Bill Belichick Offers Some Wisdom about The Preseason
K. Joudry
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The Vikings finished their preseason with an uninspiring 0-3 record. At times, fans saw some great things. The special teams, for the most part, were a success. Several young players – Lewis Cine, Akayleb Evans, Brian Asamoah, and Ty Chandler (among others) – offered a lot of hope for how this year’s group of rookies can contribute.
Even still, some may be discouraged about the overall performance.
If that’s the case, then I’ll point to some wisdom from Bill Belichick, arguably the greatest football coach of all time. He expressed his opinion that preseason isn’t as much about a team’s overall record. Instead, it’s more about evaluating players and team preparation.
Take a look at what he had to say (with a shout out to PFT):
Preseason is about developing your team for the season and evaluating the players. […] Preseason is about evaluating the players that you do play, and taking the practice time — in joint practices or whatever time you have — to prepare your team for the regular season.
He goes on: “I don’t think preseason games are a real big indicator of what the team is or isn’t.”
Indeed, I imagine the priority for Kevin O’Connell, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, and their staffs was evaluate the players. It’s from the strong understanding of the individuals that the leadership can (hopefully) fit all the players together within a scheme that benefits the team as a whole.
The Vikings preseason didn’t go perfectly. There were plenty of moments where Minnesota could have been better, as the 0-3 record suggests.
Nevertheless, it’s more important that the coaching staff was able to evaluate the players. We’ve yet to see that the Vikings will look like once O’Connell has his entire starting roster out there. Let’s wait to see how they perform before getting too high or too low about the Vikings.
Minnesota’s first game will take place on September 11. Green Bay will be coming to U.S. Bank Stadium. If O’Connell leads Minnesota to a 1-0 record, the concerns about the preseason will be easy to forget.
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