Two Players Named “Reasons to Look Forward” to 2021 Season for Vikings
Dustin Baker
|
The Minnesota Vikings don’t need a formal hype train to excite the masses for the upcoming 2021 NFL season. Although the franchise has never procured a Super Bowl victory, the Vikings are the NFL’s seventh-winningest organization in all of the land since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. So, the fans keep trudging back, seeking to finally experience February glory.
If individual players are the price for admission in terms of generating interest, well, the team has those, too. The quarterback, Kirk Cousins, is a lightning rod for criticism — some of it fair, most of it not. Cousins is the most consistent and productive passer Minnesota has hosted since Daunte Culpepper, in an abbreviated stretch, 20 years ago. Then, the defense is normally upper-echelon. Head coach Mike Zimmer was hired to foster an era returning to defensive supremacy. Up until 2020, he did just that. From 2014 to 2019, the Vikings ranked second in the NFL via points allowed. Only the New England Patriots were better defensively in those six seasons.
But then the pandemic season happened. Zimmer’s defense cliff-dived, splattering in a fourth-worst mess leaguewide from a points-allowed perspective. The 2020 defense was truly unrecognizable when compared to any other Zimmer defense from 2014 to 2019.
Onward.
General Manager Rick Spielman used the offseason to rebuild an injury-riddled defense. Spielman signed via free agency Patrick Peterson, Dalvin Tomlinson, Xavier Woods, Nick Vigil, Mackensie Alexander, and Stephen Weatherly. Then, players like Danielle Hunter, Anthony Barr, Michael Pierce (COVID opt-out), Mike Hughes, and Eric Kendricks will collectively return in 2020. The product will look and feel rejuvenated.
According to Bleacher Report, however, it’s the offense that folks should yearn — particularly Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook. Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report outlined “reasons to look forward to” the upcoming season for each NFL team. For the Vikings, it was those two men, Jefferson and Cook.
Knox even hints at the end of Kirk Cousins in Minnesota in his analysis:
“We might be looking at the last days of the Kirk Cousins era in Minnesota. The Vikings used a third-round pick on Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond, and Cousins’ contract expires after the 2022 season. However, Mond isn’t likely to supplant Cousins this season, and the Vikings should be far more interested in what they have in two of their skill-position players. In wideout Justin Jefferson and running back Dalvin Cook, Minnesota has two viable candidates for Offensive Player of the Year. Cook has been nearly unstoppable when healthy. He missed two games last season and still finished with a career-high 1,557 rushing yards, 361 receiving yards and 17 total touchdowns. Jefferson had a rookie season for the ages, catching 88 passes for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns. Only Bill Groman has had more receiving yards as a rookie. He had 1,473 for the Houston Oilers back in 1960. Randy Moss had previously held the Vikings rookie record of 1,313 yards, which he set back in 1998. There’s little reason to think that Jefferson and Cook won’t be just as good or better in 2021. As long as both remain healthy, the Vikings should remain in the playoff conversation throughout the season.“
Jefferson made NFL history as a rookie. The runner-up to Offensive Rookie of the Year recognition set an NFL rookie record for receiving yards (1,400). He also hauled in seven touchdowns for good measure. His 1,400 receiving yards thru an age-21 season is second-most all-time behind JuJu Smith-Schusters’s 1,783 receiving yards.
Theoretically, Jefferson might confront a sophomore slump, but the odds of that are low. He was a target magnet in 2020 after the Vikings got over the two-week hump of refusing to acknowledge the rookie. Those were games versus the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts — two wretched losses.
As for Cook, he is in physical prime. Spielman handed the halfback top-dollar last September to play for the franchise in the duration of his peak years.
He did not disappoint.
Posting 1,918 total yards from scrimmage, Cook scored 17 touchdowns. He spearheaded a mini-clawback of the Vikings 2020 season. The team started terribly, bumbling to a 1-5 record. Zimmer and Co. entered the bye week maligned, embattled, and wayward. Cook responded by gashing the Packers for four touchdowns in, what turned out to be, the Vikings best win of the season.
On the whole, Cook is the most productive running back in the industry behind Derrick Henry — who never misses a game or dips below 50 rushing yards for a game.
Overall, this Bleacher Report omen is a splendid one. A team that fancies itself on defense — with two offensive commodities as the reasons to get excited — indicates balance.
Minnesota travels to Cincinnati for a Week 1 date with the Bengals in 15.5 weeks.