Defense Going Forward

[Pondering Her Percy]

Must not have sucked at play calling too much given we were the 7th best offense in the nfl. Again you’re barking about a coach that went an unexpected 13-4 in his first season. Your argument carries zero weight right now

Right.

Beginning of the season:

"We'll be lucky to even win half of our games with new coaching and switching all of our schemes."

End of season, after 13 wins and a division title, but losing a close game in the playoffs:

"But we didn't win convincingly enough, see, I was right!"

Haha mic drop!!

[JJBreaksRecords]

KO doesnt have the balls to fire Ed. I trust KO less with the D than I even do with the O. I dont trust KO at this point. I dont trust him in the draft. But the Wilfs wont find another HC thats as good as KO is. But he has to stop play calling. He sucked at it. He seems a lot like Zimmer as HC to me. Zimmer was a great DC but was in over his head as HC. I hope the Wilfs dont give KO the amount of time to change HCs with Zimmer as he will if KO still looks like a rookie HC next year.

Guess He Does!!

Yes, Im shocked.

[Angels Wings]

Love Harrison Smith, but he, Peterson and most if not all of the secondary needs to be gone. They totally sucked this year. The issue is that unfortunately they don't have any cap space at all to improve it and with 5 picks, they ability to improve it is limited.

[Pondering Her Percy]

KO doesnt have the balls to fire Ed.

KOC with the big kahonas

[Pondering Her Percy]

Love Harrison Smith, but he, Peterson and most if not all of the secondary needs to be gone. They totally sucked this year. The issue is that unfortunately they don't have any cap space at all to improve it and with 5 picks, they ability to improve it is limited.

I’m not sure why Harrison and Peterson need to be gone. Peterson was excellent for the majority of the season and Harrison was badly misused in this scheme. These are two guys I’d aim to keep, not get rid of.

I’d rather get rid of guys like Thielen, Kendricks, Hicks and even Zadarius possibly. Zadarius’ contract makes it easy. $13 mill in savings and 3 mill in dead money. Wouldn’t be against cutting him and renegotiating but that could be a pipe dream, I don’t know

[CharVike]

Love Harrison Smith, but he, Peterson and most if not all of the secondary needs to be gone. They totally sucked this year. The issue is that unfortunately they don't have any cap space at all to improve it and with 5 picks, they ability to improve it is limited.

When you don't attack the QB every secondary sucks. That needs to be fixed and if we stick with the 3-4 it won't be fix next year. So the secondary means nothing at this point.

[VikingLord]

I'm really struggling to think of defensive players on the Vikings who truly stood out in a positive way consistently most of the year. Hunter on the DL played well in spurts but was average or even disappeared in others. None of the remaining DL was consistently a factor. Harrison Phillips was average. Tomlinson was average. Z. Smith started off great and then disappeared and was a huge liability against runs to his side as well. Kendricks seemed lost and ineffective most of the year and Hicks was too slow and, most disturbing of all, not a single one of the Vikings drafted LBs other than Asamoah made any impact at all beyond perhaps special teams. The present and the future looks bleak at LB.

Secondary was a horror show most of the year. Dantzler is way too soft to expect him to be an impact starter. Peterson got away with some blown coverages, but made up for his mistakes with some nice plays as well. However, he's older and I don't think the Vikings can go back to the well and be able to count on him playing at a high level much longer. Evans was good, but his concussions make me worried about his durability. Duke Shelley might have been the best cover corner on the team at the end. I'd keep him to see what he can do. Sullivan was average to below average all year, as was Bynum. Smith is a lot like Peterson. Solid, if unspectacular vet who is nearing the end of his career.

The fact the Vikings got nothing from their first two picks in the last draft is worrying too. They'll head into this year's draft having little to no information if either will turn into anything and thus not knowing if they need to make additional moves at those positions this offseason.

Donatell or someone else, the defense has some major issues with talent and previous drafts have left the cupboard bare when it comes to replenishment from within, at least. They need to get a new DC hired quickly and let him properly evaluate the players he has, and then trust him to make recommendations on who to keep and who needs to go. Also, with just 4 picks in the upcoming draft and a tight salary cap KAM has to work some magic to increase his flexibility to make moves this offseason. The defense was bad the last two years now. Both KAM and KOC get a pass on the talent issues on the defensive side since both were in their first year, but from here on out they'll own the mess if it doesn't get addressed at least in part this coming offseason. They need to find a way to get the defense into the middle of the rankings at least, especially if they don't make major moves on the offensive side of the ball, which is what I think is going to happen given the overall performance of the offense this last season.

[MossCarterJefferson]

Love Harrison Smith, but he, Peterson and most if not all of the secondary needs to be gone. They totally sucked this year. The issue is that unfortunately they don't have any cap space at all to improve it and with 5 picks, they ability to improve it is limited.

Vikings have 4 picks

[J. Kapp 11]

For anyone who is worried Lewis Cine might not ever make it back, this should be encouraging.