Takeaways from Spielman's Q&A

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Matthew’s takeaways:

A vote of confidence for Kirk Cousins

While there hasn’t directly been any reports that the Vikings are shopping Kirk Cousins, the combination of a seller’s market for quarterbacks and Cousins’s contract have led to all sorts of speculation about whether they would consider moving him for the right price.

Spielman was not willing to pour any gas on that fire, saying the team is happy with Cousins as their QB.

“I know there’s a lot of rumors floating around out there, but Kirk Cousins is our quarterback,” Spielman said. “We felt that he played very well, probably the best that he’s ever played down that stretch last year. Kirk is our quarterback going forward, and I look forward to him [having] another year in this system. I’m excited for him and what he’s going to bring to our team next year.”

Certainly Spielman’s comments do not put to bed discussions over Cousins’s future, in part because the situation calls for some type of resolution either this offseason or next in the form of a trade or contract extension. Plus the Vikings’ GM has historically had several denials of deals in the works during his NFL Combine/offseason press conference that ultimately came to fruition (including Stefon Diggs’s trade last year).

Still it doesn’t appear likely that the resolution to Cousins’s contract will happen this offseason. The Vikings are likely to let the deadline pass for Cousins’s deal to become fully guaranteed in 2022 and address the situation next offseason. Still we learned from the Diggs trade that they always have a price in mind even if they don’t want/need to move a player.

Kyle Rudolph’s exit, Irv Smith Jr and Tyler Conklin’s ascension

The Vikings released tight end Kyle Rudolph on Tuesday, creating cap space and paving the way for Irv Smith Jr. to take over the job.

Spielman said that Smith’s play in 2020 didn’t have anything to do with the decision to move on from Rudolph. Even if that is the case, it gives them a cheap, ascending in-house answer.

“We drafted [Smith Jr.] in the second round a couple years ago out of Alabama and you can see the mismatches that he can create, a different way than Kyle did. Kyle did it with his size and his enormous wingspan and catching radius,” Spielman said. “Irv does it with his ability to run and his athletic ability, so two different ways, same type of production hopefully going forward.”

Spielman also noted No. 3 tight end Tyler Conklin’s improvement, giving the impression that he will go into 2021 with an expected role in the offseason.

“Last year [Conklin] took a significant jump when he got his opportunity to play, not only making some plays in the passing game but in his development as a blocker at the line of scrimmage as well,” Spielman said.

There’s a lot more work to be done

Spielman acknowledged that cutting Rudolph is just the first of multiple steps to get compliant with the salary cap and put together a competitive roster.

The Vikings’ GM explained that the front office had planned their contracts with a normal rising salary cap in mind. Instead the league took a hit with COVID forcing much of the league to play in empty stadiums. Now instead of the salary cap going up $15-$20 million, it’s more or less staying put. Spielman said the floor is at $180 million and the cap ceiling is yet to be announced. OverTheCap.com estimates the team is around $5 million over the cap presently.

“We’re going to have to be very creative this year,” Spielman said. “We’re going to have to make a lot of tough business decisions. That process has started this week and next week. Normally, I’m down at the Combine and we’re getting an opportunity to talk to all the players’ agents down there. Now it’s by phone or by Zoom or whatever we have to do this year. That process is getting started.”

The Vikings’ next two weeks will be fascinating. On a year-to-year basis there is usually one or two players who have uncertain futures during the NFL Combine. This time around, there’s a half dozen players in which the Vikings will need to use some “creative” measures. The roster could look quite different even by the time we reach free agency.

No clarity on Danielle Hunter’s situation

Spielman was asked whether there was truth to the report from NFL Network that Danielle Hunter either wants to be the highest paid defensive end in the NFL or be traded.

“No,” he said.

While he may not have expanded on that particular answer, the Vikings’ GM did talk about Hunter like he was going to return.

“I know from all indications from where he’s at on his rehab right now and I saw an Instagram picture of him yesterday, he looked pretty good,” Spielman said. “But excited to get him here in the fold and get him going once we get started.”

