Which position groups for the Minnesota Vikings received a passing grade after the 2020 NFL season?
2020 was a disappointing season for the Minnesota Vikings. Coming off a year that saw them win a playoff game against the New Orleans Saints, the purple and gold were only able to muster seven wins during their most recent campaign, and this left them on the outside of the postseason.
There were a lot of highs and lows for the Vikings during the 2020 season. Some moments were absolutely amazing and ended up in the team’s record books while others left fans with their heads hanging in shame wondering how this team had fallen from grace so badly.
Picking apart the problems for Minnesota is a bit tricky. Some members of their roster played at high levels while some of their units, as a whole, struggled with the Vikings’ extremely tough schedule that featured elite competition around every corner.
Let’s take a look at each positional unit for the 2020 Vikings, talk about some of the highs and lows for each group, and assign a grade for their efforts during the year.
Quarterbacks
The Vikings rolled the dice again in 2020 by having Sean Mannion as their No. 2 quarterback behind Kirk Cousins. The purple and gold got lucky once again though and Mannion didn’t have to take a snap at all during the 2020 season as Cousins was the only signal-caller to attempt a pass for the team.
Cousins put together a great season statistically. He ended up throwing for 4,265 yards and 35 touchdowns to go with 13 interceptions while also adding 156 rushing and one touchdown on 32 carries.
Cousins’ touchdown to interception ratio of 2.69 from this past season is very impressive. It is even more impressive when one considers that he was sacked 39 times and pressured at an extremely high rate, but he was still able to complete 67.6 percent of his passes behind Minnesota’s extremely shaky offensive line.
Cousins did get some help from a group of pass-catchers in 2020 that included potential Offensive Rookie of the Year Justin Jefferson and two-time Pro Bowl receiver Adam Thielen. The quarterback’s relationship with these two players was exceptionally strong during the 2020 campaign.
The biggest negative for Cousins this year was his ball security. The Vikings quarterback fumbled the ball nine times in 2020, which is a sad trend considering he’s had nine or more fumbles during each of his previous seasons since he became the Washington Football Team’s starting signal-caller back in 2015.
Cousins’ performance during the 2020 season was very good, but it could have been better. There were still times when he made bad decisions, held on to the ball far too often, or forced things he shouldn’t have.
But, as a whole, having Cousins make a few errors here and there is much better than anything that could have happened with Mannion on the football field.
2020 Grade: B
Running Backs
Dalvin Cook is the headliner of the Vikings running back group. He was the featured back when available, missing only two games this past season, and posting some excellent numbers in his fourth year as a pro.
Cook finished the 2020 season with the second-most rushing yards in the NFL, accumulating 1,557 yards on the ground to go with 16 touchdowns. The running back wasn’t only effective on the ground though, as he caught 44 passes for 361 yards and one touchdown.
The final yardage total for Cook is quite impressive, with him gaining 1,918 yards from scrimmage and scoring 17 touchdowns while showcasing his elusiveness, speed, and ability to pick up yards after contact.
Behind him, Alexander Mattison played a great role by picking up 4.5 yards per carry on 96 rushing attempts. Alexander proved himself to be capable of stepping in for Cook when needed during the 2020 season. Plus, Mike Boone looked stronger than ever and Ameer Abdullah was a shifty pass catcher out of the backfield.
As for fullbacks, C.J. Ham was good as a lead blocker and he was a great option in the passing game when defenses took away the mid-to-long range passes. He was also a sneaky option to run the ball out of the backfield.
2020 Grade: A-
Wide Receivers
Losing Stefon Diggs and having to rely on Adam Thielen, a rookie, and a group of supporting receivers seemed like a steep task for the Vikings in 2020. Diggs moved on to play for the Buffalo Bills this season, where he led the NFL in receiving yards. But somehow, Minnesota’s receivers also fared very well in 2020.
The Vikings replaced the man who caught the “Minneapolis Miracle” with Justin Jefferson this past season. The youngster out of LSU exceeded all expectations by breaking the league’s all-time record for receiving yards by a rookie with 1,400.
While Jefferson was racking up yardage, Thielen was catching touchdowns. The Vikings veteran receiver only had 925 yards this year, but he hauled in 14 touchdowns, good for the third-most scoring grabs in 2020.
Past Thielen and Jefferson, the receiving depth is highly questionable for Minnesota heading into the 2021 offseason.
