- Mar 27, 2006
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NFL: ***2020 NFL Season Thread***
- Thread starter BigJCy
- Start date
Remaining teams in the NFL playoffs either have: 1)cheap QB's 2)generational QB's 3) generational offensive coaches
Vikings are 0/3.. Time to trade for Watson or draft a QB and commit to a *uckin' rebuild. This constant 7-9 to 10-6 is purgatory as a fan
Watson won't do any better for the Vikings than he did for HOU. The Vikings issues start and end with OL quality. A world of possibilities opens up with high quality line play.
Ok, but last year Cousins and the Vikings were in the playoffs still at this stage.
What has changed?
- Mar 27, 2006
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How are they trading for Watson? It would have to involve a swap of Cousins, but why would Houston do that? Not to mention it wouldn't be a one to one swap, so the Vikings would be giving up additional draft capital, which doesn't help them where they really need it, the offensive and defensive lines.
Minnesota is in a position to cut Cousins after next year. I suspect if they miss the playoffs in 2021, or fail to win a playoff game, you'll see both Cousins and Zimmer out the door and you'll have your rebuild. But you're not going to get it before that.
- Mar 27, 2006
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The weakness of the offense is the oline for sure, but the team's problem wasn't the offense this year. They had a top 5 offense, yardage wise. It was the defense that fell off of a cliff.
I'm still not sure I buy this. $10M of dead cap is a TON especially with the hit the cap is potentially going to take because of COVID. About the only way that happens is if they're committed to a full rebuild. Based on ownership's comments I'm not sure they're cool with blowing it up.
The Vikings could get better next year and end up with the same record just based on the NFC West and AFC North being the scheduled divisions.
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On a QB contract, $10mil is not very much. They'd still be saving $20 million off of the cap. And if you assume that him getting let go comes along with a rookie QB or a journeyman FA, they'd still be looking at a relatively cheap qb position as it relates to a percentage of the cap.
Wonder if the Jets have Bobby Bonilla on their payroll. Lot of dead money there. Quick chart on the salary cap:
What is Minnesota going to do with that money though?
His cap hit this year was 15th in the league.
Next year is 9th, with some extensions likely to come to push him further down the line. If anything, Cousins has met or even exceeded his cap hit thus far.
2022 is set to be higher, but it's not like it's Cousins fault the defense gave up 30 points per game.
The Vikings cap issues forced them to let some high priced defensive players go. Unfortunately they will most likely need to let a few more walk this offseason. The high price for QBs is killing the cap for so many teams. Patriots got by for so long because Brady consistently took less money than he would have gotten on the open market.
- Mar 27, 2006
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Teams can't expect to get the Brady deal for every qb though. Brady was also one of the most marketable people in the league for the vast majority of his career, (and still is) which helps to supplement his contract income. Not every QB can do that to the same degree. Mahomes can, and did. But that's what makes those types of players so valuable. It's not a business model that other teams can bank on.
I think the biggest things that affected Minnesota's defense were Pierce opting out and the injuries to Hunter and Barr.
Yes, they lost 3 corners, but let's not pretend like Alexander, Waynes and Rhodes were lighting the world on fire. They were thought to be weaknesses last year as well. Griffen's loss was definitely felt, but I think that was mainly because Hunter was injured.
Here are the highest cap hits for the 2020 season for QBs
| 1 | Dak Prescott | $31,409,000 |
| 2 | Russell Wilson | $31,000,000 |
| 3 | Jared Goff | $28,842,682 |
| 4 | Tom Brady | $26,625,000 |
| 5 | Jimmy Garoppolo | $25,912,500 |
| 6 | Philip Rivers | $25,000,000 |
| 7 | Ben Roethlisberger | $23,750,000 |
| 8 | Drew Brees | $23,650,000 |
| 9 | Ryan Tannehill | $22,500,000 |
| 10 | Aaron Rodgers | $21,642,000 |
| 11 | Derek Carr | $21,500,000 |
| 12 | Alex Smith | $21,400,000 |
| 13 | Jacoby Brissett | $21,375,000 |
Players in bold blue made the playoffs.
When you look at those Big Ben, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees are bargains when it comes to the cap hit.
Restructuring Kirk Cousins' contract helped some this season but is going to be a killer the next 2 seasons.
A lot of the Vikings interior pressure issues could be resolved with a more mobile QB. Imagine the damage a QB could do with more than 2 seconds to throw to Theilen and Jefferson
That may be, but Watson isn't our guy. We'd have to give up way too much to get him.
