[OC] Did Spielman Sabotage Zimmer?
Back in 2017, the Minnesota Vikings made it all the way to an NFC Championship game with a back up QB and a dominant defense that led the league in points per game (15.8/g) After getting plastered all over Lincoln Financial Field, the question most wanted an answer to was "Where to now?"
It was obvious the main issue was finding a stable situation at the QB position, however Mike Zimmer made it known that he didn't want Rick to overspend on the offense to the detriment of the defense. Zimmer felt that with a top 5 defense and a run first offense operated by a good game manager QB his team could be a regular playoff contender.
After a disappointing 2018 (8-7-1) the Vikings bounced back in 2019 (10-6) with the defense doing a solid job both seasons (21.3 ppg and 18.9ppg) ranking 9th and 5th respectively. Then it fell off a cliff. In 2020 the defense was truly awful, and while 2021 was an improvement it certainly wasn't near the level of the 2017-2019 units. So what happened?
To answer this question I am going to explore the role Rick Spielman may have played with the way the roster was constructed. So let's start with a chart.
VIKINGS CAP ALLOCATION 2017 -2021:
Two thing stand out here, the dead cap hits for 2020/2021 and the injured reserve cap for the same years. We'll unpack that further, but first we need to break things down a bit further. How about another chart!
POSITIONAL SPENDING 2017-2021
So, does anything stand out? Remember that huge dead cap jump in 2020? Now look at the effect on the roster spending. Let's explore this a bit more.
Between 2017-2019, the Vikings roster was fairly stable. They were selective when acquiring players and were careful to structure contracts with the majority of guaranteed money paid early. This kept dead cap money to a minimum if the team wanted to move on, and allowed them to maximize spending.
In 2020 the Vikings traded Stefon Diggs, cut Linval Joseph, Xavier Rhodes, and Josh Kline (among others) and were seemingly in the midst of a mini rebuild. These transactions incurred almost $19M dead cap.
Then Rick Spielman inexplicably traded for Yannick Ngakoue, a player who clearly didn't fit Zimmers system. Six weeks later, Ngakoue was traded away for less than was given up to acquire him and the Vikings wore a $$6.8M dead cap charge. That's $25.8M charged against the cap for players that aren't contributing to the team.
Spielman then doubled down on what I regard as poor offseason management and decided to franchise tag Anthony Harris for an $11.4M cap figure, presumably to attract a trade partner that never materialized. This money could have been better spent on acquiring a veteran CB to replace Rhodes, but the Vikings were left to roll with a group of Corners consisting of 1st and 2nd year rookies.
To put things in perspective, the Vikings were spending 3.8% of their cap on CBs and 11.9% on Safeties. Unsurprisingly the defense struggled mightily, and was certainly not helped by Danielle Hunter suffering a neck tweek and Anthony Barr a pectoral injury, however the lack of cap space because of the high dead cap left a roster devoid of depth.
The trend continued somewhat and ultimately lead to both Zimmer and Spielman being fired. While the coaching staff have copped their fair share off criticism, I think Rick Spielman has been let off the hook somewhat, and his inability to build a sustainable roster with depth to allow for injuries and declining player performance warrants discussion.
It was obvious the main issue was finding a stable situation at the QB position, however Mike Zimmer made it known that he didn't want Rick to overspend on the offense to the detriment of the defense. Zimmer felt that with a top 5 defense and a run first offense operated by a good game manager QB his team could be a regular playoff contender.
After a disappointing 2018 (8-7-1) the Vikings bounced back in 2019 (10-6) with the defense doing a solid job both seasons (21.3 ppg and 18.9ppg) ranking 9th and 5th respectively. Then it fell off a cliff. In 2020 the defense was truly awful, and while 2021 was an improvement it certainly wasn't near the level of the 2017-2019 units. So what happened?
To answer this question I am going to explore the role Rick Spielman may have played with the way the roster was constructed. So let's start with a chart.
VIKINGS CAP ALLOCATION 2017 -2021:
| YEAR | MAX SALARY CAP | ACTIVE CONTRACTS | INJ.RES. | DEAD CAP |
| 2017 | $169,707,711 | $117,742,794 | $21,973,346 | $11,934,841 |
| 2018 | $190,929,203 | $172,283,838 | $10,457,434 | $7,110,150 |
| 2019 | $191,822,170 | $177,166,406 | $4,684,890 | $8,379,795 |
| 2020 | $197,394,335 | $112,701,789 | $34,583,660 | $36,982,158 |
| 2021 | $187,274,099 | $118,144,787 | $27,545,480 | $25,570,247 |
Two thing stand out here, the dead cap hits for 2020/2021 and the injured reserve cap for the same years. We'll unpack that further, but first we need to break things down a bit further. How about another chart!
POSITIONAL SPENDING 2017-2021
| YEAR | OFFENSE | RANK | DEFENSE | RANK |
| 2017 | 38.89% | 23 | 42.50% | 13 |
| 2018 | 44.18% | 12 | 49.02% | 3 |
| 2019 | 45.03% | 14 | 48.18% | 4 |
| 2020 | 39.77% | 23 | 37.85% | 23 |
| 2021 | 43.12% | 16 | 41.33% | 11 |
So, does anything stand out? Remember that huge dead cap jump in 2020? Now look at the effect on the roster spending. Let's explore this a bit more.
Between 2017-2019, the Vikings roster was fairly stable. They were selective when acquiring players and were careful to structure contracts with the majority of guaranteed money paid early. This kept dead cap money to a minimum if the team wanted to move on, and allowed them to maximize spending.
In 2020 the Vikings traded Stefon Diggs, cut Linval Joseph, Xavier Rhodes, and Josh Kline (among others) and were seemingly in the midst of a mini rebuild. These transactions incurred almost $19M dead cap.
Then Rick Spielman inexplicably traded for Yannick Ngakoue, a player who clearly didn't fit Zimmers system. Six weeks later, Ngakoue was traded away for less than was given up to acquire him and the Vikings wore a $$6.8M dead cap charge. That's $25.8M charged against the cap for players that aren't contributing to the team.
Spielman then doubled down on what I regard as poor offseason management and decided to franchise tag Anthony Harris for an $11.4M cap figure, presumably to attract a trade partner that never materialized. This money could have been better spent on acquiring a veteran CB to replace Rhodes, but the Vikings were left to roll with a group of Corners consisting of 1st and 2nd year rookies.
To put things in perspective, the Vikings were spending 3.8% of their cap on CBs and 11.9% on Safeties. Unsurprisingly the defense struggled mightily, and was certainly not helped by Danielle Hunter suffering a neck tweek and Anthony Barr a pectoral injury, however the lack of cap space because of the high dead cap left a roster devoid of depth.
The trend continued somewhat and ultimately lead to both Zimmer and Spielman being fired. While the coaching staff have copped their fair share off criticism, I think Rick Spielman has been let off the hook somewhat, and his inability to build a sustainable roster with depth to allow for injuries and declining player performance warrants discussion.