Chad Beebe had the next most yards among Vikings receivers in 2020 with 201 followed by Bisi Johnson with 189. While their contributions were nice, if Minnesota can improve their stable of receivers during the upcoming offseason, the team’s offense could be even more explosive in 2021.
2020 Grade: A-
Tight Ends
The Vikings made the bold move to give Kyle Rudolph the NFL’s fifth-highest salary per year last offseason, linking him to the team through 2023. However, that might have to change considering what the team has been able to do recently at the position.
Rudolph was only able to play 12 games this past season. In those 12 appearances, he only averaged 27.8 yards per game, and he managed just one trip to the end zone. Considering he had a cap hit of around $8.8 million in 2020, that had to be disappointing.
In his place, Irv Smith Jr. shined. Not only did Smith show some great potential as a blocker, but he outgained Rudolph in receiving yards 365 to 334 and he had five times as many touchdowns as the veteran.
Tyler Conklin got more involved in the offense this year, grabbing 19 passes for 194 yards and a touchdown. He has given the Vikings enough reason to want to give him and Smith more playing time in 2021, which can’t be good for the future of Rudolph, who turns 32 later this year.
2020 Grade: C+
Offensive Line
First, let’s talk about the good things. Riley Reiff was by far the best player on the offensive line this year. Despite many people wanting to see the Vikings making a change at left tackle because of Reiff’s price tag, his play proved to be worth the money this past season.
Opposite Reiff was Brian O’Neill, who was solid at right tackle. With those two bookends in place, Minnesota was mostly able to contain their opponent’s pass rush from the edges while also being capable run blockers. Between the duo, they missed only one game this season.
When looking at the interior of the Vikings offensive line, it’s not nearly as pretty. Garrett Bradbury looked as though he improved a bit from his rookie season, but he didn’t get any help at all from the guards surrounding him.
Pat Elflein ended up getting released, Dru Samia became a running joke, and a rotating assortment of guards proved not to be able to get the job done. Minnesota even tried plugging offensive tackles in there with no luck.
The only thing that saved this grouping from getting a failing grade is that they were better run blockers than pass protectors. Cousins being sacked 39 times is unacceptable and improving play at guard should be among the top priorities for the Vikings this offseason.
2020 Grade: D-
Defensive Line
For how much flack the offensive line got this year, the defensive line was a million times worse. Of course, for the Vikings to be without Danielle Hunter this year was bad. But then when you add in a busted trade for Yannick Ngakoue that lasted only six weeks, it gets even worse.
More disgusting is that Ngakoue still finished the 2020 regular season as Minnesota’s leader in sacks with five. Ifeadi Odenigbo and D.J. Wonnum were the only other defensive linemen to have three or more sacks for the Vikings this year, which has to be frustrating, especially when the pressure could have really helped the team’s young secondary.
The lack of pressure was atrocious, but the complete inability to stop runs up the gut was just as atrocious. Not having Michael Pierce available after he opted out of the season was tough, but seeing the struggles of Jaleel Johnson and Shamar Stephen should cause Minnesota’s front office to evaluate whether it’s worth it or not to bring either of them back in 2021.
There are a few players who give some hope for the future of the Vikings defensive line. Hercules Mata’afa, James Lynch, and Armon Watts all showed some potential along with Wonnum to grow into an impactful role for the team.
Still, the defensive line has to be considered the most disappointing unit for Minnesota this season, as well as the worst. The Vikings can’t allow anything like this to take the field next season.
2020 Grade: F
Linebackers
The Vikings entered the 2020 NFL season with one new face among their starting linebackers. The spot previously held by Ben Gedeon was filled by Eric Wilson, who the team used their transition tag on during the offseason.
He joined a strong unit of Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks, but that fell apart as well. Barr ended up on injured reserve for a torn pectoral after just two games and Kendricks only suited up for a dozen games this season due to his own injuries.
Before their injuries, Kendricks and Barr were looking solid. However, when both went down for the season, there were some talented linebackers who stepped up for Minnesota.
Todd Davis could be a player the Vikings make sure to bring back for next season and guys like Hardy Nickerson Jr. and Troy Dye each showed some potential.
Considering the depth that Minnesota had to go through in their linebacker grouping and the excellent play of Kendricks in 2020, the linebacker group gets a solid, but not amazing, grade for the season.
