Retool or Rebuild for 2022?

1. What do you do with Kirk Cousins?
This will be the biggest question of the offseason and one the new regime will have to make a decision on within its first 100 days on the job. If the Vikings are going to trade Cousins, it would probably happen just before free agency begins in mid-March or, at the latest, right before the draft at the end of April. On Monday, we examined Cousins’ trade value. The case for trading the veteran quarterback could be enticing.

But it’s not the Vikings’ only option. The next stewards of the franchise might feel pressure to win in their debut season, so they could elect to keep Cousins, either by having him play out the final year of his contract or by offering him an extension.

How they handle their looming decision on Cousins will go a long way toward dictating the tenor of the team. If they trade Cousins for draft picks and look to find their next quarterback in the draft, that would signal a willingness to undergo a rebuild of sorts. If they extend Cousins, that signifies hope that with some tweaks and a change of culture, the nucleus of this roster could bring greater success than in recent seasons.

Awkward as it may be, Cousins is surely a topic in the ongoing interviews. A decision on his status must be made swiftly, so ownership and the hiring committee will want to know where each candidate stands on Cousins’ future.

2. How do you get cap compliant?
The Vikings are currently projected to be $11 million over the 2022 salary cap, and that’s before factoring in any additional free agents or signing their eventual draft class.

Of course, the decision mentioned above regarding Cousins will go a long way toward determining just how much the Vikings need to do about the salary cap. But trading Cousins isn’t the only way to save cap space, especially if the Vikings retain dead money to facilitate a trade.

Danielle Hunter’s status will be one to follow closely. He has barely played in the last two seasons but can be dominant when he’s healthy. The Vikings stand to save more than $14 million on the cap by cutting Hunter, though they could also talk about restructuring his deal. They could save more than $7 million by cutting Eric Kendricks, more than $5 million by cutting Harrison Smith, more than $6 million by cutting Michael Pierce and more than $5 million by cutting Adam Thielen.

Those are all still talented players, however, and getting rid of them wouldn’t help in the team’s quest to return to the playoffs. Still, the Vikings are cap-strapped enough that they are going to have to make some tough decisions before the start of the new league year in mid-March.

3. How do you fix the offensive line?
Ahhh, yes, the perpetual offseason question facing the Vikings. This regime begins with the same issue that haunted the last regime for nearly a decade.

Amazingly, for a group that ranked as one of the worst pass-blocking units in the league, the Vikings offensive line probably doesn’t require a massive makeover. They hope they have their bookend tackles in place, solidifying the most important positions on the line with Christian Darrisaw on the left and Brian O’Neill on the right. Of course, it’s the interior that has always been the bigger issue, one made more concerning given Cousins’ struggles with interior pressure.

Ezra Cleveland quietly played pretty well at left guard. But the Vikings could be looking for two new starters (or at least one) after center Garrett Bradbury and right guard Oli Udoh struggled. Their decision probably starts by declining Bradbury’s fifth-year option after the former first-round pick didn’t develop the way former general manager Rick Spielman hoped.

They’ll probably search in both free agency and the draft for alternatives at center and right guard, though it wouldn’t be surprising if they re-signed Mason Cole and gave him a chance to compete for a starting spot.

4. Do you keep any assistant coaches?
After Mark Wilf informed the rest of the coaching staff that he had fired Mike Zimmer, one of the assistants asked Wilf whether that meant the rest of the room was fired. The answer? Well, no, not necessarily. Or at least not yet. All of the assistant coaches remain under contract and in their current positions. Their key cards still work at the team’s headquarters.

The Vikings’ next coach will get to build his own staff, however. That coach may come in with some assistants he’ll bring, but most coaches don’t have every position coach predetermined when they get a new job.

So there’s a chance some of Minnesota’s assistant coaches could stick around. Some names to monitor as ones that could stay if the next coach wants them: Andrew Janocko, the quarterbacks coach; Keenan McCardell, the wide receivers coach; Kennedy Polamalu, the running backs coach; Phil Rauscher, the offensive line coach; Paul Guenther, a senior defensive assistant; and Ryan Ficken, the special-teams coordinator.

5. What do you do to improve the defense?
The Vikings defense has finished as a bottom-10 unit the last two seasons, a major reason Zimmer was fired. Last week, Arif Hasan outlined the issues there and the struggles to identify defensive talent in the draft.

In addition, the already-struggling defense could lose several players via free agency with Anthony Barr, Patrick Peterson, Mackensie Alexander, Xavier Woods and Nick Vigil no longer under contract come mid-March.

Somehow the Vikings need a major influx of talent on that side of the ball — all while pondering whether to cut or trade Hunter, Kendricks and Smith and all while realizing they may have more pressing needs (like, potentially, quarterback) in the draft.