What are the keys to the 2020 Minnesota Vikings season?
The Minnesota Vikings enter the 2020 NFL season with more challenges afoot than usual. No season is easy or straightforward, but this one is a full plate of encumbrance.
For starters, the Vikings were assigned the NFL’s 10th-most difficult schedule. Based on 2019 win-loss records, the teams on the docket have a combined 2019 record of 131-123-2 (.516). Of course, a team’s performance from the year prior is not necessarily indicative of their future play. Yet, at this moment in time, the Vikings schedule has some sticky match-ups (on the road at Seattle and Tampa Bay, for example).
Additionally, this offseason was the first time head coach Mike Zimmer was truly tasked with reinventing his cherished defense. Several longstanding and popular free agents hit the road, mainly because Minnesota did not want to overpay for their services. It’s part of the reason the 2020 NFL Draft was such a fortune-telling experience for the Vikings. The event served as a glimpse of the immediate future rather than a cluster of men the team would develop for seasons down the line. The future is now.
The Vikings also lost their Miracle man when Stefon Diggs was dealt to the Buffalo Bills for draft picks.
Therefore, this season preview is a bit headier than years past. Let’s peek at the eight keys to the season for the purple and gold.
Reconstructed interior of the defensive line must stop the run
Two domino events happened that left the Vikings interior defensive line in flux. First, Minnesota opted not to engage the remainder of Linval Joseph‘s contract. Instead, Joseph joined the Los Angeles Chargers. Then, the Vikings spent their paltry cap funds on Joseph’s replacement, a man named Michael Pierce from the Baltimore Ravens.
Pierce will not play this season due to COVID-19 concerns.
Therefore, the Vikings have a hole at the nose tackle position. It seems they have turned to Shamar Stephen to plug the hole, shifting him to nose tackle from the three-technique spot he has played historically.
Minnesota has not forced much quarterback pressure from the interior line portion of the defense during the last two seasons, but they have stopped the run admirably. Because Stephen (and whoever makes it out of camp as the new three-technique) probably won’t morph into a ferocious pass-rushing asset, the interior defensive linemen must stop the run at the same rate the team did in 2018 and 2019.
The Vikings can’t afford to trend downward on the run-stopping spectrum when the new secondary personnel is unusually young. A lackluster interior pass-rush, lessened prowess for run-stopping, and cornerbacks that are learning on the fly — would not be a favorable turn of events defensively.
The offensive line must be above-average, rather than not-horrible
The Vikings have not truly had an upper-echelon offensive line since 2009. Unsurprisingly, that was also the last time they came within a mere pass attempt from a Super Bowl berth.
For Minnesota to be considered championship contenders (more than winning just one playoff game), they need more than an offensive line that “doesn’t suck.” For too long the franchise has either put out a product upfront offensively that is either mediocre or bad.
Whether the 2020 team has the sheer talent to achieve this key to success is grounds for debate. Right tackle Brian O’Neill is nearing stardom, second-year center Garrett Bradbury has lofty goals for 2020, left tackle Riley Reiff is paid a monetary sum that suggests he should be pretty good, guard Pat Elflein is in a tried-and-true prove-it year, and the final spot is completely up for grabs.
Thankfully, offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak has a football biography that details offensive line cultivation. The implementation of this tactic will be vital in 2020.
All young cornerbacks need to be up to the task
This is a succinct contrast to the offensive line. What does that mean, you ask? The offensive line must be quite good for once instead of mediocre. The cornerback play just needs to be serviceable.
We saw in 2019 that the Vikings could propel themselves to the fifth-best defense (via points allowed) in the league with cornerback play that was next to atrocious, at least by Mike Zimmer’s standards. In 2019, Xaver Rhodes carried a passer-rating-against of 123.8. His teammate, corner Trae Waynes, checked in with at 107.9 in the same metric.
Unfortunately, these are lowly statistics. They’re not average or fledgling — they’re awful. The saving grace in the secondary was a dyad of safeties, Harrison Smith and Anthony Harris. Both men shored up the defense frequently when Rhodes and Waynes underperformed.
Ergo, the young pass-defenders — Mike Hughes, Jeff Gladney, Holton Hill, Cameron Dantzler, Kris Boyd, Harrison Hand, and Mark Fields — are not required to be worldbeaters. But they must be competent.
Adaptability to crazy world events
This one oversteps the realm of football. For the foreseeable future, the Vikings will not have fans at U.S. Bank Stadium, and this casts home-field advantage into jeopardy. No one knows what home-field advantage will feel like, if there will be one at all, or if the advantage chugs along without missing a beat. In the last five years, Minnesota is the NFL’s third-best team at home and eighth-best team on the road. Contrary to popular belief, the Vikings are not doomed if home-field advantage dissipates. However, the team is extremely successful at U.S. Bank Stadium. They’re elite at home and damn good on the road. The win-loss records don’t lie.
