Morning Joes

With the month of June nearly gone and training camp just around . . .  a couple corners, things are starting to heat up for the Vikings as they head toward 2023 season. Well, at least the temperature outside is heating up.

If you want to have a discussion about the hot issues of the Vikings, the best place to start is with quarterback Kirk Cousins. 

The Vikings are no longer “Cook-ing” with Dalvin. Last week, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah finally pulled the trigger on the worst-kept secret personnel move of the offseason and released the seven-year running back. The Vikings and Cook reportedly could not reach an agreement on several things: a contract reduction, a restructuring so that they could trade him and, perhaps, even a reduced role in the wake of the re-signing of his backup Alexander Mattison for a cool seven million (starting running back money these days). 

It ranked near the bottom last season, so any improvement the team makes on its 13-4 record with a first-round playoff exit is dependent upon the defense becoming much better in 2023. We all know that. The coaches know that. 

In the 2023 season, the Vikings will go as the defense goes. With new defensive coordinator Brian Flores (B-Flo as he is known) in the house, the entirety of Purple Nation is hoping to see him take the Vikings' defense out of the basement and into relevance

So, there’s no draft this past week. No schedule release. No football news?!! What ever will the league do to tackle our attention? How about making some changes, such as flexing games out of or into Thursday Night Football? That seemed to work as far as getting all of us rubes chirping on social media.

There is indeed much planning to do around these games—and much analysis to do around the schedule (who’d have ever thunk it) and Mark Craig from the Star Tribune joins Joe Oberle from the vikingsterritory.com and purplePTSD.com to do just that on the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast. Tune in and check it out. You must start planning where you will be watching the 2023 Vikings games.

And so it begins. The Vikings will hold a rookie mini-camp this week that will include the six players they drafted in the 2023 NFL draft and the many undrafted free agents they picked up after its conclusion. It is an opportunity for them all to shine, begin to get acquainted with the game at the NFL level and for some, make a solid case for making the team.

So let us continue the post-draft speculation on these picks right here (Hopefully we get it in under the wire before the much-too-early mocks for the 2024 NFL Draft start appearing—too late you say? Yeah, well, I suppose.) On the Vikings Territory Breakdown, Craig and Oberle will dissect the draft and see where the Vikings reached.

Former head coach Mike Zimmer said: “You can never have enough cornerbacks.” At least that’s what Joe Oberle, senior writer for Vikingsterritory.com and purplePTSD.com believes. You will have to tune into the VT Breakdown podcast to find out where the Star Tribune NFL Insider/Vikings writer Mark Craig comes down on the new acquisition.

At three weeks out, the NFL Drafts draws near like a Viking ship approaching in the gloaming—silent and foreboding. So what happens when all the eyes of NFL fans are upon Roger Goodell as he trots out to the podium, pick in hand, and awaiting a bear hug from the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft? Is it a quarterback? (Likely.) Are the Panthers trading or picking? (Picking.) And is it the quarterback you expected to be throwing to Adam Thielen next season? (Remains to be seen.)

The NFL owners and personnel all went south to play golf, have a couple of cocktails and discuss the league and see if there was any reason to change things in 2023. Well, it basically ended up being a trip south (good plan for Kwesi and KOC and the other northern team folks) for golf and drinks because they didn’t make many rules changes (at least not the ones I wanted). Good gig if you can get it.

NFL free agency continues apace, and the Vikings are still engaged. They continued to make moves this past week, and it doesn’t appear they are quite done yet. Head coach Kevin O’Connell tapped a couple of his former players from the Los Angeles Rams in wide receiver Brandon Powell and linebacker Tony Reeder, and both moves should help fill a couple roster holes before the draft and give GM Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah a little more flexibility to choose the best player available—when he finally makes his first pick.

The second week of free agency has begun and the Vikings have some work to do. They spent the first week moving and shaking up their roster in a frantic effort to get under the salary cap—actually succeeding in signing several new free agents despite their desperate cap number. (Once again, I will never understand the complex “Matrix” of the salary cap—thank goodness the Vikings have the One in executive VP of football operations Rob Brzezinsk.) There was significant bloodletting last week, but several tourniquets were applied.

We will remember the “Old Trapper” on this week’s installment of the Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast, with stories of Bud and a look at his long and laudable legacy with the Vikings. We also examine the massive changes taking place on the current Vikings roster, as another Minnesotan, Adam Thielen, moves on from the Purple. Tune into VT Breakdown podcast for the latest.

The dominos are falling. Longtime middle linebacker Eric Kendricks was released by the Vikings on Monday in a salary cap savings of $9.5 million. It is a difficult pill to swallow for all Vikings fans, as Kendricks has been one of the most productive players on the field during his eight-year career and one of the finest off the field as a former NFL Man of the year nominee. Kendricks has been an excellent member of the Vikings organization, and it is a huge loss for the team.

On the docket this week we will talk about Kirk Cousins contract. There are reports that the Vikings aren’t going to extend him for another one-season contract, which leaves two choices: play out the existing one or extend him for a few more years while they try to find the QB of the future. We will postulate what to expect next. And we shudder in anticipation of the coming Kirkistan battle over the haters. We will even dive into Cousins on the Netflix NFL QB series. Not for the faint of heart.  

The snow is piling up this week like salary cap dollars have for the Vikings the past few seasons,  and they need to plow some of that cash out of here. It remains to be seen whose cash is extended, whose gets dumped and whose goes dead. They have a lot of decisions to make as we head into the new NFL year.

So do we here at Vikings Territory Breakdown podcast (well not as much as Kwesi and KOC). Joe Oberle from VikingsTerritory and purplePTSD and Mark Craig from the Star Tribune and startribue.com are here to analyze everything those other two guys do until the start of next season.

The Vikings made news during Super Bowl week by signing Brian Flores to be their next defensive coordinator. As many of the potential DC choices for GM Kwesi Adolfo-Mensah were signed away by other teams, the situation grew a bit desperate and it appeared the Purple might have to settle for the in-house choice, Mike Pettine—not exactly a name to rile up the fanbase.