Post by Uncle on Aug 9, 2021 7:41:26 GMT -6
Danchat - I agree with pretty much everything at this point from what we've read and this is always subject to change barring injuries and preseason action...the only question-marks I have are the following:
Safety: yes, the Vikes only kept 2 in 2020, but they were a veteran pair in Harrison and Harris, and although X Woods is considered a veteran, he's not a veteran with this team or Zimmer's defense. While the 2020 defense wasn't the result of only keeping 2 Safeties, it may have potentially helped to keep 1 or 2 more. I looked back and went through all the previous 53-man rosters from the Zimmer era (except 2014 as I couldn't find quickly) and the only other time the Vikings went with less than 10 DB's was 2015 - all the "peak" years of the Vikings defense under Zimmer they went with 10+. I'm thinking that with experienced DL & LB starters, they might go with only 5 LB again (and you were right, I think Dye may be on the edge and Wonnum's play as a LB might have Zimmer/Patterson thinking) and put another body in the secondary.
Knowing that though, I can't seem to place who that 4th S might be as I haven't heard of Metellus, Kirk or Dorn really standing out at all. I think it's worth paying close attention to all 3 during the preseason games to see if anyone makes anything happen on ST - if Zimmer/Patterson decide to keep 4 S, they'll be "makin' their bones" on ST coverage anyway.
LB: the 2017 season was the last time the Vikings kept over 5 LB's on the initial 53-man roster and they've only kept 5 the the last 3 seasons. Dye is definitely the one who seems in the most trouble as Cameron Smith has been getting more reps with the 2nd team it seems. Since Dye is more of a sideline-to-sideline guy and due to his length, I'm curious if Zimmer/Patterson would consider him as a LB/S or even straight-up S: he played S in high school and had 4 straight years of 70+ PFF coverage grades at Oregon. His entire 2020 PFF score was garbage, but at least his coverage was slightly better than his run defense.
K: I think it's still anyone's game and if Patterson steps up and is consistent, even if Zimmer doesn't have the greatest history with rookie K, I think he may get the nod over Joseph who seems to be all over the place from reading the daily TC notes (solid one day and erratic the next). Personally, I'd like the team to make a decision on the winner between Joseph/Patterson after the 1st preseason game and bring in another K and have another battle during the final 2 preseason games and practices.
P: probably sound like a broken record at this point, but I still believe they need to bring in another leg and not just hand Colquitt the job.
EDIT: Chad Graff and Arif Hasan put out another 53-man roster projection (2.0 - the on Funkytown posted on previous page was 1.0) and I copied/pasted below what they had to say about the LB/S spots (link to The Athletic article here - link). What's interesting is Arif indicates Cameron Smith having a disappointing camp which seems to be contrary to the daily TC notes, at least the one's I've read. And they have Dorn making it as the 4th S.
Linebackers
In: Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, Troy Dye, Chazz Surratt, Cameron Smith, Nick Vigil
Out: Blake Lynch, Ryan Connelly, Christian Elliss, Tuf Borland
Contested: Cameron Smith (Chad has him in, Arif has him out), Tuf Borland (Arif has him in, Chad has him out)
Changes from version 1.0: Vigil from contested to in, Smith from in to contested, Borland from out to contested.
Chad: I have no idea who is going to earn the final starting job in the base defense alongside Kendricks and Barr, but I’d venture a guess that it’s not going to be Surratt, a third-round pick. The battle seems to be among Smith, Vigil and Dye, and Adam Zimmer said they’re going to give all three of those players plenty of chances with the first team, rotating them frequently.
Arif: My original version had Smith in instead of Borland, but I wanted to make things a little spicier after Chad and I agreed on basically everything. This would be a good way to spotlight the fact that Smith has been a little disappointing in camp and that Borland has been impressive. Lynch was impressive until the pads came on, but Borland didn’t change. He’s certainly not a coverage guy, but the Vikings might have enough of those already.
Safeties
In: Harrison Smith, Xavier Woods, Camryn Bynum, Myles Dorn
Out: Luther Kirk, Josh Metellus
Contested: None
Changes from version 1.0: Metellus from contested to out; Dorn from out to in
Chad: When Smith got Thursday day off as a veteran last week, it was Dorn who took some of his reps with the first team, signaling perhaps that the team trusts him more than Metellus. As for Bynum, here’s what Zimmer said about the rookie’s strengths and weaknesses so far: “What’s taking him a little bit of time is to be able to communicate. Now he’s got to communicate a lot more, being a safety with some of the checks, but I think he has some good coverage skills.”
