Give an Out-of-Box QB Proposal

This is a key capture of my criticism: KAM is not rebuilding because he has not BUILT anything. OK, he's been tearing down the old walls. Good, that's part. But the talent acquisition has been atrocious. Maybe that's due to incompetence, not an intent to try to keep the old foundation in place.

(At the risk of taking the analogy too far, but it's fun--) Kwesi has been swinging his pry bar and breaking down some old parts of the building. But he can't figure out how to build new walls himself and his attempts (draft picks and young free agents) just collapse. He's grabbed some old pieces off neighbor's dumpsters (aged free agents) and shoved them into place where our own old pieces were so he kept the wind out, but he hasn't managed to put up anything new and strong that will last. He hasn't bothered to stop by Menards and pick up supplies (draft capital) to do extra building attempts, either.

A full rebuild is actually a teardown-and-rebuild. KAM's only done the first part.


I don't know. Resurrecting a "wayward talent" like Baker Mayfield or Geno Smith seems like a real Moneyball approach to solving the NFL QB dilemma: spend no draft picks and modest cap space. If you fail, you failed small, still had picks and money to address other needs, and you try again. Miss on a rookie QB, especially if you traded extra picks to move up, and you drafted nothing else to help the team and probably get fired within 1-3 years. It depends if Kwesi is a risk-averse investor.

I'm really not saying they WILL bring in Darnold: I started this thread as a game of "What If?" with no intent to put odds on whether any of the scenarios were likely. I know there's a danger that I see this possibility because I've observed KOC and believe he's a mechanic who fixes up old QBs, not an engineer who builds new ones (rookie QBs). But there's also a danger you are a draft lover and scout so you see the solution of drafting a QB as the more preferable one. It's an interesting offseason here.

Way out of the box thinking on your topic. First take.

1) Don't resign Cousins.
2) Sign Tannehill or R Wilson.
3) Okay, laugh. Trade a 6 to NYJ for Z Wilson. The dude has some talent and an arm and maybe a bench year with KOC can clear his head. Low risk, high reward.
3) Draft defense heavy. Take Turner or Vearse with pick 11.
4) Possibly trade up and take Chop Robinson, or stay put and pick a DL like Sweat.
5) Spend WISELY on a good corner and other FAs.
6) Expect an early pick in '25 draft to go along with good cap space to fill and make that run starting in '25.
7) Sign JJ.

This is kind of what I predicted the team would do, and I think it's still their preferred approach and has a high likelihood.

I think Cousins and his agent and others around him all could see the same thing: that the Wilfs wanted to see if KOC could coach up Cousins and put pieces around him to win. That put the Vikings at a disadvantage with Cousins and it's still there.

The core problem is that KAM/KOC did not address QBOTF in their first two years. People tell me "that was always the plan" or that there were no good prospects. So if that was the plan, it was "hold on to our vet QB without a succession plan until he is literally gone"? New GM/HCs get a young QB while their vet is still around. Forget mentoring, the point is that you prepped for the future before it arrived and your incumbent QB knows it. Do you think the Lions investing a 3rd in Hendon Hooker might have had a motivating effect on Jared Goff last year? If Hooker looks great in camp, will that help the Lions negotiation with Goff?

We have nothing in place and Cousins knows it. Imagine these negotiations with him if the Vikings had Sam Howell or Hooker waiting in the wings, a young prospect that already had a year or two of KOC's coaching.

For everyone who thinks "the plan" was always to move on from Cousins this year: then why are the Vikings even negotiating with Kirk to bring him back? Are they just offering him the same deal they have ready for Jacoby Brisset, to be a bridge with the open knowledge we will draft a QB this year?

Sooo binary. Only ever black or white with Vikings fans.

This always was the plan. Otherwise they take the 'home team discount' Kirk offered last year with the 2nd year guaranteed.

So why guarantee him '24 now when they wouldn't last year? He was starting to play lights out in Year 2 of being in O'Connell's system.

More than half of the Starting QBs are going to end up making more than 40 million this year.

Cousins back for only 1 more guaranteed year getting paid at QB 15 to QB 20 money is not even worth looking into as an option even if the plan was always to draft one this year is not even worth looking into?

Frankly, as hard as it is for like 75% of the folks here to wrap their heads around, Kwesi's job is to Explore All Options. Getting the 8th to 10th best QB on a Below Market Level Contract is surplus value. Especially when you only guarantee 1 year. And need a bridge QB.

Likewise, we as fans should be up in arms if word leaks that Baker Mayfield really liked his fit with Minnesota and told Kwesi he'd come on board for say 2 years at 70 million total and 40 million guaranteed. Or say the Cowboys offered him Trey Lance for Nailor or a 7th.