Since Hunter has not spoken to the media since 2019, it’s difficult to get a sense for exactly where he stands with the team. There have been no follow up reports about Hunter being shopped or further details of his contract demands. He has also not denied the report.

The plan for improving the D-line

Whether Hunter is back in Minnesota or not, the Vikings need more talent on the defensive line. How they will go about acquiring that talent seems to fall under the category of waiting to see how things play out with free agency and cap casualty cuts.

“I think there are some pass rushers that are going to be coming out,” Spielman said. “So as we continue to evolve the roster and see what we’re able to add during free agency or whether a player gets cut. That process isn’t going to be done on midnight one day after free agency starts. That’s going to be an ever-evolving process because there are teams that may be releasing players if they sign a UFA.”

Spielman also mentioned the possibility of free agents signing cheap one-year deals with their eye on hitting free agency in 2022 when the cap does go up due to a new TV contract and possibly 17 games. That could open the door to the Vikings chasing players in the middle tier with hopes to give the opportunities to make their money next year.

Sam’s takeaways:

Michael Pierce is coming back… and he’s in good shape

The Vikings’ marquee free agent signing in 2020 opted out of last season due to COVID-19 concerns and left a gaping hole that had been recently vacated by Linval Joseph. It precipitated a position switch for Shamar Stephen, who was merely average, while the Vikings didn’t see substantial improvement from Armon Watts. For the first time in the Mike Zimmer Era, Minnesota lacked a hefty run-stuffer at nose tackle, and their run defense suffered, finishing 27th in yards allowed.

The return of Pierce should go a long way toward fixing the Vikings’ woes, even if he serves as just a run-stopper on rushing downs early in the season. Spielman assured reporters that Pierce would be back for the 2021 season, and in good condition at that. Per Andre Patterson, Pierce’s primary focus during his off year was to stay in shape, and he’s ostensibly done that.

“I know that Coach Patterson has been talking with him,” Spielman said. “He looks in great shape. He sent a picture, so we anticipate him being here just like everybody else going forward.”

Pierce’s contract tolled last season, so he’ll be entering the first year of a three-year contract worth up to $27 million, but he only counts $5 million against the cap in Year 1.

Mum on Mike Hughes

The Vikings have two more months to make a decision on the fifth-year option of former first-round pick Mike Hughes, who has dealt with neck injuries each of the last two years. Hughes, a Week 1 starter last year, missed the final 12 games of the season even after head coach Mike Zimmer said in a mid-season interview that he thought Hughes might be able to return.

Hughes has played in 24 games out of a possible 48 in his career, starting just seven. A torn ACL prematurely ended his rookie season, and a reported broken vertebra ended his 2019 season. Very little is known about his latest neck injury or whether it’s related the previous one. Recurring neck injuries, obviously, present concern about Hughes’ future.

Spielman refused to address Hughes’ injury status or whether the team views the former 30th overall pick as a starter going forward. When probed about picking up Hughes’ fifth-year option, Spielman didn’t elaborate.

“We’ll make that decision here when we have to,” he said.

It would be surprising if the Vikings picked up the option on Hughes, who even at his healthiest, may not be deemed a priority to keep around beyond 2021. The Vikings presumably like their young tandem of Jeff Gladney and Cameron Dantzler, which could leave Hughes as the CB3 this year, best-case scenario. Nonetheless, if Hughes is gone after this year, the Vikings will need to find additional corner depth at some point.

Expects creativity from Klint Kubiak

The word “nepotism” came up in a question to Spielman Wednesday afternoon. One year after Zimmer’s son Adam received a co-defensive coordinator job, Gary Kubiak’s offensive coordinator seat was passed down to his son Klint. The younger Kubiak has no experience as a play-caller, which has raised questions about his capability, but Spielman gave him a ringing endorsement.

