ForJimmy

Where did you read that as anyone not wanting a good QB? The wait and see people typically won’t want him if he continues to struggle. Last year was just tough to grade anyone on offense. If he stinks it up he will lead us to the pick to replace him. This year should be better because we actually have a first to fall back on if we completely suck again.

Yeah all the Bryce “stans” went into hiding. I think we have people on here who want them to eat crow but since they are gone, they will lump any neutral position into that category in order to gloat. I’ve seen very few claim Bryce is the answer lately. There are some that want to see how he looks in better circumstances before writing him off. There are some that are extremely skeptical (probably the largest group) and there are a select few that either don’t like him or just really want their original opinion validated at all cost.

It can buy the staff some time telling the public they are better than they are sure. I don’t think anyone is falling for that again. No one is expecting us to be great this time. My point is it had little actual effect on our season. It just let them raise expectations a little longer, but I don’t see this staff doing that. DC isn’t talking about hiding playbooks. He is talking about ironing out the depth chart and trying to keep players healthy. He is basically saying our depth isn’t great, he wants to figure it out and we could really be screwed if a couple of starters get hurt.

“We approached preseason last year like it didn't matter and we had it all figured out. That ended up in us handing the #1 overall pick to Chicago to get DJ Moore a QB.” That is the quote I was originally responding to. It’s in this thread and they aren’t the only person to say something like this. My point is a lot more went into us sucking that out preseason approach. Hence why we sucked just as bad in week 18 as week 1. The reps could have helped sure, but we got plenty of regular season reps with very little progress. It was just a poo show.

I mean yeah we probably aren’t going to be great this year. We can give the starters more reps in the preseason, but we have a talent issue compared to most other rosters and that can’t really change in the immediate future.

Hey it worked for the Bucs with Baker…

We know now that last year was a poo show. That has happened. Playing more starters in the preseason would not have changed that. So when people say look at last year it’s a moot point. Preseason didn’t cause us to suck. We sucked all year long with 17 games worth of live regular season reps.

We weren’t any more prepared week 18 than we were week 1. Last year was a poo show preseason or not.

Exactly. Us playing more starters wouldn’t have made us better either. That would imply we would get better as the season progressed which was not the case.

I hear what you are saying, but what if I told you preseason had little to do with that. It was more on our staff, OL injuries/terrible play, no weapons, bad QB play, play callers changing back and forth, a toxic environment with members of the staff going behind each others backs, a HC getting fired during the season, plus MANY other factors than not playing in preseason. Playing our starters during preseason wouldn't have magically made us a better team last year. We were a complete poo show regardless. It's why we looked as bad in week 17 and 18 as we did in week 1. The reps didn't do much...

@rippadonnis getting a Vikings jersey soon! https://x.com/Vikings/status/1824539528272679135

More importantly https://x.com/Vikings/status/1824539528272679135

Have you seen a doctor?

I hope not. I hope IF they start playing well, most fans return to their excited phase and start cheering for the team. I'm sure there will be one or two that don't but that's always going to be the case. I feel like winning cures a lot of this... I do agree with it being boring and easy to predict failure for a player. Most players will struggle in the NFL and predicting it isn't really that impressive.

He is playing Plummer the whole time and you WILL like it!

No doubt last week was awful. Joint practices also throw a curve ball in there.

Yeah the more I think about it, that pick may not have been the blunder it was made out to be. It's such an important position. If Cousins gets hurt their season isn't over. They could trade Cousins in year 2/3 if Penix looks like the real deal. Penix's age and injury history was the main concern for me vs them taking a QB that early.

This take implies that without Bryce at QB, plus our first and 2nd from 2023, plus DJ Moore, that we would still finish last in order to get Caleb. It's why hindsight like this doesn't really work. Regardless at the end of the day we can't change the trade, just hope it works out or move on next year.

I feel like we really aren't that far off in our thoughts on this. I think DC is trying to build his roster depth and work towards long term stability vs the extra reps for this season. That plus trying to limit injuries. I don't know if I 100% agree, but I understand it.

When Williams gets back that DL is going to be scary.

I’ve had debates with several people on here about this. Both ways have seen success. None of these past debates have been remotely personal or turned to putting one side in a corner vs the other. There are ways to debate without it turning into that. If we play our starters I’d be fine with it. If we don’t I’m also fine with it. Again I don’t think having Bryce take more snaps in preseason last year changes the results. The last two games were worse than the first one. The reps weren’t the problem. It was just about everything else. Wait and see mode is more than fair. I’m just saying we are probably going to be not that great regardless. The debate we were making earlier is both ways have seen success as the previous coaches we mentioned have shown. So by that both ways can be successful. That’s all. I promise I’m not trying to flex over a practice just like I’m not getting all doom and gloom over one or a preseason game.

You response about listening to Reid as in doing what he is doing not on point as to what the other person was saying. It's not condescending to say so. Then you go to to imply there we are thumping our chests? Stop trying to put people with different views than yours in a corner. No one is thumping their chests or thinking we are going to be great. Some people just don't think playing starters a few series in preseason is going to have much of an impact on our season. I've already stated 6 wins would be a great year. Going 3-0 or 0-3 in preseason doesn't really change how I think we will play this year. Again no one is comparing our coach to McVay or Siranni. That's you trying to position people that think differently than you in a certain way again. People are saying that their way appears to work as Reid's way does (who you implied we should be like, which is a form of comparison). According to this argument we should not do what Reid is doing because we shouldn't be comparing ourselves to him as has been so much more successful.

There are more than not. However there has been success with both. Plus we have teams playing starters at different times. It’s not like the old 4 game schedule where almost all teams did it the same way. How would we feel if Bryce plays a lot of preseason and goes on IR? We might be rolling into the following year without any more answers and be in the same situation. Injuries affect us more than most teams as well because we have little to no depth at most positions. I definitely see both sides with our current situation. This debate will just keep going in circles because both sides have valid points.

Sam can be fine as long as he plays within the structure of the play. He never needs to go off script. If a play breaks down just tell him to throw it away. Baker is a solid QB IMO. Give him some playmakers and he will get them the ball and have the offense running well.

You are missing the point. You can have success either way. McVay just won without doing it and he did it early in his career. It took Reid a while to get his first one. So by this logic (which I don’t agree with) if you do it Reid’s way you start winning Super Bowls after decades of being a head coach vs a couple years. The point is you can’t mimic one coach 100% and expect the same results. The logic is just flawed. Different situations for different teams.