2020 Grade: B
Cornerbacks
This is an extremely tough group to grade. The Vikings moved on from Xavier Rhodes, Trae Waynes, and Mackensie Alexander during the 2020 offseason to make way for a young group of defensive backs headlined by Holton Hill, Mike Hughes, and a lot of rookies or fresh faces.
Then, Minnesota cut Hill midway through the 2020 season and Hughes suffered another neck injury that makes his future seem like it could be up in the air. So the youngsters were forced to take the spotlight.
Luckily, the purple and gold seemed to hit the jackpot with Cameron Dantzler, who looks as though he could develop into a great corner in Minnesota for a number of years. Plus, first-round draft pick Jeff Gladney took some bumps, but he showed potential at times.
Harrison Hand made some flashy plays on defense and special teams while Chris Jones made some “business decisions” that made him seem like he wasn’t a team player at times.
More players filled in for the team, but the struggles in the defensive backfield continued for the Vikings no matter who was on the field which included players like Kris Boyd, Cordrea Tankersley, Mark Fields II, or whoever was elevated from the practice squad, poached from other teams, or signed off the streets.
Perspective needs to be put in place though. The absolute lack of a pass rush did no favors for the young corners as they attempted to adjust to Mike Zimmer’s defense. Considering the players available, the pass defense could have been a lot worse in 2020.
2020 Grade: C-
Safeties
Consistency at safety was nice for the Vikings in 2020. Nearly every positional grouping this past season saw changes to the starting unit, but Harrison Smith and Anthony Harris returned to take on the competition once again.
Harris took a big step backward this year compared to his previous two seasons. After being franchise tagged to stick around in 2020, odds are that his time in Minnesota is likely up since he probably won’t be tagged again and an extension seems highly unlikely.
On the other hand, Smith was the veteran presence in the secondary and a simplified defensive scheme limited his work near the line of scrimmage. Instead, playing him back in coverage led to him having 10 pass breakups and five interceptions.
Josh Metellus served as the primary backup for the Vikings’ top safety duo. Metellus showed a nose for the football in his rookie campaign, recovering two fumbles and accumulating nine tackles (eight solo). He could be a good asset for the future, but it is hard to determine if he could be taking over a starting role or not next season.
2020 Grade: B-
Special Teams
Few imagined how bad and inconsistent the Vikings’ special teams unit ended up performing during the 2020 season. Every phase of their game was disappointing, to say the least.
Dan Bailey’s reliable kicking became an issue, with the veteran kicker connecting on only 15 of his 22 field-goal tries and missing six extra points. His 68.2 percent conversion rate on field goals and 86 percent on extra points were by far the lowest of his career.
Kick and punt returns were even more dismal. K.J. Osborn flopped in his new role by only gaining 3.9 yards per punt return and 21.6 yards per kick return. In addition, coverage on kickoffs and punt returns saw a lot of missed tackles that could have improved Minnesota’s field position.
Vikings punter Britton Colquitt wasn’t terrible in 2020, but he was one of the brighter spots of the unit. He finished 22nd in the NFL in yards per punt and he had two punts blocked in Minnesota’s Week 9 game against the Detroit Lions, which was an embarrassment for the protection.
Expect the Vikings special teams unit to have a big overhaul during the 2021 offseason. New players will likely be brought in to compete for multiple roles on Minnesota’s special teams.
2020 Grade: F
Coaching Staff/Front office
The coaching staff of the Vikings was dealt with some big challenges this past offseason. Minnesota general manager Rick Spielman failed to give the team any capable interior offensive linemen, hindering a potentially amazing season Kirk Cousins could have enjoyed.
In addition, the Vikings were unprepared at cornerback, displaying a huge lack of experience and leadership at that position which became even more apparent as injuries piled up.
When left with in-game time situations, the coaching decisions were met with mixed results at best. Questionable play-calling, poor clock management, and a lack of adjustment in games all hindered the team.
Minnesota’s positional coaches and coordinators must also be on the hook for not making adjustments when needed as well as preparing for upcoming games.
Spielman had a botched trade for Yannick Ngakoue that ended up being a short rental instead of a blockbuster move to create one of the best pass rushes in the league. The mistake dropped the Vikings’ second and fifth-round draft picks to a third, impacting the talent that can be brought in at the 2021 NFL Draft.
A lack of talent on the roster, lack of preparation, and lack of proper adjustments were all key reasons for why Minnesota had a losing season. Those issues fall on the coaching staff and the front office and they must be accountable for them this season.
2020 Grade: D+
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