“I do know Klint is a very bright football coach that has some very creative ideas,” he said. “I think he’s going to take what we were able to accomplish last year and put his own little version of it. But I’m judging these coaches [Adam Zimmer and Klint Kubiak] based off their coaching ability, and I think both of them are outstanding young coaches.”

Kubiak inheriting an upper-tier offense with many returning pieces will no doubt be a big help for the 34-year-old. He’s got great familiarity with Kirk Cousins from his time as quarterbacks coach and has long-time relationships with tight ends coach Brian Pariani and offensive line coach Rick Dennison. On top of that, the Vikings should return eight or none starters on the offensive side of the ball.

“Just like when Zim first got here, we had that defense together for a long time. About as long as you can keep everybody together,” Spielman said. “And I think now, the strength of this team has been the offensive side of the ball and the core players on the offensive side. I think with Klint being very familiar with all the personnel — and there’s the addition of Keenan McCardell at receiver and moving Andrew Janocko over to the quarterback’s room — I think it’s going to keep that continuity. These guys know our players. They know their strengths and weaknesses, and I think they’re going to do a great job knowing that and how they’re going to implement their scheme.”

Draft evals will be more difficult

No shocker here, but evaluating draft picks will be more difficult than usual.

At least in 2020 teams were able to have a traditional Combine experience in Indianapolis and had the benefit of breaking down a normal 2019 college football season. COVID-19 has now required most of the Combine work to become virtual, while 2020’s college football season was shortened for most teams, and some of the top prospects opted out. It turned the Senior Bowl into a must-attend event for talent evaluators.

“There’s a lot of players in this draft that we may not have saw in 2020,” Spielman said. “So you’re going to have to go off what you evaluated on tape in 2019. … That’s why it was such a great event down at the Senior Bowl because some of those guys that did opt out in 2020 actually played down there, so you got to see them practice and you got to see them move. You’re trying to determine what you saw in 2019 and them not playing for a full year. And then going down to the Senior Bowl, some guys you could tell were rusty, other guys kind of caught you by surprise a little bit.”

Spielman will be allowed to travel to Pro Day workouts, he said, which will keep him busy the next couple months as he attends 10-15 of them. But there will other challenges this scouting period: Limited face to face interaction with players, truncated analytics profiles on certain prospects and different drills being executed at the various pro days.

Fortunately last year’s unprecedented lead-up to the draft equipped teams to deal with these challenges.

“I think generally that most of us are kind of, I don’t want to say callous, but it’s helping us deal when we have to make changes and adjustments,” Spielman said. “And it’s our job and our responsibility, whatever those changes and adjustments are, whatever environment that we’re in, it’s our responsibility to do the best we can to get the information that we need.”

Kirk Cousins’ contract will need evaluating

Rick Spielman endorsed Kirk Cousins with a hearty ‘Kirk-is-our-guy’ statement that far too many GMs have uttered before making a move on a player. Frankly, it was curious how willing Spielman was to talk about Cousins-related issues while he closed the door on virtually all other player questions, almost as if to go out of his way to boost Cousins’ stock. Pure conjecture, of course, but that’s how it felt.

Spielman also seemed to acknowledge the problematic cap number that Cousins holds in 2022, a $45 million albatross that will kick in this month. Cousins’ contract was restructured last year to clear up cap space, but it also kicked the team’s financial problems down the road. Could another restructure be in store if Cousins stays put? Spielman made sure to mention that Cousins was extended “pre-pandemic” (actually, during the pandemic, but only a few days after operations shut down) and that his contract will probably be evaluated.

“It's not just Kirk, it's everybody's contract,” he said. “We look at it what it looks like out in future years, and that's how we put our plan in place. Last year when we extended Kirk pre-pandemic, one of the things that we looked at was that gave us some flexibility to go out and sign a Michael Pierce and to do some other things. So when you're balancing out contracts and what it looks like down the road in the future, creating enough room and cap space to add to your roster so hopefully you're going to be improving your roster, those are the things that you're always discussing.”