to get there.

That can kill sometime at least for awhile.

Resources:
Overthecap.com (cap estimates)
Fanspeak.com (offseason and draft simulators)
Spotrac.com (free agents)
Draftbreakdown.com (all the video cut ups of the performance of a particular player for evaluation)
The big sites (NFL.com espn.com cbs.com kffl.com profootballtalk.com etc)
Etc
autobon7
All Pro Elite Player
Posts: 1044
Joined: Wed Sep 30, 2015 12:20 pm

Re: Next Season

Post by autobon7 »

It will be a LONG 8 months.....I'm a Phillies fan so there will not be much to look forward to there......don't really watch the NBA much anymore. Guess I'll have to ramp up my F1 and LeMans series viewership until then.
akvikingsfan
All Pro Elite Player
Posts: 1397
Joined: Sat Jan 15, 2005 7:06 pm
Location: Kathleen, GA
x 15
Contact:

Re: Next Season

Post by akvikingsfan »

I watch the Twins religiously for the first 2 months or so but then it becomes just catching a game here and there and checking the box scores. Guess I'll get back into WWE while I wait for next season to start. Never was a big basketball fan. I am very excited for the new stadium and seeing how this team improves over the off season. I hope to fly out for the home opener.
720pete
Pro Bowl Elite Player
Posts: 654
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 11:07 pm
x 7

Re: Next Season

Post by 720pete »

autobon7 wrote:It will be a LONG 8 months.....I'm a Phillies fan so there will not be much to look forward to there......don't really watch the NBA much anymore. Guess I'll have to ramp up my F1 and LeMans series viewership until then.
Pretty sure the NBA draft lottery is rigged. :|
cstelter
Pro Bowl Elite Player
Posts: 818
Joined: Thu May 15, 2003 9:08 pm
Location: Training Camp Central
x 7

Re: Next Season

Post by cstelter »

Mothman wrote: I think you gave them an extra loss to a playoff team there. They beat KC and GB and lost to DEN, GB, SEA, AZ and SEA again.

Plus, they beat the Chiefs in MN, not in KC.

I said it was what I recall ;-). Memory is going south just like just about everything else.
Craig S
Image
User avatar
Mothman
Defensive Tackle
Posts: 38292
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2003 11:48 am
Location: Chicago, IL
x 409

Re: Next Season

Post by Mothman »

cstelter wrote:
I said it was what I recall ;-). Memory is going south just like just about everything else.

I know that feeling!
cstelter
Pro Bowl Elite Player
Posts: 818
Joined: Thu May 15, 2003 9:08 pm
Location: Training Camp Central
x 7

Re: Next Season

Post by cstelter »

Mothman wrote:
I know that feeling!
Probably why I'm optimistic once again-- forgetting all the prior scars.
Craig S
Image
User avatar
Mothman
Defensive Tackle
Posts: 38292
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2003 11:48 am
Location: Chicago, IL
x 409

Re: Next Season

Post by Mothman »

cstelter wrote:Probably why I'm optimistic once again-- forgetting all the prior scars.
:lol:
IrishViking
All Pro Elite Player
Posts: 1631
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2013 11:02 am

Re: Next Season

Post by IrishViking »

I think we have every reason to be excited about next year. I have no false beliefs about how well the Vikings Offense was this year but I definitely think we are in a prime position for us to excel with even a mild improvement on offense.

I am extremely excited for next year.
mondry
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8455
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:53 pm

Re: Next Season

Post by mondry »

IrishViking wrote:I think we have every reason to be excited about next year. I have no false beliefs about how well the Vikings Offense was this year but I definitely think we are in a prime position for us to excel with even a mild improvement on offense.

I am extremely excited for next year.
I know it's overly simplistic but basically if the defense stays the same or gets better and they can turn one field goal into a TD each game that's basically a 12 win team. If they can do even better than that look out.
808vikingsfan
Hall of Fame Candidate
Posts: 3927
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2014 5:45 pm
Location: Hawaii
x 151

Re: Next Season

Post by 808vikingsfan »

The Vikings are in a position to decide whether they’re going to lock and load with the current crop of players, making sure they lock down their young talent and continue to build through the draft or make a run at a spendy veteran free agent or two along the way.

With teams like Green Bay and Seattle having a ton of key players who are starters or key role players hitting the free agent market, they can only lock down so many of them at one time. Both of them have already invested well into eight figures for their starting quarterbacks, so they have to pick and choose who they keep. The Cardinals are a veteran-laden team that isn’t getting any younger at several key positions, so their window is closing fast.


Minnesota Vikings set up nicely compared to NFC playoff teams
Joined: Aug 2006
Deleted: Sept 12 2014
Reborn: Sept 17 2014
Post Reply