I Panic, the Vikes Listen/Sign WR Tavarres King to Complete Semi-Overhaul of the WR Position.
Joe Johnson
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Is it just me or is this Vikings team so different that it’s beginning to get weird? I mean I’m “only” 33 years old but in my two full decades on this planet, I really haven’t experienced a Vikings team that has done this much to alleviate the concerns that I’ve had for the team, position by position. One of the last articles that I wrote covered my concerns for depth at the wide receiver position, and that was before the Vikings parted ways with Jarius Wright. My thinking in that piece was that while the Vikings have one of the best wide receiver duos in the NFL in Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs (or Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen), they were dangerously thin beyond those two standouts and considering the fact that Diggs has missed at least two games in each season of his career (he’s missed three games in two out of his three seasons and two games last season), the thought of having a three receiver set that’d include Laquon Treadwell and Stacy Coley legitimately terrified me (even with Kirk Cousins tossing them the ball). Apparently, that terror was felt by those in power over in Eagan, as the Vikings have acquired two receivers since Jarius Wright was jettisoned to the great unknown that is free agency.
The first receiver they picked up was another Wright in former Chicago Bear and Tennessee Titan, Kendall Wright. Wright seems to be an improved over Wright, in that he’s pretty much the exact same player (at least in terms of size). However, he’s had a much more illustrious career, with his best season coming in 2013, a season in which he had 94 catches, two touchdowns, and 1,079 yards. He’s about 15 pounds heavier than Jarius and also is a much better yards after the catch producer, as well (despite the fact that he’s got two less average yards per catch than Jarius). The Vikings clearly needed a pure slot receiver and while it’s been said by some that both Diggs and Thielen could thrive in the slot (while arguing that the Vikings should go after a pure outside receiver a la Terrelle Pryor), the Vikings clearly needed help at that spot (despite the fact that Jarius only had 18 targets last season), mostly because Kirk Cousins has a tendency to spread the ball around as does new offensive coordinator John DeFilippo.
On this week’s purpleJOURNAL Podcast, fellow purplePTSD.com writer Luke Braun discussed the way that the Vikings offense was run in 2017, which really made it clear that we probably should’ve realized that the Vikings weren’t going to keep Case Keenum in 2018. While discussing Cousins in the context of spreading the ball around, Luke brought up the progressions that it appeared Cousins was going through in Washington, which reminded me of one of my main critiques of Keenum which was that he seemed to miss a wide open receiver (typically Thielen) that was down the field because he was going through his progressions too quickly, backwards or not at all. Luke mentioned that the Vikings coaches were basically treating Keenum like a rookie quarterback by limiting his ability to actually make decisions and running a pretty limited offense (at least in terms of Keenum’s options each play). It’s doubtful that they’ll do the same thing with Cousins, as you don’t spend that much money on a guy you don’t trust. So, the addition of Wright was a big move but considering his size and assumed role as the slot guy, it did feel like the Vikings were going to end up adding another receiver either through free agency or the draft to help in other areas (even though Wright has shown the ability to do that, earlier in his career).
That’s exactly what they did when they added receiver Tavarres King, the fifth-round pick who most recently played with the New York Giants. King isn’t going to be the Terrelle Pryor of this team, as he is built a lot like Stefon Diggs (both are six feet tall on the dot and are slender), however he does appear to have some decent speed (check out his obligatory highlight video from YouTube) and the general aura of Diggs, as well:
He also ran a 4.47 40-yard-dash, where as Diggs ran a 4.46. Here’s a quick comparison of their combine stats, courtesy of MockDraftable.com (probably the best football related website, ever, outside of purplePTSD.com and VikingsTerritory.com), since both receivers were drafted in the fifth round and very well could be the same person (Which could explain those missed games by Diggs (which almost perfectly matches up with the amount of games started by King in New York… OMG, they’re the same person!)).
Here’s their MockDraftable info:
King
Diggs
For fun, let’s add Thielen
This is fun, let’s add Kendall Wright:
And last and not least… MOBO!
Sorry. I just still am amazed at what a specimen Mortiz Boehringer is/was.
So, as you can see, King could end up giving opposing defenses fits as he is a poor man’s Diggs. It’s funny because, in my article about the WR3 position that I referenced above, I talked about the potential of the Vikings adding Eric Decker and what it’d be like to have a clone of Thielen on the field and how awful it’d be for opposing defensive coordinators. Now, I’m not saying that King is as good as Diggs, but he seems to have a lot of the same skills, with the difference definitely being (or at least the main one) the fact that Diggs runs some of the best routes in the entire NFL (with some of his main competition lining up directly next to him in Adam Thielen). Zimmer stated that Diggs actually speeds up during his cuts/routes and that’s something the differentiates him from most receivers in this league, especially Boehringer who was clearly thinking too much during his routes and ended up losing all of that speed/momentum that he conjured up when the ball was snapped. But, it’s good to know that King could fill in for those two to three games this season and provide the Vikings offense with some semblance of regularity. Again, Diggs is an elite receiver, King isn’t, but he’s a better band-aid at the position than the other options, especially Treadwell, who hasn’t shown the ability to produce at any level. Some people say that it’s not Treadwell’s fault (as he plays behind the best receiver duo in the league and also had a quarterback last season that really only had three options per play (Diggs, Thielen or Rudolph)), but look at what Jarius Wright did with his opportunities and the contract he received in Carolina, Treadwell didn’t take advantage of his targets (and he got more than you’d think) and will most likely get signed elsewhere when his time is done here, but on a veteran minimum deal… Not something a first rounder should get after their rookie deal expires).
So. I don’t want to sound like I’m super excited or implying that the Vikings have a neo-Three Deep situation, however, it’s nice to know that the aforementioned Thielen-Treadwell-Coley depth chart isn’t going to end up being a reality. The Vikings still do have Treadwell, but they’re not as dependent on him stepping up in his third year as they were a week ago. I had wished that the Vikes would keep Michael Floyd, as he does have the skills to be that outside/down the field receiver. However, he’s tried out for the Ravens and doesn’t appear to be coming back. He didn’t do much in 2017 but I blame that on Keenum more than anyone (not to mention his four-game suspension which basically made it impossible for him to get on the same page with… Anyone, outside of his parole officer and Kambucha tea salesman). Floyd has shown the ability to get open down the field (he’s been in the top three in terms of down the field targets in the NFL over the course of a few seasons during his time in Arizona, for example) and has the prototypical size and skillset needed to fill that position, also, so it would’ve been nice to keep him on the roster to see what Cousins could do with him.
Lastly, this means that the Vikings don’t need to spend a draft pick on a wide receiver at the end of the month, not that they won’t, just that they won’t NEED to. While I’d love for them to bring in even more blood, I do believe that they need to spend a majority of their six picks on their lines (offense and defense). Adding depth to the defensive line while attempting to also add some starters (hopefully in Billy Price) on the other side of the ball… While also adding the obligatory defensive back to quench Zimmer’s thirst for a project at the position. Considering Cousins likes to spread the ball around and now has the receivers to do so, they definitely need to shore up the main glaring weakness that the team has in the interior line and the pressure that they allowed last season (which also, according to many, is the Achilles of Cousins). Considering the fact that they’ve basically added players to each position of concern I’ve pointed out (first at the QB position and now at the WR position), I can only assume that Billy Price will be rocking a Vikings hat this time next month. Once that happens you’ll know who to thank.