The Minnesota Vikings got encouragingly strong work from some of their young players late in the 2015 season.
Losing the last game of the season kind of stunk, but it wasn’t all doom-and-gloom for the Vikings after their playoff defeat at the hands of the Seahawks.
On the contrary, Viking fans have plenty to feel good about even though their team was bounced from the postseason in the first round.
One gander at the Vikings’ roster and you realize how much promising young talent this team possesses. If that young talent continues to improve, the Vikings should be a solid team for the next several years at least.
Heck, the Vikings might even become a perennial playoff team. They might even win a few playoff games in the next several years. And maybe even go to a Super Bowl?
Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, let’s content ourselves with the knowledge that the Vikings are clearly headed in the right direction when it comes to building a winning roster.
Several of the Vikings’ good young players made encouragingly strong showings late in the season. These five stood out to me.
Xavier Rhodes struggled so much with penalties early in the season that Vikings DBs coach Jerry Gray resorted to putting boxing gloves on him during practice in an effort to curtail his tendency to grab receivers.
Despite Rhodes’ troubles, Mike Zimmer never seemed to lose faith in him, at least publicly. When called upon to step up in the NFC North-deciding game against the Packers the final week of the season, Rhodes rewarded Zimmer’s faith by having his biggest game of the year.
Rhodes made the single biggest play of his career so far when he picked off Aaron Rodgers in the end zone with the Packers trying to tie the game late.
Though Rhodes’ overall season may have been somewhat disappointing, his late performance provided hope that he can still develop into a solid cornerback.
The numbers say that Teddy Bridgewater did progress in 2015, though the progression was perhaps not as dramatic as some hoped it would be.
Bridgewater improved marginally in several key stats over his rookie season of 2014. His completion percentage went from 64.4% to 65.3%. His QB rating went from 85.2 to 88.7. His interception percentage dropped from 3.0 to 2.0.
Those numbers are not particularly exciting, I grant. For more compelling evidence of Bridgewater’s growth, you need to focus on how he played over the last few weeks of the season.
Bridgewater’s best statistical game of the year, and the best of his young career so far, came in week 15 against the Bears when he threw four touchdowns and posted a near-perfect 154.4 passer rating.
Bridgewater also posted strong passer ratings in the game at Arizona (108) and at-home against the Giants (93.4).
It’s true that the Vikings adjusted their offensive approach late in the year to make things easier on Bridgewater and the offensive line, but Bridgewater still must be credited with upping his own performance in most of those games.
Yes, Bridgewater struggled in the final game against the Packers and was only okay in the playoff game against Seattle. It wasn’t all rosey for the quarterback during his late-season upswing.
Occasional down-ticks notwithstanding, one has to be encouraged at the way Bridgewater came on late in the season. The defense may have been largely responsible for the Vikings’ late surge but Bridgewater also was a key contributor.
The Vikings must now look to shore up their offensive line and perhaps re-work the receiver corps with an eye toward helping Bridgewater take the next step.
Mike Zimmer played it right with Eric Kendricks, working the rookie slowly into the mix early in the season before handing him the starting job week 4 (after jettisoning Gerald Hodges).
Kendricks flashed his great athletic ability early on, racking up four sacks in a three-game stretch from week 4 through week 7.
That early flash changed to frustration in the middle part of the season, partly due to injury and partly due to natural growing pains.
Kendricks’ tackling technique was not good at times and he had issues in coverage. These are the sorts of things you would expect a rookie to struggle with.
Late in the season, Kendricks got healthy and seemed to get more comfortable in the defense. He was very good in the season finale against the Packers and again the next week against the Seahawks in the playoffs.
We know Kendricks has the speed and athletic ability to be a very good linebacker. His performance late in 2015 showed the kind of player he can be as he learns to operate in Mike Zimmer’s scheme.
With Adrian Peterson coming back, Jerick McKinnon became a man without much of a role.
Peterson gobbled up the majority of the carries throughout the early part of the season and McKinnon’s job was really just to come in and spell the workhorse back from time-to-time.
As the season wore on however, McKinnon became a more vital part of Norv Turner’s offense.
With the Vikings ditching seven-step drops in favor of the short passing game, McKinnon’s skills suddenly became a big factor.
McKinnon’s first chance to shine came in week 14 against the Bears when he caught four balls for 76 yards and a touchdown. He was large again the next week against the Giants, rushing seven times for 89 yards and two touchdowns.
McKinnon wasn’t used much as a rusher in the final two games, but did catch three passes against Green Bay and again in the playoff game against Seattle.
Norv Turner’s discovery of McKinnon’s value as an X-factor played a significant part in the Vikings’ modest offensive improvement late in the season (unfortunately that somewhat improved offense didn’t really show up in the playoff game).
What will McKinnon’s role be in 2016? We’ll have to wait and see what the Vikings do with Adrian Peterson. But there’s no doubt McKinnon has value to the Vikings.
5. Trae Waynes
2015 was a pretty crazy year for Trae Waynes.
It started with Waynes being drafted no. 11 overall by the Vikings, a move many draft experts heavily questioned.
Draft wonks agreed that Waynes has great speed and good size but disagreed on whether his footwork and technique would ever be good enough for him to thrive in the NFL.
Waynes seemed to vindicate his critics when he struggled mightily in the preseason and wound up on the bench to start the 2015 regular year.
Thanks to the presence of veteran cornerback Terence Newman, Mike Zimmer had the luxury of bringing Waynes along slowly. The rookie played sparingly on defense for much of the year, only getting a chance to start when injuries forced the Vikings to shuffle their defensive backfield going into a Thursday night game against Arizona.
Waynes went back to the bench after his one start but was ready when the Vikings again needed him. And they happened to need him in a key spot.
Terence Newman went down with injury in the second half of the Vikes’ playoff game against Seattle, and Waynes was thrust into action. The rookie made the most of his opportunity by picking off Russell Wilson, his first career interception.
After a season of being questioned, Waynes finally got to show a flash of promise at the very end.
But any hype about Waynes was quickly tempered by Mike Zimmer, who reiterated after the season that on his team everyone has to earn their spot (via Vikings Update):
"“I feel like he could be a starting corner next year, but it’s up to him,” Zimmer said. “He’s got to come in and compete just like everybody else. I’m not really going to hand out jobs (in January).”"
Typical Zimmer.