The Specters of Spielman & Zimmer - What has really changed?

Let's see if the offense and defense can improve as they get into the scheme, but you bring up good points. As to the GM:



Both Smith and Bynum are good...and Cine broke his ankle, so...




The quantity over quality, I would aregue, is quantity AND quality...yes he made a lot of trades, but when the smoke cleared he had turned original picks 12, 46, and 77 with not 4th round pick (thanks Chris herndon trade!) into picks 32, 42, 59, 66, and 118. I'm not sure how anyone can look at three picks in the top 120 into 5 picks into the top 120 a bad weekend.



These last two go hand in hand. He inherited a bad salary cap situation, and I would argue that the signings he did make were pretty decent (Z Smith, Harrison Phillips). As to the re-structures, yeah he did. I would argue, though, that the moves were made to kind of accept that this year and next year he didn't have a lot of options, so these moves were made in line with Wilf's edict to compete this year with an eye on having a decent cap situation next year and a hella good cap setup in 2024. It allows them to go get a QBOTF in next year's draft, re-sign JJ, and then all those big contracts that you mentioned come off the books.

Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman left a mess, and it wasn't going to be cleaned up in one off-season.

Ricky did his thing but unfortunately failed to build a SB winning team. Now it's Kwesi's time. He  has to take Ricky's leftovers and diligently build a SB winning team from it. I wish him luck because it won't be easy. So far we have a kickass special teams unit......   Baby steps, baby steps     

Before we all die? Okay, youngen. Reminds me of when I told my 60+ coworker that, "I know I'm just in my 30s, but I'm seriously concerned about if I have enough time left to see my Vikings win a Super Bowl." He just gave me a look and started laughing. I was like, "...no, I'm serious."

Now look at you!

Anyway, good post. To me, the team literally looks the exact same ... with better injury luck (for and against) and better penalty luck (for and against). Some credit goes to coaching; some Lady Luck. Special teams looks better (but didn't that group also take a big jump from 2020 to 2021)?

Luck is definitely on our side. So is the cakewalk schedule. We do have an easy road ahead. No one can deny that. We have to start putting teams away, though. Build some confidence. Ripping the Bears apart would be a good start. But that's still not saying much. Would love for the offense to get into sync and the defense find its pass rush before we head to Miami. If tomorrow is at all close, I might have a mini meltdown.

As far as what to do differently - play with more confidence on both sides. This team absolutely still plays scared. More creativity. More guts! I'd like to see more from our RB depth - switch it up and use speed/fresh legs once in a while. Use Reagor's athleticism. Spread the ball around! JJ is fantastic, but use the whole arsenal. Defensively, blitz a bit more if the front can't get it done.

Yeah a hard earned win. Do you think we were going to just show up and win by 21 because they were short of some starters? Think about that. You have no idea if we could've beat them or not if those players would've played. 

We're still a work in progress. 

  

Ooo I got one ... this regime is like the old when it comes to developing or fixing QB's. With Kirk struggling, they're headed for an 0 for 3 record. They thought they could fix Mond and Mannion so they've either over estimated their abilities or they're not as good at their job as they've promised. I mean there was ZERO improvement in either of them, and Cousins even looks a bit worse. Good on them for finding his clutch gene, but ooo boy if he keeps playing like this he's not going to be in games long enough to keep relying on it. We don't get to play Detroit at noon every week.

Yeah that's the one I was going to mention. Either this regime still favors the vets over young players or their picks aren't catching on, and neither are a good sign when some of these guys are starting to show their age. Ingram is playing, and not looking good so I guess I'm not sure what to think.

Well based on the lack of playing time the 10 picks have had, I think it's fair to say it ended up being quantity over quality even if that might not have been the intent. They found some guys with skill maybe, but who are apparently slow in the classroom. Maybe the illusion of complexity is too complex?

Isn't this something they should have picked up on during the interview/meeting process? This guy seems a little slow so maybe we should go in another direction?

That's not what we were promised all offseason though. The offense was going to be an illusion of complexity, Kirk was going to play with a quiet mind, and the defense would be flying around and being more aggressive. Turns out the offense might be too complex, Kirk appears to be playing with a noisier mind, and the defense has been anything but aggressive. I guess you gotta do more than just say "hi" in the hallways.

Yeah this is where Dan is wrong xD. The defense reminds me more of Frazier's Tampa Sieve 2 defense. I might just start referring to it as the Tampa 3-4.

Even in their 2 most recent wins, they looked more like the team that lost in Philly for large chunks but were fortunate enough to be playing the Lions and Saints.

Last year we kept saying, man we're just 2 plays away from being 3-1 instead of 1-3. We seem to be the opposite of that this year, 2 plays away from being 1-3 instead of 3-1, but headed to the same destination. I just wish we looked like a 3-1 team that was headed places, like the Bills or something. They seem to be building on something special. We're a 3-1 team that's being held together by duct tape and Polygrip. This team had to win now or its probably not going to win. If we finish 9-8 or even 10-7 and try to bring everyone back again next year, it's not going to do better than 9-8 or 10-7. I think we're looking at the ceiling for this particular roster. Cool that its luckier, but its still not going to win what we want it to win.

So will this regime be like the previous regime when it comes to banging its head against the wall? How often will it keep trying to run it back hoping for different results? I guess that's what we wait for now.

1987 wasn't a surprise run, the Vikings were a team that lost a lot of close games in '86, everyone expected them to be good in '87. They finished 8-7 because their strike squad was bad even by replacement player standards.
The 8-4 squad that destroyed the Saints and 49ers and giving Washington everything they could handle was the real team.