Minnesota Vikings Depending On New Leadership, But Cousins Issue Remains In Place

Successful a job interview has lots to do with understanding what possession desires to do, after which presenting a plan for making that concept work. It doesn’t imply that these presenting the plan really imagine it may well occur.

The Minnesota Vikings employed Kwesi Adofo-Mensah to function the workforce’s steward because it navigates the tough waters of the Nationwide Soccer League. First mate Kevin O’Connell will take the expertise Adofo-Mensah offers him and try to ship victory after victory within the upcoming 17-game 2022 season.

Each have been in a position to learn the tea leaves throughout their respective job interviews. Each understood the Vikings have been caught with Kirk Cousins on the quarterback place regardless of his lack of impression in big-game conditions. However, each have proven full assist for his or her moneyed quarterback since they have been employed for his or her present positions.

Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell can do a number of issues to enhance this workforce because it prepares for the upcoming season, however the major concern will stay in place it doesn’t matter what else is completed. Because the late Texas governor Ann Richards mentioned about President George H.W. Bush’s financial plan in 1992, “Effectively, you may put lipstick on a hog and name it Monique, however it’s nonetheless a pig.”

Adofo-Mensah has already added OLB Za’Darius Smith from the Inexperienced Bay Packers, ILB Jordan Hicks from the Arizona Cardinals and CB Chandon Sullivan from the Packers, and people major signings seem like constructive developments for a protection that dragged the workforce down in every of the previous two seasons.

New defensive coordinator Ed Donatell will possible make use of a 3-4 protection an excellent proportion of the time to assist enhance the workforce, as there’s a sure versatility to his teaching fashion.

Adofo-Mensah has extra work to do within the upcoming NFL Draft beginning April 28. It appears fairly possible that if the Vikings are going to pick a top-ranked cornerback with the No. 12 decide like Derek Stingley Jr. of Louisiana State or Trent McDuffie of Washington in the event that they don’t commerce up or down with that choice.

As soon as Adofo-Mensah finishes the draft and provides key undrafted faculty free brokers – this may be a particularly beneficial instrument – it’s going to fall on O’Connell to meld these gamers right into a workforce that can be a menace to the Inexperienced Bay Packers within the NFC North.

That may be a enormous ask, contemplating the issue beneath middle will stay in place. So far as stealing first place from the Packers and threatening the opposite energy groups within the NFC, that’s going far past the real looking. However enchancment over the 8-9 file the Vikings had in 2021 will enable Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell to enter the 2023 season with an elevated energy base of their second season collectively.

O’Connell involves the workforce from a profitable run on Sean McVay’s teaching workers with the Tremendous Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. O’Connell is supposedly a complicated thinker with regards to offensive soccer, however how a lot credit score does he actually deserve? McVay has been operating the Los Angeles offense, and whereas O’Connell didn’t damage the workforce and is clearly a quarterback whisperer, operating the Vikings offense can be his first probability to place his signature on an NFL workforce.

He has some wonderful weapons to work with in operating again Dalvin Cook dinner and extensive receivers Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen. That trio has been fairly productive beneath former head coach Mike Zimmer, and so they should be even higher beneath O’Connell.

The Vikings offense definitely wants assist with its offensive line depth and on the tight finish slot, however the issue for Minnesota is its lack of consistency. The offense would usually provide you with a key drive early within the first half after which disappear for lengthy stretches. That has to vary in 2022.

The true concern is Cousins on the quarterback slot. Apologists for the quarterback can level to the revolving door on the offensive coordinator slot throughout his 4 years with the Vikings, however irrespective of who crammed the place, the outcomes have been comparable. Cousins places spectacular statistical performances on the board on a season-long foundation, however his efficiency in huge video games towards the hardest opponents has been poor.

It doesn’t matter if we’re speaking concerning the 2018 season, the 2021 season or the 2 within the center. Cousins has struggled to make impression performs when the Vikings want them most. It doesn’t appear possible that the mix of O’Connell and new offensive coordinator Wes Phillips will change that.

Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell may help all the encompassing elements, however the Cousins concern stays intact – irrespective of how a lot lipstick is used to fairly the image.