None of these scenarios are likely. But you never know unless you ask. And that's literally the job. Ask about every possibility, no matter how unlikely.

Kwesi blowing the '22 Draft and overvaluing injuried underperformers in FA is what has stalled the progress of the rebuild. That doesn't mean they didn't always have a plan of trying to see just how far Kirk could take them while also turning over the veterans and looking for a QBOTF.

Yes he's taking a value analytics approach to every move, but this isn't baseball. This approach where successful in the NFL, and I'd maybe say Kansas City as an example, has to be tempered by intelligent roster building strategy up front. And you need a really good coach/qb combo to win in this league, regardless of what sort of spreadsheet value you get on deals/drafts. There's a reason why a football coach is so highly paid that only star players make more, while a baseball manager has become mostly a guy who makes a modest salary to do what a spreadsheet tells him to do.

I don't really know if KAM has the tools to build a winner. He's running things like a Wall Street trader but his football chops appear to be sorely lacking. I could be wrong but so far, not so good. Could he nail Kirk down on a "value" contract? Sure. Is that the road to building a SB winning team? I doubt it. Maybe he's not charged with that. Maybe he's just charged with exactly what the Wilfs said when they hired him - be "super competitive" and nothing more.

I would think you'd be more critical of KAM, honestly. No one is more critical of KOC's OC chops than you, and who else besides KAM could make him give that up? He clearly isn't going to figure out that he's not a playcaller on his own and do it voluntarily.

Draft Bo Nix and after a few games plug him in. Dude has the experience. Is it just me or does Nix look like a football player and McCarthy like a skinny kid up the block?

First: I like you FSU, I have enjoyed our debates for a long time. But the condescension seems to be growing.

OK, I thought I was able to realize and understand this is a complex situation and a GM - like anyone smart managing an organization or even part of it - looks at many alternatives constantly. Maybe we're all just too dumb to ever understand, but in typical confused fan fashion, I still see some contradictions.

On the one hand, you said we're all guilty of binary thinking, and apparently Kwesi is orchestrating a dance of quantum possibilities around this team. That sounds like a pretty fluid approach of changing objectives that no one besides Kwesi himself would be able to chart and even he might not predict steps

Then you said, "This always was the plan." Isn't a plan that was laid out and unchanged for 2+ years actually pretty binary? Action X is part of his plan, action Y is not. I guess you're saying "the plan" was to have a contract negotiation with Kirk and... see what happens? Pretty open-ended. I've repeatedly heard "the plan" referenced here, usually as an assurance that all is on track, all is well at Winter Park, KAM is doing great, and mostly that anyone with lack of faith in this team's success must be less intelligent than those who are smart enough to understand "the plan".

So, KAM is still running the same plan that has "always" been in place? I've heard, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched." If KAM came here with a plan to keep Kirk for 2 seasons and then move on to a QBOTF, was he going to have a direct cutover? By that I mean, Kirk starting in 2023 with crap backups that have no significant NFL future, and then an all-new rookie drafted April 25 ready to start 4 months later. Risky - my little brain thought that any good plan for implementing something new includes running in parallel with the old for a while.

Supposedly, KAM wanted to draft a QB last year but could not. Was that "the plan"? Maybe he took the job here and assumed they would go 4-13 in '22 and he would have a top 5 pick. Well, he forgot to tell KOC to tank. Or he didn't know how to trade up. But either "the plan" got derailed or he actually intended to have Kirk through 2023 and no alternative ready. That hurt the team in 2023 and it hurts them now.

If he does want Cousins back, he has no leverage to claim they are ready to go on without him. You're saying "Getting the 8th to 10th best QB on a Below Market Level Contract is surplus value. Especially when you only guarantee 1 year. And need a bridge QB." So that means KAM is only talking to Kirk about sticking around on the "Jacoby Brisset deal". If true, it's either a waste of his time and Cousins', or all the stories that Kirk still has some NFL value are bullsh*t, and genius Kwesi knows that Kirk is now just a journeyman (even though you called him the 8th-10th best in the NFL) who will have to take a Case Keenum contract.

If Kirk walks and we pencil Jaren Hall in as starter on our depth chart, every team knows we are desperate for a QB. Kwesi can try to trade into the top 6 and every team will pull his pants down in negotiation. If he stays put any team that likes a QB will jump right over us. He has no QB cards in his hand. Inking Jacoby Brissett to a deal won't change that leverage significantly.

It might not mean the Vikings don't have a QB for 2024. But this isn't "always the plan". Kwesi got punched, now he's fighting. That's necessary and he might come out on top. But saying, "This was always the plan" suggests KAM is carefully conducting this train along a planned series of stops that only the super-intelligent among us can see. Give us a break!

Always sparring with no ill intent here. Wishing everyone well.