Not to be considered an afterthought, there is also the element of losing players for two to three weeks at a time. If Vikings players contract COVID-19, they will be disqualified from active team activities for at least two weeks. It’s the plight of every sports team and seemingly each American, if not human, everywhere right now. How long does it take to recover? What are the lingering side effects? These are the questions that anyone beset by the virus encounters.
From a football standpoint, it will be a matter of which teams overcome adversity more efficiently.
Dalvin Cook’s health
This can be applied to COVID-19 or “normal” gridiron injuries. Last season, tailback Dalvin Cook accounted for 29 percent of all the Vikings offensive yards from scrimmage. Consequently, the Vikings had their best offensive year via points scored since 2009. Naysayers can obfuscate this reality ad nauseam, but Dalvin Cook was the quintessence of Minnesota’s offense in 2019. When the speculation circulates that other halfbacks on the roster could substitute for Cook interchangeably, this is merely a theory. It’s hearsay. Folks offering this opinion hope Alexander Mattison or Mike Boone would do the trick. There is no element of hope with a healthy Dalvin Cook. He is a bonafide asset with accountable performance within the Vikings offense.
The prerequisite to Cook’s prosperity within Minnesota’s offense is that he avoids injury. During his rookie campaign, he missed 14 total games with a torn ACL. The next season he missed five games. Last year was better, though. Cook played in 14 of 18 total games.
His ability to stay healthy in 2020 will be paramount to the Vikings’ hopes of grandeur.
The emergence of a productive WR2 and WR3
For the WR2 spot of the depth chart, the 2020 training camp is the first one since 2016 in which the identity of the team’s second wide receiver is shrouded in mystery. Until this spring, Stefon Diggs (or Adam Thielen, depending on your perspective) was the undisputed WR2. Now, it’s unclear. The position battle could be realistically won by rookie Justin Jefferson or second-year pass-catcher Bisi Johnson. But, hey, that’s why we have a training camp (and usually preseason games).
Whoever is the choice, that man must dynamically complement wideout Adam Thielen. The nominee probably won’t be as prolific as Stefon Diggs, but that is to be expected when a superstar is traded.
Once the WR2 spot is locked up, the WR3 battle is crucial, as well. For too long, Minnesota has settled for below-average production from their third wide receiver. When former Viking Laquon Treadwell was selected in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft, he was supposed to blossom into prominence. Treadwell did not do that, and he now plays for the Atlanta Falcons.
Whichever man loses the WR2 battle and occupies the WR3 position must make an impact, instead of simply existing on the field. The team needs more than just a man that blocks downfield.
Odenigbo must register at least 35 pressures
“35” is random and arbitrary. Why? That’s how many pressures Everson Griffen logged in 2019. To emotionally and productively replace Everson Griffen who bolted to Texas, Ifeadi Odenidbo needs to rise to the occasion and come close to equaling Griffen’s gallant defensive output.
It will not be easy. Everson is a four-time Pro Bowl pass-rusher. As much as fans want Odenigbo to become Griffen-esque, he must make the plays on gameday in order to do so. It’s a tall order.
However, Odenigbo did show late-season promise. He tallied seven sacks while playing only 34 percent of defensive snaps in 2019. The 26-year-old scored a touchdown in a Week 14 dismemberment of the Los Angeles Chargers in their psuedo stadium. He also came close to scoring yet another touchdown in the regular-season finale versus the Chicago Bears, but the play was called back due to penalty.
Odenigbo has the physical tools to make Griffen’s exodus feel seamless. Now, he must go to work.
2019 wild-card round Cousins has to be on full display
This is the granddaddy of them all.
Kirk Cousins struggling slightly here and there is a very human ordeal. Kirk Cousins coming up empty against the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears has to cease. In Cousins’ defense, the Packer-related struggles were a 2019 problem — not 2018. But Chicago has been a quagmire for Cousins since joining the Vikings.
In the playoff game versus the New Orleans, Cousins was dazzling down the stretch. His ability to replicate the overtime session of that game going forward will determine how far the Vikings go under his leadership. Unlike his tenure in Washington, Cousins has all of the tools in Minnesota to advance beyond the divisional round of the playoffs. This outlook will intensify if Gary Kubiak effectuates improvement with the offensive line.
Cousins’ statistical consistency since 2015 has demonstrated his sustainability. He can escort a team to an 8-8 record ostensibly by himself. The roster — and culture — in Washington was questionable, to put it politely. With the Vikings, Cousins has a playmaking maven in Dalvin Cook, a more-than-reliable wideout in Adam Thielen, and a defense behind him.
The time is now for the Minnesota Vikings, and Kirk Cousins must channel for replication the theatrics he choreographed in New Orleans last January.