Spielman - Why should he stick around?

Yeah you keep telling yourselves Teddy is better. I hear the more you say it, the more it becomes true lol. I just need 2 eyes to watch both play to know which one is the better QB and gives us the better chance to win. And you don't get to just claim Bradford had the better team. That's clearly not true when it comes to the oline, or RB position. Sammy didn't have the luxury have having a 1400 yard rusher taking all the focus off of him. No Mike Wallace to stretch the field either. Hey speaking of Mikey, he doubled his receptions, yards, and TD's over there in Baltimore with a decent QB throwing him the ball.

Here's another pretty big clue. When a guy is capable of playing QB, the coaches don't limit him. They don't ask him to be a game manager or to do too much like they did with Teddy. Meanwhile they let Sammy sling the ball all over the yard behind a line that was much worse.

And you really can't talk about how injury prone Bradford is can you lol? Do you remember what happened to Teddy, in practice, without being touched? But you're worried about Sam who took a pounding this year and came out unscathed? I was worried about how injury prone he was coming into the season, but not so much anymore. With Teddy, a severe injury is ALWAYS going to be a concern going forward due to the nature of his injury. It wasn't just a freak ACL tear when he stepped wrong. Dudes leg almost fell off. Not to mention how we have no idea how the injury is going to affect him psychologically. A position that's already mentally demanding.

But go on, tell me what you see in Teddy that makes you believe he can deliver a Lombardi trophy to Minnesota? Or do you think it's just good enough to have a game manager along for the ride while we wait for the defense to deliver it? Because they certainly don't automatically hand out Lambardis to teams with the nicest QB. Opposing teams aren't going to roll over for him. I like my strategy a little better. Which is finding a QB who can actually help the team win football games so we don't have to solely rely on the defense. You know, it kinda increases our odds just that much more.

My standards are low lol? I'm the one who's not satisfied with our QB situation, and I keep demanding better. You're the one who is content with a bottom feeder like Teddy. Talk about low standards. I don't care what year Bradford is in, I care that he's an improvement over Teddy in the here and now. If Teddy is better than Bradford by his 7th year, then he can start. I'm certainly not trying to suggest Bradford is an elite QB. My only argument is he's the best we got, and he's probably the best that's available. 2 sleeves is a step up from 2 gloves, and that's all that matters to me. Teddy barely improved over his rookie year last year, what makes you think he was suddenly going to take this huge leap in year 3?

And what do you mean Sam didn't win us any games? How many more would we have lost with Hill or even Teddy behind this oline? It's a miracle we didn't go 4-12.

Yeah given our 2 choices, Bradford and Teddy, yes I'm ready to roll with Bradford.

Oh, Teddy would have performed "much" better behind this OL eh? You mean with that mobility that got him sacked more often than Bradford last year behind an OL that featured the same starters in all 16 games? Despite Teddy having 100 fewer drop backs? That "mobility"? A mobile QB actually hurts a struggling OL. The OL will be the first ones to tell you that. They kinda like to know where their QB is, makes it easier to block for him. That's why Vick (1 sack per 13.9 snaps) got sacked at a higher rate than Bledsoe (1 per 16.2). Teddy 12.2, Sammy 16.5.

Given Teddy's slow reads, lack of trust, long sweeping wind-up, lack of arm strength, poor accuracy, reluctance to throw to anyone who isn't completely wide open. I don't think he would have fared too well behind this OL, at all. We needed someone who could get rid of the ball quickly and accurately in our particular situation, and since Manning nor Marino were available, Bradford was about our only option. 8-8 sucks, but we were looking at 4-12 with just about anyone else available.

GM Ron Wolf, the architect of the resurgence of the Packers said in an interview "if we hit on 1/3rd of our draft picks we considered it a great draft". That's a 67% failure rate on draft picks, and he's in the HOF.
On paper, the Vikings o-line was considered a strength going into the season. Fusco was back at RG where he was rated 4th best in the NFL in 2014. Kalil was as healthy as he'd ever been going into training camp. Berger, the best C in 2015 was back. Spielman signed Boone and Smith, both starters the previous season with other teams. Loadholt and Sullivan were both allegedly healthy and returning. Mike Harris who graded out very well at Fusco's RG spot in 2015 was returning. Clemmings was back, with 16 uneven starts in 2015 under his belt, and with the expectation that he'd improve. Then you add returning veteran backups Kerin, Easton and Sirles along with practice squad players Shepard, Bykowski, Faciane and newcomer Beavers and yes, it looked like the o-line was going to be much better this season.
Then the injuries started. First was Harris, who suffered a mysterious head injury during or just prior to training camp. Loadholt was next. Sullivan didn't make the final cut, which I think was a mistake, as it prevented the Vikes from using the versatility of Berger to fill the eventual holes on the line. But that was Zimmer's call, not Spielman's.
Then a couple games into the season, Kalil goes down, a game or 2 later, Smith goes down. There's 2 out of 5, or 40% of your starters gone. They then sign Long who lasts what, 3 games before he too is injured? Eventually every starter on the line misses at least one if not 2 games during the season. IIRC, the Vikings had 9 different starting groups on the 0-line in 16 games, thus destroying the very continuity which allowed them to perform well enough in 2015 to enable AP to lead the league in rushing. I've read many times over the years, that continuity on the offensive line is more important to that position group than any it is to any other situation in sports.
Everyone expected Fusco to regain his form of 2014 but he was worse than ever! Clemmings also regressed instead of improving as everyone expected. Berger's play fell off at center and though Boone was pretty good at pass protection, he was not as good at run blocking.
I think Zimmer made a mistake by not playing Easton at center much earlier in the season, and using Berger elsewhere on the line. Berger could have either replaced Fusco RG or better yet, replaced Boone at LG, with Boone moving to LT where he started 22 games over his 4 years at Ohio State. No way Boone is worse than Clemmings at LT.
When you look at the sorry state this team was in starting with the 2010 season, an aging team in need of a complete rebuild, up to the end of last season, I think Spielman has done an admirable job. He didn't miss that FG against Seattle. He hired Zimmer and together they built an excellent D.
And no GM has a crystal ball to predict injuries. Sure he's missed on some draft choices but again, see Ron Wolf's comment above. It's easy to sit here after the fact and denigrate him, and point to his time with the Dolphins, where he was employed for 4 seasons. His biggest issue there was trading draft picks for veterans. He also made a couple of bad trades. But, he hasn't traded away draft choices here except when he got Bradford and traded up to get CP. Otherwise he's stockpiled them, proving that he learned from his mistakes in Miami.
If Walsh makes the FG against Seattle, and the o-line doesn't suffer an historic number of injuries this season, the comments about him, and the perception of this team, would be very different. And both of those issues were out of his control.

Actually many of them are still slinging the same drivel as they were before the season started. You just have to know the right cesspools to hang out around and you'll find plenty of them. But I think many of them also saw that he's not made of glass. Sam might get injured again, but he already proved he's not fragile and can last a full season

After the last draft, I Would not trust Spielman to do another. If you want Paton to run or help run your draft, you may need to move fast.

After watching this season, I'm trying to figure out how this debate is going down about QB play. I get that QB play wasn't as good as we would like, but I don't think an MVP caliber Petyon Manning could have done much better with zero run game and zero time to throw the ball. That is a reflection on Spielman, like it or not. He hasn't addressed the O-Line for years now, and given that he's the final authority there, like it or not the buck stops with him too. I'd be up to giving him one more year, but as it stands now, I'd fire him before Zimmer and I wouldn't think twice about that.