This Vikings season is just depressing. Not only did Sunday’s tie against Green Bay and their fourth round quarterback seem completely unfulfilling, it left us scheduled for the fourth overall draft pick instead of the first.
The failures on the field this season are disappointing and only serve to magnify the failures off the field, and in the front office, every time they become evident. If the Vikings were three games above .500 right now, and the playoffs within reach, the arrest and subsequent release of an inconsistent reserve would barely register as mentionable.
Instead, Monday’s news of A.J. Jefferson’s domestic assault arrest provides even more venom for frustrated fans to spit at Rick Spielman, Leslie Frazier, and the Wilf empire as a whole. Jefferson has seldom shown us anything better than terrible since Spielman traded away a late-round 2013 pick to obtain him and the arrest made it easy for them to part ways with him.
I’ve said before that one of the reasons I hoped Frazier would not be fired after this season was the lack of arrests and other off-field distractions plaguing the team since he took over. Frazier had virtually had no players arrested under his watch for over a year until Jerome Simpson was tagged with a DWI last week.
With players landing in the clink two weeks in a row, and Frazier’s on-field product looking mighty miserable, even a supportive sort of guy like me is running out of excuses for the calmest coach in the NFL.
The Vikings needed help in the secondary before Jefferson’s release. Now it seems all but certain we’ll see a new face on this roster before the upcoming Chicago game.
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Is Felder still out there? I don't think he got picked up by anyone after the Bucs dropped him, might as well bring him back. Considering they were down to playing Blanton in the slot, it wouldn't hurt to bring in a guy who played nickel for us this pre-season.
Felder is with Tampa Bay.
Hire Jon Gruden as head coach and see the difference.
Jon Gruden? After taking Tony Dungy's Bucs to the Super Bowl, his teams were 45-51 over 6 years with two playoff losses. He had seasons of 5-11 and 4-12 during that time. Intense, chatty coaches lose just as easily as quiet, controlled coaches. Not saying he's no good, but he shouldn't be placed on any sort of pedestal.
He did what Dungy couldn't, won it all.
Dungy has as many championships as Gruden.
I see that point, SKOL, but IMHO, two coaches have been handed Super Bowl title teams. One was Gruden and the other was Barry Switzer. I realize you have to do a lot of good things to take any team to the silver trophy, but I put asterisks next to their titles. Anyone who would say that Barry Switzer is a good NFL coach because he won a ring... well... no he isn't. Gruden is way ahead of Switzer, but I don't see him being someone to automatically bring a struggling team to the top. The current Viking QB situation would cause any coach to struggle (see Mike McCarthy).
I don't know... in three years Frazier is 18-30-1 with one playoff appearance, and with a mess at QB since day one. Is some of that his fault? I suppose, but I am not sure that we have a solution by changing head coaches (as long as he is willing to fully analyze his coordinators).
The #Vikings have claimed T Mike Remmers from San Diego.
just looked for felder's current status, seems he's on TB's practice squad. i liked him, but maybe he's not what we saw in preseason
If he's on Tampa's P-squad he's available for anyone to sign. I don't think Felder would come in and morph into a pro bowler over the last few weeks, but it would sure make sense to bring in someone who could play this week at a position we're extremely short at. Bringing in an OT, whose last team cut him so they could elevate a different OT from their own practice squad, makes very little sense given our injury situation in the secondary. Maybe they are going to let Prater play some defense this week.
seeing felder in preseason, i thought for sure he'd stick, so that one is very puzzling now. he must've been terrible in practices, or maybe there's more to the story. maybe he stayed at a holiday inn before those games
Here's a quirky thing - 6 of last year's playoff teams are at or below .500, with four (Vikes, Falcons, Texans and Redskins) of those teams with only 3 wins or less. What gives?
