The Minnesota Vikings have taken some hits to their cornerback depth chart this offseason. They cut Xavier Rhodes and saw both Trae Waynes and Mackensie Alexander sign with the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency.
Those moves weren’t unexpected, but what has been a little surprising is that the team has yet to sign a veteran replacement. They are strapped for cash, but one would’ve thought by now they would have brought in a cheap veteran with experience who could bring some knowledge to this young group of corners.
At this point, the Vikings look set to roll with Mike Hughes, Holton Hill, Kris Boyd and any players they bring in through the draft. It’s a bold move, but perhaps the team is convinced Kris Boyd is ready to take the next step in 2020. Here are some reasons why he could be ready to take that jump, and some why he may not quite be there yet.
why He’s ready for a bigger role
Boyd quietly put together a solid rookie season in 2019. The seventh round draft choice was a player who worked hard and throughout the entire season got better and better. Boyd’s career did get off to a rough start. Early in the preseason when he was seeing extended action, his play was honestly awful. He was often out of position and gave huge cushions to the receiver he was supposed to be covering.
Boyd also struggled to tackle, and if he did make contact with a ball carrier, he resorted to the grab and drag down style of tackling. He simply looked overmatched and lost.
It was a bit shocking that he ended up making the final 53-man roster and not the practice squad. Something funny happened as the season progressed though; Boyd found his niche.
Like many who came before him, Boyd took the special teams route. Week after week, he got better and better as a gunner, and on almost every punt he was one of the first guys down the field, downing the ball or making the tackle.
This clearly gave the young player confidence and it began to show on the field with his excitement after making a big special teams play.
After the Vikings cornerback corps was hit hard by the injury bug, Mike Zimmer started using Boyd more at cornerback. His play was much improved over what he showed in the preseason, and he finished his rookie season with 22 tackles and a pass breakup. Boyd’s ability to learn and improve as the season wore on is a huge positive.
This guy clearly takes coaching to heart, and the strides he made as a rookie were extremely impressive. With continued work this preseason and more reps in practice and in games, Boyd should be ready to see a much larger workload on defense in 2020.
Why He’s still got a long way to go
If the Vikings are hoping to rely on Boyd for a bigger role in 2020, they are asking for trouble. Yes, he made some strides in 2020, but he’s got a long way to go. Some of the bigger concerns about him are his tackling and his overall experience.
As previously stated, Boyd has very poor tackling form. He doesn’t wrap up or lower his shoulder to hit. He is a grabber and a drag-down tackler, and if he isn’t doing that he likes the blind shoulder-dive tackle. This poor technique is more often than not going to lead to missed tackles and extra yardage for offenses. The concern here is that when players reach the pros and continue to tackle this way, it is basically an inherent trait at this point, that is next to impossible to fix.
Boyd’s most productive game of the 2019 season is also misleading. He got the start in the meaningless season finale against the Bears, and in that pointless contest, he tallied the majority of his tackles on the season. Eight of his 22 overall tackles came in that game in which the opposing offense was led by Mitchell Trubisky in a contest that neither team had anything to gain by winning, and both probably didn’t do much game-planning for.
Another issue that shows that Boyd isn’t ready to take on a bigger role next season is his overall experience. While he did play in 16 games, most of those were on special teams. Boyd only played defense in eight games last season.
In those games, he only saw a handful of snaps, and a lot of times it was in situations when the Vikings knew the other team would be throwing the ball. Boyd could really struggle if he’s on the field much more often next year and begins seeing teams do crazy formations that hide whether or not they are going to throw the football. He really doesn’t have that much more experience than a highly-drafted rookie would, and his experience shouldn’t be considered a positive.
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Is Boyd ready to break out this upcoming season? The answer is probably somewhere in the middle and how one defines what a breakout season actually is.
There were plenty of encouraging signs from a year ago. He clearly got better as the season wore on, and seems to be a very coachable player. He still lacks experience though, and will probably never be considered a good tackler. The best thing for Boyd next season would be to take one more step forward. The Vikings should continue to work him in for a handful of snaps per game and let him gain more experience and confidence.
He’s probably another year away from being a solid and consistent contributor, but until then at least the Vikings know they have a solid special teamer on their hands.
