For years the listeners of our Football Machine Vikings podcast have sent in amazing Twitter questions, and far too often we’ve had to leave many of them on the cutting room floor because of time. No longer! Each week we’ll pull some questions that didn’t make the cut and address them in this space.
With Haskins on a rookie QB deal would you do a trade for cousins straight up given that all guaranteed salary comes off the books and we are not winning this year anywayhttps://t.co/U6Tp3RrWZ5
— Steezo (@steezo999) October 7, 2020
First of all, it’s hilarious to think of Kirk Cousins returning to Washington, the team that refused to extend him and allowed him to sign with the Vikings in 2018. Considering they were desperate enough to bench their first-round pick for Kyle Allen, maybe they’d be desperate enough to make that type of move… but probably not. If Washington is forward thinking at all, they’ll be looking at a ton of cap space in 2021 and a chance to splash in free agency. Also, they’re still paying Alex Smith.
It’s a fun question conceptually, though. Would you shed Cousins’ salary for a quarterback on a rookie deal who might be going nowhere? That’s a tough one. If you ask anyone that question after Week 2, they probably jump at the chance. Now that there’s some serious chemistry between Cousins and Justin Jefferson, you might pause and think.
Based on the restrictive nature of Cousins’ contract — which essentially becomes fully guaranteed in the first week on the 2021 league year — I think that I would shed the contract if some miracle scenario came around where it was possible. Even in a trade, though, the team on the receiving end would surely look to split up the salary. That’s just one man’s opinion, though, and I’m guessing the organization would hold onto him if given the same choice.
Is a center a good use of a first round pick? He can never live up to his draft capital.
— Accidental Quitter (@iowa_josh) October 7, 2020
Are we finally starting to see some of the special stuff (reach blocks etc…) Bradbury was able to do in college or did he just set the bar low as a rookie and is playing ok now? Did his ceiling change after last year?
— Skol! (@VikingsVoice) October 7, 2020
Based on these two questions, it seems like there might be some confusion over whether Garrett Bradbury has actually been adequate through the first quarter of the season. The analytics would tell you: Yes, he has. Bradbury is grading 24th as a pass blocker, 10th as a run blocker and eighth overall amongst centers. He’s only given up two pressures through four games compared to 11 at this point last year. Luke Braun wrote a fantastic breakdown this week about some adjustments in technique that Bradbury seems to have made.
Most encouragingly, Bradbury’s pass-blocking seems to have improved, save for a tough rep against Jeffery Simmons in Week 3. He’s clearly not the best center from that draft class — that title belongs to Saints second-round pick Erik McCoy — but he’s far from a finished product. Was it wise to draft a center, as @VikingsVoice asks above? I don’t think it’s completely unacceptable (not like drafting a running back in the first round). The Vikings, in this specific instance, probably thought they were upgrading two spots: center and left guard by virtue of moving Pat Elflein. As we now know, that didn’t play out as they expected.
Was Bisi just a complete mirage last season?
— Skol! (@VikingsVoice) October 7, 2020
Bisi Johnson‘s excellence in training camp may have thrown us off the scent. Before seeing any practices this summer, some of Johnson’s analytics from last season were concerning to me. Here’s what I wrote about Johnson in August:
The rookie lacked the separation ability that could lend itself to a bigger role going forward. Per NFL Next Gen Stats, Johnson had an average separation of just 2.5 yards at the catch point on his 31 receptions, tied for 24th lowest among qualified receivers. For reference, Diggs had the exact same separation, but not only is he one of the best contested catch receivers in football, he dealt with far more press coverage. NFL Next Gen Stats also track a receiver’s average cushion at the time of the snap. Johnson had a generous 6.5 yards, tied for 12th-highest in the league. Diggs had 4.6 yards of cushion, tied for the fourth lowest. As a result, Johnson wasn’t a deep threat whatsoever, recording zero receptions on targets of 20 yards or more, and he posted the 13th-lowest yards per route run at 1.03.
Johnson isn’t the first receiver to splash in a smallish sample size, earn a starting role and fail to make an impact. Remember Charles Johnson? His 2014 season with the Vikings was a lot like Johnson’s 2019. Both emerged mid-season, got between 440-540 snaps, caught 2-3 touchdowns and looked like a clear-cut No. 2 wideout entering the next season. But sometimes seventh-round picks start looking like seventh-round picks. The lack of natural talent means they have to do everything else perfectly, and that’s a difficult burden to sustain.
What can the Vikings do to get Irv Smith more involved?
— Chase (@chasehanson77) October 7, 2020
I’m choosing not to mash the panic button too hard, though our own Bo Mitchell makes a compelling plea for Irv Smith Jr. to start showing up. In the one game where the Vikings really tried to get Smith involved vs. Indianapolis, things just broke the wrong way for him. He had a 19-yard catch wiped out by a ticky-tack pass interference call, then caught a deep one over the middle that was jarred loose at the last second by Julian Blackmon. Probably could have had a 50-yard day.
The fact that the Vikings have scored 31 points the previous two weeks tells me they’re not really hurting for targets at the moment. Kyle Rudolph has also been relatively unproductive, so a bigger question might be: Why aren’t the tight ends more involved? instead of focusing on Smith. Mike Zimmer hasn’t sounded concerned when asked about Smith’s lack of catches.
“There were some plays called for him, and sometimes [the defense] just gets them played,” Zimmer said. “So we’ll continue to use all the guys, but you know, like the first third down of the game, he had a chance to get a ball and the guy grabbed him from around the waist and they didn’t get a call penalty. There’s a lot of things like that happen throughout the game, but that was one that he had a chance to get a ball on. And there was another one that there was a route called for him, and the linebacker kind of played a different coverage. So it’s just the way the game plays out sometimes.”