Arif: Switching back to four safeties was a convenient time for me to take advantage of the insight gained from Zimmer’s comments and Dorn’s apparent place as the third safety on the roster. That also tells us that things aren’t looking great for Metellus, whose coverage skills in camp surprised me as a rookie but don’t seem to be evident now
Safety: yes, the Vikes only kept 2 in 2020, but they were a veteran pair in Harrison and Harris, and although X Woods is considered a veteran, he's not a veteran with this team or Zimmer's defense. While the 2020 defense wasn't the result of only keeping 2 Safeties, it may have potentially helped to keep 1 or 2 more. I looked back and went through all the previous 53-man rosters from the Zimmer era (except 2014 as I couldn't find quickly) and the only other time the Vikings went with less than 10 DB's was 2015 - all the "peak" years of the Vikings defense under Zimmer they went with 10+. I'm thinking that with experienced DL & LB starters, they might go with only 5 LB again (and you were right, I think Dye may be on the edge and Wonnum's play as a LB might have Zimmer/Patterson thinking) and put another body in the secondary.
Knowing that though, I can't seem to place who that 4th S might be as I haven't heard of Metellus, Kirk or Dorn really standing out at all. I think it's worth paying close attention to all 3 during the preseason games to see if anyone makes anything happen on ST - if Zimmer/Patterson decide to keep 4 S, they'll be "makin' their bones" on ST coverage anyway.
LB: the 2017 season was the last time the Vikings kept over 5 LB's on the initial 53-man roster and they've only kept 5 the the last 3 seasons. Dye is definitely the one who seems in the most trouble as Cameron Smith has been getting more reps with the 2nd team it seems. Since Dye is more of a sideline-to-sideline guy and due to his length, I'm curious if Zimmer/Patterson would consider him as a LB/S or even straight-up S: he played S in high school and had 4 straight years of 70+ PFF coverage grades at Oregon. His entire 2020 PFF score was garbage, but at least his coverage was slightly better than his run defense.
K: I think it's still anyone's game and if Patterson steps up and is consistent, even if Zimmer doesn't have the greatest history with rookie K, I think he may get the nod over Joseph who seems to be all over the place from reading the daily TC notes (solid one day and erratic the next). Personally, I'd like the team to make a decision on the winner between Joseph/Patterson after the 1st preseason game and bring in another K and have another battle during the final 2 preseason games and practices.
P: probably sound like a broken record at this point, but I still believe they need to bring in another leg and not just hand Colquitt the job.
EDIT: Chad Graff and Arif Hasan put out another 53-man roster projection (2.0 - the on Funkytown posted on previous page was 1.0) and I copied/pasted below what they had to say about the LB/S spots (link to The Athletic article here - link). What's interesting is Arif indicates Cameron Smith having a disappointing camp which seems to be contrary to the daily TC notes, at least the one's I've read. And they have Dorn making it as the 4th S.
Linebackers
In: Eric Kendricks, Anthony Barr, Troy Dye, Chazz Surratt, Cameron Smith, Nick Vigil
Out: Blake Lynch, Ryan Connelly, Christian Elliss, Tuf Borland
Contested: Cameron Smith (Chad has him in, Arif has him out), Tuf Borland (Arif has him in, Chad has him out)
Changes from version 1.0: Vigil from contested to in, Smith from in to contested, Borland from out to contested.
Chad: I have no idea who is going to earn the final starting job in the base defense alongside Kendricks and Barr, but I’d venture a guess that it’s not going to be Surratt, a third-round pick. The battle seems to be among Smith, Vigil and Dye, and Adam Zimmer said they’re going to give all three of those players plenty of chances with the first team, rotating them frequently.
Arif: My original version had Smith in instead of Borland, but I wanted to make things a little spicier after Chad and I agreed on basically everything. This would be a good way to spotlight the fact that Smith has been a little disappointing in camp and that Borland has been impressive. Lynch was impressive until the pads came on, but Borland didn’t change. He’s certainly not a coverage guy, but the Vikings might have enough of those already.
Safeties
In: Harrison Smith, Xavier Woods, Camryn Bynum, Myles Dorn
Out: Luther Kirk, Josh Metellus
Contested: None
Changes from version 1.0: Metellus from contested to out; Dorn from out to in
Chad: When Smith got Thursday day off as a veteran last week, it was Dorn who took some of his reps with the first team, signaling perhaps that the team trusts him more than Metellus. As for Bynum, here’s what Zimmer said about the rookie’s strengths and weaknesses so far: “What’s taking him a little bit of time is to be able to communicate. Now he’s got to communicate a lot more, being a safety with some of the checks, but I think he has some good coverage skills.”
Arif: Switching back to four safeties was a convenient time for me to take advantage of the insight gained from Zimmer’s comments and Dorn’s apparent place as the third safety on the roster. That also tells us that things aren’t looking great for Metellus, whose coverage skills in camp surprised me as a rookie but don’t seem to be evident now
I'm on pins and needles
... and neither is this Chris guy.