Playoffs or Better Draft Pick - Would You Rather ...?

Denver was not in remotely the same situation as I just described lol. They were 5-12 with Hackett despite being projected for 10.5. Not winning 13 games despite a 9.5 projection. That’s part of the point, this coach has been overproducing given the circumstances. When you have a clearly bad coach it is usually obvious because they underperform which is the opposite of what we have seen.

I agree when it is clear a mistake is made like a coach reaching less than half a win total and a team seemingly giving up on him you can/should admit it early. We did with our dc last year. That isn’t happening here though. I have even said if we have clearly better options and/or fail to develop a qb next year then it makes more sense.

I agree finding guys is easy and the key is getting the right one. That’s the point in not rushing to get new coach after new coach even when the one we have is beating expectations given the talent. Especially when he is young/new and learning and we haven’t even given him a chance to do the main thing people wanted an offensive minded hc for (develop young qb). Nick Mullens and this offense put up over 400 yards and without 2 horrible decisions probably 30+ points. I wonder what would happen if we had a much more talented young qb to work with instead?

If you think KOC is a mistake that we need to give up on already, I have a bridge to sell you. Has he had some moments of not so great, sure. But every single coach in the NFL has those. This team was projected to be a sub .500 team each of the last two seasons, yet this team will have won 20+ games in the last two years. I have no issue saying this team wins against the Broncos and Bears, and probably the Bengals if Kirk is playing in those games, and I am no Kirk stan! That would put this team at 10-4, tied for the division lead, with 3 division games to finish the season. Even if they only win 2 of those 3 games, they are easily in the drivers seat to another division title, giving KOC 2 in 2 years, and already then tied for third among all Vikings HCs in franchise history. Only Denny Green (4) and Bud Grant (11) have more than 2.

KOC was a young, unproven play caller when he came to this team. He is working through some of those issues right now, and has shown some growth. I also still fully trust KOC to find, draft, and develop a young QBOTF for this team. I want him to get that chance and see what he can do. It feels like he is going to get that chance this offseason, and I am excited to see what happens. Even if they resign Kirk for a year or two, they will draft a QB in the first 2 rounds, no doubt in my mind. Lets see what he does with that pick and player.

I just plain disagree. But that is fine, people are allowed to see things differently. But also, a panic firing now would be the worst possible move. Also, we have to put expectations in check. Almost no one predicted this team to be a playoff team let alone winning 10 games this year. Yet they have a chance to do just that (and maybe even win the division even if that would be difficult). The defense was supposed to be horrible again, with a lot of young guys and losing key players from the past. The offense let Thielen and Cook go and still did nothing to fix the OL. What did KOC do? Hired a great DC and helped guide the transition we have seen to a pretty dang good defense. The OL is not an issue on the whole especially compared to the rest of the NFL, and Addison took over the Thielen role and then some with ease. The run game is an issue, but having Cook would not fix that. One thing I do put full fault on KOC for is not running with Chandler more. I just do not get his hesitance to do it outside pass pro. Mattison has some dirt on KOC. That is the only explanation.

I agree, not ideal to have an offense with these skill players not in the top 10 of scoring, but they had 4-5 games with everyone playing, and those were Addison's first 5 games as a pro. If you don't think this offense would be top 10 scoring with Kirk and JJ playing all these games since week 5, I don't know what to tell you. Don't forget the Vikings have played 5 of the top 10 defenses (pts per game) this season and beat 4 of them. You can also add about 21 points in the first 5 weeks of the season if you take away the 3 goal line turnovers the team had. 3! Obviously you can't take those away, but that is also not something you can put blame on KOC. Look a the 13 games outside the Vegas game, which was a disaster all around, and this team is actually 12th in scoring on offense, with 4 different starting QBs! It cannot be overstated how well this team is playing despite having 4 different starting QBs and losing their best offensive player for 7 weeks.

All this to say, he is not a bad coach by any means. Could he improve in a few areas? Of course he could, nearly every coach could improve in some areas. Hell look at KC this year. Yea their WRs are meh at best, but they have Mahomes, Kelce and one of the great offensive minds in the game, and they are outside the top 10 in pts/game. KOC is 38 and only called plays for 3 seasons including this one. He makes some boneheaded mistakes, but I still believe he is and can be great for this team for the foreseeable future. They say the worst thing that can happen to a new HC is they have a lot of success in their first year. Because people will expect that success every single year from then on out. THAT IS NOT HOW THE NFL WORKS! Did you know McVay is only 3 games above .500 after his first 2 seasons in LA? And that includes the SB winning season in 2021. It took putting every single chip they had to the middle of the table and some great luck along the way to win that SB. Not saying he isn't a great coach, but even the great ones need greatness and luck around them to win and win consistently (cough...Belichick..cough).

I have seen a lot of homerism in my time, but Tfun, you take the cake. Even Will and Dustin would blush reading your post.

  LOL. In case you haven't been keeping up with current events, the Vikings just snatched defeat from the jaws of victory Pal !  Got news for ya, If Powell couldn't push Mullins 6 inches forward? he's definetly not gonna move Cousins either. Does Kirk have a more pushable  tush?  I'm afraid to look lol.  I could keep goin and goin on this, but out of respect for the energizer Bunny, i won't do it.

OK just a little more.  Are you saying that O'Noes wouldn't have tried the push X's 2 if Kirk was in there? Yes he would, yes he would!!! Kevin's a moron lol

Not wrong. Him not benching Mattison is easily a top 2 WTF are we doing here moment with KOC this season. I do not get it at all. I will say though, he was not going to bench Kirk or JJ and unfortunately they accounted for 11 lost fumbles and INTs in the first 8 weeks. Outside those 2, the only other players this season with multiple lost turnovers are Dobbs (8), Mullens (2), and Mattison (2). I would be all for benching Mullens for Hall and Mattison for Chandler. In fact, that is what I have been hoping for for quite a few weeks.