5 most disappointing Vikings in the Week 1 loss to the Bengals

Bashaud Breeland – CB

The Vikings invested heavily in their defense this offseason and one move they made happened in June with the signing of cornerback Bashaud Breeland. Breeland was seen as someone who could compete to start opposite Patrick Peterson and in time he proved that was the case, beating out Cameron Dantzler, Kris Boyd, and Harrison Hand for the job.

Breeland’s veteran leadership and experience were seen as a major upgrade to a cornerback corps that was lacking in both of those in 2020. He supposedly looked very good in camp, and expectations were high for him to do well in Mike Zimmer’s system. He may still prove to be a solid addition but his debut in Purple didn’t go very well.

Breeland got absolutely scorched by rookie Ja’Marr Chase late in the first half of the game. He basically let the youngster run by him and couldn’t catch up. To make matters worse he appeared to get injured on the play laying on the turf long after Chase was done celebrating.

Breeland was also having issues tackling and later blew another coverage and somehow got hurt again. Maybe Breeland was hurt or maybe he just acts this way when he gets burnt, but he’s got nowhere to go but up after his first game with the Vikings.