The NFL’s divisional playoff round presents one of the most exciting weekends of the season and this year didn’t disappoint.
Three of the four games were entertaining — thanks a lot, Giants — with two of them being one-score games and the Bengals’ 17-point victory at Buffalo being entertaining because it was played in the snow and Joe Burrow is just so much fun to watch.
Although the Vikings won 13 regular-season games and the NFC North before being eliminated in the opening round by the Giants, watching the Chiefs, Eagles, Bengals and 49ers advance to the conference championships showed just how far Minnesota has to go to be among the elite.
So what did we learn about the Vikings?
It just got harder to defend the Vikings
I was among those who spent the season defending the Vikings when the national media, and other critics, said their success was largely a fluke and that a variety of data proved it. The Vikings’ 11-0 record in one-score games during the regular season was often used against them.
My feeling was that first-year coach Kevin O’Connell found a way to lead his team to 13 victories, including a comeback win at Buffalo and an NFL-record 33-point rally to beat the Colts in overtime.
It might not have been conventional but did that make the Vikings pretenders?
Minnesota’s 31-24 loss to the Giants in the first round of the postseason provided plenty of ammunition for the critics, and it only got worse on Saturday night as the Eagles toyed with the Giants and quarterback Daniel Jones in a 38-7 rout.
Losing to the Giants would have been disappointing but more understandable if New York hadn’t flopped in Philly. But the Eagles, who beat the Vikings easily in Week 2, embarrassed the Giants and, in doing so, made the Vikings look like 13-win pretenders who never had a chance.
Speed, speed and more speed needed on defense
The Vikings’ poor performance on defense this season cost Ed Donatell his job as coordinator and has general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell searching for his replacement.
What the Vikings also need to be looking for is more speed on that side of the ball. That became obvious in watching teams like the Bengals, 49ers and Eagles.
The Vikings’ decision to go with several veterans, including linebackers Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks, might have provided them with on-field savvy but that doesn’t matter if the two 30-year-olds were too often chasing faster players in a scheme that didn’t work.
The Vikings had five starters who were 30 or older starting on defense and watching the divisional round it looked as if many of the teams were playing at a different speed than Minnesota.
There also was a level of nasty the Vikings were missing, an issue that dates to the 2019 season, when the 49ers physically dominated Mike Zimmer’s team in the divisional round.
The Vikings aren’t going to win in the playoffs if they are getting pushed around and they certainly aren’t going to win if they can’t keep up with the competition. It’s time for a complete reset on that side of the ball.
Identifying the quarterback of the future needs to happen now
Kirk Cousins deserves much of the credit for the Vikings’ success this season and his partnership with O’Connell worked better than many expected. Cousins’ decision to throw short of the sticks on fourth down ended the Vikings’ chances to beat the Giants, but he also put together a strong performance in that game.
None of this erases the fact that one of the main reasons O’Connell was hired was to help the Vikings find their quarterback of the future.
That process needs to be in motion as Cousins gets set to enter the last season of his contract in 2023, although there is a chance he could sign another one-year extension. The issue is the price tag that would go with that agreement and what it would do to impede the team’s ability to improve at other positions.
Cousins will turn 35 in August. None of the quarterbacks playing in the divisional round were 30, with Dallas’ Dak Prescott being the closest at 29.
Trevor Lawrence and Brock Purdy are 23, Jalen Hurts is 24, Daniel Jones is 25, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow are 26 and Patrick Mahomes is 27. All were drafted by the team they are playing for and only Mahomes eats up more than 10 percent of his team’s salary cap.
Cousins’ $31.4 million salary cap hit in 2022 accounted for 15 percent of the Vikings’ cap and next season that figure will increase to $36.3 million and 16.4 percent.
A young, mobile and much cheaper quarterback would enable the Vikings to address more areas of need and also reward wide receiver Justin Jefferson and others with rich paydays.
Having a successful quarterback on a rookie contract is a huge advantage and it’s up to Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell to make that happen.
Niners' model is a good one to follow
O’Connell undoubtedly has borrowed plenty of his offensive ideas from Rams coach Sean McVay, who was his boss in Los Angeles.
But O’Connell certainly keeps an eye on what 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is doing. The two never worked together, but O’Connell comes from the McVay/Shanahan coaching tree and is familiar with many of the concepts that 49ers are utilizing.
One on which O’Connell could expand is the trend toward positionless players. The ability to use wide receiver Deebo Samuel as a running back or running back Christian McCaffrey in the passing game is a headache waiting to happen for defensive coordinators.
The important thing is to have versatile players who can excel in different roles so they present a legitimate threat. There was an expectation that running back Dalvin Cook might be used more in the passing game this season, but his 39 receptions were only four more than he had in 2021 and fewer than he has had in three of his six seasons.
Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell have plenty of molding to do with the Vikings roster and it’s likely what we saw from the offense this season was only a start. What the 49ers are doing could serve as a blueprint for how O’Connell envisions his offense functioning.
Judd Zulgad is co-host of the Purple Daily Podcast and Mackey & Judd podcast at www.skornorth.com
