Ladies and gentlemen, we might have a problem. The Minnesota Vikings could quite possibly be a bad football team with no direction. The Vikings traveled to Philadelphia to open week two of the NFL season on Thursday Night Football. The Vikings were manhandled by a juggernaut Eagles offense losing 34-28.
I, like many of you, have fully supported Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah. I’ve been behind him since he was hired before the 2020 season. Since day one it’s been, “Let Kwesi cook, Let Kwesi cook”. Unfortunately, I’m starting to think Kwesi is cooking up a heaping pile of dogshit.
Draft Picks
I understand it is extremely complex and difficult to evaluate the talent of a 21-23 year old football player. There are guys with all of the promise and athletic ability in the world and for some reason it just never pans out. That seems to be the case for many of Kwesi’s draft picks thus far in his tenure.
In 2022, Kwesi used the first three rounds of the draft to take safety Lewis Cine, cornerback Andrew Booth Jr., and guard Ed Ingram. And let me tell you, they all suck. Lewis Cine and Andrew Booth Jr. have barely played a single snap this season. What’s worse, the Vikings have done literally everything in their power not to let them on the field.
Ed Ingram, on the other hand, has unfortunately played every single snap this season, and in two years he has proven himself as being one of the worst interior offensive lineman in football. What’s worse is he has no idea.
Offensive Line
Kirk Cousins is an excellent quarterback, but his lack of mobility and inability to escape pressure, especially interior pressure, is something that does not pair well with poor pass protection. For the last three years, I’m not sure why beefing up the offensive line through the draft or through free agency was not the biggest priority for this football team.
Sure, Kwesi drafted tackle Christian Darrisaw and inked tackle Brian O’Neill to a long term deal, but the interior offensive lineman might as well not exist half the time. Ezra Cleveland and Ed Ingram get thrown around like rag dolls each and every week. Kirk is the one who pays the price for it. It’s unacceptable. The OL play cannot be this bad with the way this team is constructed.
It’s hard for me to believe that Kwesi and head coach Kevin O’Connell have enough faith in this unit to let it ride for a third straight year.
Quarterback
I am the biggest Kirk Cousins fan there is, and as much as it pains me to say this, it will probably be Kirk’s last year in Minnesota. Kirk is 35 years old, has won one playoff game in five seasons with the Vikings and is much too expensive for this team to re-sign unless he is willing to take a massive pay cut.
Not only that, it feels like we have taken four years off his career with how much he gets pummeled by defenses each and every game. He was the most hit quarterback in the league last year, and for a guy with a wife and young kids, you wonder how much longer his body can take a beating like this.
Parting with Kirk Cousins would be a tough loss because even though things haven’t gone exactly how we all hoped. I don’t believe it is his fault. I feel like our organization has let him down much more than he has let us down.
If this really is the final year of Kirk Cousins, and it sure looks to be that way… What the hell is the plan at quarterback going forward? News flash, there isn’t one. Unless…
But seriously, we have enough sample size that Kwesi’s seat should start getting warmer unless we see some serious changes.