The Falcons and Texans are the real head scratchers to me because their QB situations weren't even slightly questionable coming into the season. There were some notable FA misses by some of these teams. The Falcons didn't get what they thought they were in Steven Jackson, the Texans just cut Ed Reed outright a couple weeks ago, the Ravens lost several players to free agency and a couple of the guys they brought in to replace those players (including Huff for Reed) have since been released. Greg Jennings hasn't exactly been steller for the Vikes, but its hard to blame him for that with our QB situation and he was also brought in to help mentor our younger receivers. It is odd that so many of the top teams have not only fallen from playoff contention, but are literally the bottom feeders of the league this year. The team I'm not surprised about is the Redskins. They've lost a 1st and 2nd round draft pick from the last two drafts due to the RG3 trade and haven't been able to spend money like it grows on trees because of the cap penalty bit. Add to that a head coach that completely mismanaged his young franchise passer's injury situation by first allowing him to get hurt last year when he shouldn't have been on the field, and than allowing him to come back before he was ready this season and the record was bound to suffer.
The biggest disapointments are Chris Cook, Jared Allen, the DC, Ponder and Frazier. If the Vikings have ANY sense, they will find a way to keep Gerhart and have a one two punch running attack. Now there they have something strong going. Peterson by himself isn't as good. Allen and Cook promised big things and have absolutely sucked. And they WAY overpaid for Jennings.(nice crucial 3rd down drop.) I'd like to see them move Frazier to DC and bring in Tony Dungy as head coach for the new eras, outside and in the glass house. Manziel as QBOF and Ponder as eventual back up and cheerleader. If Freeman can't throw, then forget it.
No to dungy! The guy can't win when it matters
Dungy has a Ring....
People of Minnesota would love him, it would be like a home coming for him, and he could take over and let Frazier just fix the defense. It's the best fit. Seems like it would be better than starting over.
No to Johnny Football.
Here we are, another shining example of the Vikings cutting a guy because of a legal problem. Freds really appreciates Leslie putting a stake in the ground showing his team that if you get into trouble with the law, you will be cut, zero tolerance, no shenanigans, team first, 110%. Its the Viking way or the highway! Freds is proud that Leslie, Rick and Zigmeister draw a line in the sand. The team has sent a clear message to AJ, that the Vikings will NEVER condone hitting on a women, drunken driving or fathering more children with baby momma than one can count using a calculator.
For those that think Denzel has been a good disciplinarian, he is no different than any other coach/organization. As a player if you hold value to the team, you won't be cut, even if you nearly coke some "bitches" to death. If you stink, you will be an example for the team. These jackasses are nothing but assets for an organization, if they can't produce, it's over. Freds will shed no tears for AJ.
Just remember...it's all correctable and we will be reviewing the tape this week to see what happened.
Freds, I think you misunderstood what we were looking for from the coach. We aren't even talking about player behavior, It's HIM we want to stay out of trouble. We don't want our coach to use the f-bomb during pressers, or sexually harass the secretaries, or scalp their Super Bowl tickets, or even declare himself a guru of anything. So far, Leslie has met those expectations.
What's wrong with our coach throwing f-bombs? Those Burns pressers are still iconic
oh!
As the kids like to say.... "my bad"
"The team has sent a clear message to AJ, that the Vikings will NEVER condone hitting on a women, drunken driving or fathering more children with baby momma than one can count using a calculator. "
So, two things that are illegal (assuming "hitting on" literally means hitting, and not flirting), and then one thing an employer is not even allowed to ask about in an interview process. Interesting grouping.
Anyways, glaring letter omissions and oddly misplaced groupings of grievances aside, that's pretty much the high and low of ANY job. If you perform well, you're given more latitude. If you suck, you're on thin ice. It's just magnified by the amount of money involved.
Well, that meets the legal opinion portion of Fred's comments. Thank you, Tomb. With Freds having already acknowledged the spelling issue, and my having corrected him on the expectations of our head coach, I think we've done a number on that one.
Thank you professor.
If donning a Captain Obvious cape is professorial, then we're screwed.
Please place an H where it is missing above.
Thank you.
Freds
I think there is hope for the Rhodes kid, don't you Freds? (note the correct placement of the H)
Where else would you have put the h when spelling hope ?
I can't really say without looking at the film.