On the first day of legal tampering, the Minnesota Vikings’ major move was to sign Harrison Phillips to replace Michael Pierce. According to reports from Darren Wolfson of KSTP, Pierce didn’t want to play in a 3-4 and wouldn’t accept contract reworks. So Pierce is off to greener pastures, and the Vikings turned Pierce’s old money into the backup plan: Harrison Phillips of the Buffalo Bills.
On its surface, swapping Pierce for Phillips is a one-for-one move. The Vikings released one run-stuffing defensive tackle just to sign another one at a slightly lower price. To stay on the surface level, Phillips notched 25 run stops to Pierce’s seven, per PFF. However, Phillips played about twice as many snaps as Pierce while the latter dealt with a tricep injury. Pierce generated more pressure per snap than Phillips, though. That was kind of a surprise, as Pierce was never much of a pass rusher. He just overperformed in that regard in 2021.
That could be all you need. In Phillips’ one year as more than a rotational player, he was a better run defender than Pierce but offered less as a pass rusher. But let’s dive beneath the surface and talk about how these players’ roles will change. For one, Phillips played outside of the A gaps (i.e., he was more of a “Tackle” than a “Nose”), whereas Pierce played further inside. So instead of a one-for-one replacement, Dalvin Tomlinson replaces Pierce and Phillips replaces Tomlinson.
However, even that is reductive. Ed Donatell’s defense will use a lot of variation in its alignments. Truly, both Tomlinson and Phillips will line up all over the front depending on the offense’s alignment, game situation, and myriad other factors. So it makes sense to more closely compare the skillset that Phillips offered to the one Pierce offered.
Pierce weighs about 345 lbs. Phillips clocks in around 306. That 40-lb. difference means a slight disadvantage in power. Donatell will design part of his defense to attack smaller interior offensive linemen with one-on-one matchups. In those cases, Phillips will have that much less of a size advantage (if any at all). But every sword cuts both ways. If Phillips is a little lighter and quicker, he’ll be better in pursuit.
There could be a conditioning angle as well. Pierce’s big-belly 345 lb. frame always meant he could only play so many snaps per game. This is exacerbated in early-season road games with the heat turned up, such as the Vikings’ 27-24 loss to Cincinnati in Week 1. Both Phillips and Pierce dealt with injuries last year. With that in mind, Phillips played about 34 snaps per game, and Pierce averaged 31. Phillips played in twice as many games (including two playoff games).
That’s not entirely fair to Pierce, who rushed back from a tricep injury, re-aggravating it. And Phillips is far from an every-down player. He’s more of a run-stuffer than Pierce, making him an awkward choice as an under-tackle. That’s typically more of an interior pressure generator than the nose tackle, but Dalvin Tomlinson might have to take that mantle.
In a more technical sense, the Vikings will continue to use “gap and a half” technique, at least according to what Donatell was willing to say to the media. That implies that each player will have a primary and secondary gap assignment. Their job is to occupy the primary gap but flash across the face of their blocker if a run goes to the secondary gap. Ideally, the secondary gap is someone else’s primary gap, so multiple defenders are responsible for every gap.
Pierce was at his most comfortable in Baltimore, where they had him “two-gap.” That means he is responsible for two gaps by himself and must control his blocker fully to be able to fill either one at a moment’s notice. If one or two players can do that, the rest can simply occupy one gap, or better yet, exit the box entirely and focus on coverage. To be fair, Donatell’s defense might utilize some two-gapping in its own right.
To review, Pierce is bigger, a better pass rusher, and may have been able to occupy more space in the run game. Phillips produces more in the run, potentially has more stamina, and can perform from more various alignments. In my opinion, Pierce sounds like the better asset, and the markets agree. Phillips signed for less money than Pierce cost, even after factoring in Pierce’s dead money.
Phillips costs a total of $19.5 million over three years. Pierce signed a $27 million deal, of which he saw just $9 million. Phillips will likely have to last twice as long to see as much money as Pierce did. So, in total, the Vikings replaced a valuable asset with a slightly less valuable asset at slightly less cost.
That approach runs counter to the Vikings’ insistent messaging about how they intend to compete for a ring this year. For an 8-9 team, their free agency started by keeping a few players in-house (Kirk Cousins, Jordan Berry, Greg Joseph, and T.Y. McGill) and downgrading at a crucial position. As of this writing, they’ve also signed Jordan Hicks to a two-year contract, but it remains to be seen if he is an addition to the linebacker room or a replacement.
Of course, the cap savings will go elsewhere, but much of that saved money won’t be available until future years. The Vikings’ roster is far from complete, or even close to the state it will be in when it’s time to actually play games. Nevertheless, at this moment, it is curious for a team that insists upon winning now to skid backward with their first step of the first season of the new regime.
The Vikings didn’t have all that much choice in this matter, though. According to Wolfson’s report, Pierce wasn’t as interested in the Vikings’ new 3-4 scheme and how that fit his skill set. After attempts to renegotiate (and trade) failed, the Vikings had no choice but to release Pierce. Phillips was the backup plan. So even on the Vikings’ board, they’d rather have Pierce at his price than Phillips at the new one.
That’s an unfortunate start, but it comes with the territory of switching out an entire coaching staff. A new scheme won’t perfectly fit the old players. Transitioning from one to the other will take some time. But if the Vikings insist that they will compete for a Super Bowl in 2022, we can hold them to a less patient standard. Time will tell if they can turn what cap space and draft picks they can generate into a better roster than the one that missed the playoffs a year ago. If they can’t, they’ve set themselves up to be held accountable for that.
