Vikings' coach Frazier, GM Spielman lousy judges of talent - Minnesota cuts bum Jefferson

Well the Vikings dumped another bum in cornerback A.J. Jefferson this afternoon. Even though they only shipped a 6th or 7th round pick to the Cardinals for him last year, you would have thought the Vikings had landed a future All-Pro after hearing head coach Leslie Frazier heap praise on Jefferson after the acquisition.

Frazier was the one who wanted to sign washed-up has-been Donovan McNabb to play quarterback two years ago, and Spielman has swung and missed on a number of draft picks in the last few years (Josh Robinson, Tyrell Johnson, Christian Ponder, Mistral Raymond, Marcus McCauley, among others) so it's not surprising that they wasted a draft pick on a player like Jefferson. Jefferson contributed nothing during his time with the team.

Frazier might be a good coach, and Spielman might be the type of that write up a great scouting report, but when it comes time to select a talented player, neither has shown that they have much of a knack for it.

If they did the Vikings record would be a lot better than 2-8-1.

Vikings' coaches are dumb

Being a Minnesota Viking fan can drive a person crazy. Only the Chicago Cubs can be a more difficult team to root for.
 

Sunday's 27-23 loss to the Dallas Cowboys is just another excruciating loss for the Vikings. What is hard to understand, as usual, is the thinking of the coaches. Why defensive coordinators slack off at the end of games when they have a lead is beyond me. They allow the opposing team to march down the field and score seemingly at will. Why not just keep playing the same way the entire game. Rushing more guys and keeping pressure on Tony Romo would have made more sense than trying to cover all the Cowboys receivers, especially since the Vikings were missing safety Harrison Smith and cornerback Chris Cook to injuries.
 

Why would head coach Leslie Frazier opt to try the Cowboys offsides on a 4th down, instead of letting kicker Blair Walsh try a 54 yard field goal? The fact that Walsh pushed an extra point attempt wide does not matter. Walsh is recovered from his hamstring injury and has made field goals over 50 yards look routine. It would have made more sense to just let the offense go for it on that 4th down instead of trying to draw the Cowboys offsides.
 

Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave continues his conservative play calling, making us wonder what he's thinking. Tackle Phil Loadholt is 6'8" and weighs 345 pounds, yet can't move anyone off the line.
 

Defensive coordinator Alan Williams said last week he wasn't "changing anything" despite the fact the Vikings' defense is at the bottom of the league in most statistical categories and the team is sporting a 1-7 record.
 

Rick Spielman and his scouting staff have obviously swung and missed on some players - Josh Robinson, Brandon Fusco, Charlie Johnson, John Carlson, Toby Gerhart, Erin Henderson, and Mistral Raymond to name a few - haven't amounted to much and are some reasons why the team has only won one game so far this season.

 
If Frazier and his crew don't win some games during the second half of this season, it's time they, along with Spielman, be shown the door in January, and Vikings fans will have to once again look to the future for some hope.

Minnesota Vikings are a lost cause

Only the Chicago Cubs can come close to the agony that the Minnesota Vikings put their fans through.

I doubt if we'll ever know the truth behind the recent signing of quarterback Josh Freeman.

Was it ordered by owner Zygi Wilf, because Wilf was disgusted with the team's quarterback play, namely Christian Ponder and Matt Cassel? Did Wilf instruct head coach Leslie Frazier to start Freeman, even though he wasn't ready to play even at the minimum level required for a professional quarterback?

Did Frazier want Freeman on the team because he's a black quarterback? Did Frazier start Freeman because he's a black quarterback?

Did general manager Rick Spielman and the scouting staff push to sign Freeman because of his impressive physical tools?  Scouts tend to get excited about athletic players - even if they have lousy on-field statistics.  He's got a cannon for an arm - so what if he only completed 40% of his passes in a season.

Freeman overthrew his receivers so many time in Monday Night's loss to the Giants he must have thought they were all eight feet tall.

At the start of the season I was optimistic and thought the Vikings would go 11-5 and reach the playoffs, although probably not get past the first round. Now I'm not so optimistic. I'm afraid Viking fans might be looking at another 3-13 season.

