The bye week couldn’t have come at a better time for the Minnesota Vikings. Fresh off their fourth consecutive victory, the NFC North leaders were exposed by the NFL’s most dangerous wide receiver tandem in Week 6 against the Miami Dolphins. Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combined for:
- 25 targets
- 18 receptions
- 306 receiving yards
Harrison Smith salvaged the afternoon, intercepting a dropped pass intended for Waddle right before halftime. Smith successfully doubled down late in the game when he forced a fumble on the former Alabama receiver. If it weren’t for Minnesota’s longest-tenured defender creating a pair of opportunistic turnovers in critical moments, the game could’ve gone in a completely different direction for the Vikings.
As it stands now, Ed Donatell’s defense ranks 28th with 272.0 passing yards allowed per game. Are the offseason critics justified in clamoring for the Vikings to spend top resources in the draft on a cornerback? It’s sure looking that way so far.
Let’s take a look at how all three of Minnesota’s starting corners have fared this season in coverage.
Patrick Peterson
- 28 targets
- 14 receptions
- 180 receiving yards allowed
- 6.4 yards/target
- 5 pass breakups
- 1 interception
- 0 touchdowns allowed
- 55.7 passer rating when targeted
Despite the ridiculous rumblings that the former All-Pro corner might be washed as he enters his age-32 season, Peterson has proven to be one of the most effective corners in the league this year. Out of 24 corners that have played 250-plus coverage snaps this season, Peterson has the fifth-best passer rating when targeted. The former LSU Tiger is turning back the clock and making a legitimate case to be a Pro Bowler in 2022.
Cameron Dantzler
- 32 targets
- 24 receptions
- 289 receiving yards allowed
- 9.0 yards/target
- 4 pass breakups
- 0 interceptions
- 1 touchdown allowed
- 112.6 passer rating when targeted
Dantzler has been up and down this season. The third-year corner has looked great over the past three weeks. He recorded three pass breakups against the New Orleans Saints in Week 4 and sealed the game with a forced fumble and recovery against the Chicago Bears in Week 5. He even went above and beyond against Hill and Waddle in Week 6 by allowing just one reception for 21 yards on the day.
Dantzler’s recent stellar play has helped Skoldiers forget about him giving up a combined 178 receiving yards and one touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions in Weeks 2 and 3. As long as Dantzler maintains his consistent play over the past three games, there should be little to no concern about Dantzler’s staying power in this defense.
Chandon Sullivan
- 29 targets
- 24 receptions
- 347 receiving yards allowed
- 12.0 yards/target
- 0 pass breakups
- 0 interceptions
- 1 touchdown allowed
- 128.0 passer rating when targeted
Let’s be clear: If Skoldiers need to identify the player struggling the most this season, look no further than the former Green Bay Packer. Although rookie right guard Ed Ingram leads all NFL guards with 21 pressures allowed, Sullivan is causing most of the problems. Sullivan was brought in as a free agent to replace Mackensie Alexander as Minnesota’s nickelback, and the results have been more of the same. A whopping 91.0% of Sullivan’s 321 defensive snaps have come at the nickel, and he’s been one of — if not the worst — nickelbacks in the league this season.
If the Vikings are content with letting 2022 second-round pick Ingram take his lumps as a first-year starter, should the new regime consider a similar move for its defense?
Herein lies the potential solution for the Vikings’ defense down the stretch. Ingram’s fellow second-round pick in 2022, Andrew Booth Jr., has missed the past four games with a lingering quad injury. Even when Booth was healthy and suited up in the first two games, he never touched the field on defense. He only played minimal snaps on special teams.
The former five-star cornerback out of Clemson is everything that the football world said the Vikings needed throughout the draft process: a versatile corner who has experience playing both inside at nickel and outside. As a sophomore at Clemson in 2020, Booth played a substantial amount of snaps as the Tigers’ nickelback. Last season as a true junior, he played exclusively as an outside corner.
Aside from his freakish athletic traits in coverage, Booth has been lauded for his ability to defend the run at an extremely high level.
If Booth can take advantage of the bye week and recover from his quad injury, is it time for him to replace Sullivan as Minnesota’s primary nickelback? Although general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah has never conceded this publicly, he likely opted to trade down multiple times in 2022 because he felt there were adequate solutions to be found later on in the draft for Minnesota’s two biggest weak spots: guard and corner.
The offense is picking up Ingram as he experiences the typical growing pains of being an NFL starter as a rookie. Wouldn’t the Vikings be better off in the long run if Booth experienced a similar baptism by fire as the starting nickel? After all, it can’t get much worse than Sullivan’s league-worst production at the moment.
Booth’s quad injury is the obvious factor here. If he’s healthy, is he ready to revert to his 2020 days with Clemson as the Vikings’ starting nickel? As long as Sullivan continues to start in front of Booth, the question will remain for Skoldiers throughout the second half of the regular season.