Minnesota has talented players who are not playing up to their potential (see cornerbacks Josh Robinson and Chris Cook), were over-rated by the coaches and scouts (see quarterback Christian Ponder and guard Brandon Fusco), or just aren't that good in the first place (see offensive tackle Phil Loadholt and guard Charlie Johnson).

It's time for the  coaches to scrap the Tampa-2 defense, which clearly isn't working anymore, either due to the scheme itself or because the team doesn't have the right players to operate it effectively.

The offense has no creativity at all. The play calling was conservative and boring even before Freeman's start on Monday.

Maybe this team needs new ownership (again) to go along with a new GM, scouts and coaches. For now Viking fans can only dream about the day when their team will be a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

Vikings, Spielman made dumb move in releasing Winfield

Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman has made some decent draft picks in the last couple of years (Harrison Smith, Matt Kalil) but made a huge mistake in releasing cornerback Antoine Winfield this past winter. Winfield played well in 2012 and probably had one more good year in him at age 36. Perhaps if the Vikings had approached him when the season ended about restructuring his contract for 2013, he would have been agreeable.

Instead Spielman made a classless move by calling Winfield upstairs while he was working out at the team's facility and unceremoniously dumped him. 

The Vikings could have adjusted Winfield's contract and remained under the salary cap, and still added the players that they did.

Now the team is 0-3, and the defense ranks 28th in the NFL against the pass. Toss in an injury to cornerback Chris Cook, and Minnesota now has a problem in the secondary.

Didn't have to be that way. Some days I just wonder how guys like Spielman get their jobs.

Vikings out-coached in loss to Browns

For the second week in a row the Minnesota Vikings defense made a number of big plays, yet the team still lost the game. While the Browns played well, the Vikings coaching staff was outsmarted by their Cleveland counterparts on a few occasions.

The most glaring example would be the fake field goal attempt that resulted in a Browns touchdown. Minnesota has 23 assistant coaches, and not one of them saw Cleveland's Jordan Cameron standing alone near the sideline?  Come on. Coaches spend hours in their offices drawing X's and O's, and then during a game they miss something like that? Pathetic. On the other hand, the Browns coaches deserve some credit for coming up with the idea and for having the guts to try to it.

Even though Christian Ponder doesn't have a cannon for an arm, and still again made some costly mistakes, this is a game the Vikings could have easily won. Hopefully Minnesota will play at a higher level when they meet some of the tougher teams on their schedule later this season.

At least Frazier takes blame for latest Vikings debacle

Minnesota Vikings' fans ought to be used to losing games like Sunday's last second loss to the Chicago Bears. Even with a number of big plays, the Vikings still managed to lose somehow.

Jared Allen's sack and forced fumble of Bears quarterback Jay Cutler led to Brian Robison scooping up the fumble and racing down the field to score a touchdown. What a great play. Almost as good as Carl Eller and Jim Marshall of the old Purple People Eaters.

Letroy Guion's stripping the football off Bears running back Matt Forte was another awesome play. Cordarelle Patterson's 105 yard kickoff return to start the game was magnificent. Harrison Smith's interception of a Cutler pass was a thing of beauty, as he leaped into the air and snared the ball in front of the receiver. Just like Bobby Bryant and Paul Krause used to do.

Yet the Vikings still lost the game. Head coach Leslie Frazier told reporters afterwards, “That last two-minute sequence I could have done some things different. I told our players after the game, as a staff I don’t think we could have asked for any better preparation, any better fight from our team. But personally I have to do a better job in guiding our team in that last sequence and I wanted them to know that. At the end of the day, there were some things that I didn’t do in my role that could have helped our football team."

Frazier declined to get into specifics, but he said the personnel on the field for the Bears’ last meaningful drive wasn’t the problem.

“There were some things we could have done differently strategically and that’s my fault,” Frazier said.

OK.

The thing I'll never understand is, with a team like the Vikings, they have 23 assistant coaches. They practice and prepare for a week.  Then on game day the coaches don't make the right decisions?  Maybe having 23 assistant coaches is too many. What are all these guys doing?  Maybe there's so many X's and O' floating around out there that everyone is too confused to act.