The Good And Not-So-Good From The 2021 Minnesota Vikings Secondary
Cole Smith
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Not many position groups struggled throughout the 2021 Minnesota Vikings season more than its secondary. With three veteran starters brought in, many expected a blend of experience and youth to improve a passing defense that ranked 25th in 2020. Instead, the unit regressed in 2021, ranking 28th. Bashaud Breeland became a punchline. Cam Dantzler began the season in Mike Zimmer’s doghouse and struggled when he saw the field. Most other players underperformed on a consistent basis. Oh, and 2020 first-round pick Jeff Gladney didn’t even make the team after a horrifying off-field incident.
Zimmer’s calling card before arriving in Minnesota was his work with defensive backs. That they didn’t pan out in his final season was a disappointing way to end a disappointing final two years for the head coach.
The Good
Ten-year veteran Harrison Smith turned in another great season. He accumulated three sacks and intercepted a pass, getting a Pro Bowl nod in the process. His 77.9 defensive grade from Pro Football Focus ranked fourth on the team out of players with at least 200 snaps, and his 81.8 coverage grade was the best on the team.
Smith had decent play next to him for most of the season. Veteran safety Xavier Woods played all 17 games, picking off three passes and forcing two fumbles. Woods graded out at seventh on the team from PFF with a grade of 66.4. But while his 87.5 run defense grade was impressive, Woods’ coverage grade was only 58.3.
And that leads us to Camryn Bynum. The fourth-round rookie from Cal made his first career start when Smith was placed on the Covid-19 list hours before Week 9’s matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. Bynum made a spectacular interception in the second quarter and added 11 tackles. He was the highest-graded player on the Vikings on the day. Bynum would start two more games on the year and was rotated into the lineup with Woods and Smith as well. In only nine games, and 211 defensive snaps, Bynum was Minnesota’s third-highest graded defender.
The Not-So-Good
The season got off to a bad start when 2020 first-rounder Jeff Gladney was involved in a horrific domestic violence incident with his girlfriend. Minnesota would release him in August.
From there, cornerbacks had a rough season. Cam Dantzler didn’t play much the first five games of the season, outside of the Week 4 game against the Cleveland Browns. By Week 8, whatever rift that had grown between him and Zimmer had to go by the wayside and Dantzler started seven games the rest of the season. He recorded one interception in Week 13 against the Lions, but then gave up the game-winning touchdown on the final play of the game.
Bashaud Breeland was a disaster from the beginning of the year. He ranked 27th out of 32 defensive players on Minnesota, consistently getting beat in coverage. Breeland didn’t ignore the noise from fans who were clearly frustrated with him, and he took to Twitter to tell them how he felt about it. Two days before the team’s Week 15 matchup with the Bears on Monday Night Football, Breeland was involved in a verbal altercation with coaches, leading to him being released.
The Vikings didn’t get much help from their other corners, either. Kris Boyd struggled in only seven games and was bullied in the season’s penultimate game at Green Bay. And Mackensie Alexander wasn’t a disaster at nickelback but didn’t make many plays on the year.
What To Expect Moving Forward
The Minnesota Vikings secondary is going to look a lot different in 2022. Woods, Alexander, and cornerback Patrick Peterson are all set to be free agents. Peterson had an okay season and could be brought back at the right price, but he shouldn’t be counted on to be a full-time starter like he was in 2021. Woods could be brought back as well if the team doesn’t believe that Bynum is capable of a full-time role. But with a new coaching staff, Woods, and maybe even Bynum, may not fit what the team wants moving forward, at least from a starting safety.
With new defensive coordinator Ed Donatell looking for more man-to-man corners, expect the Vikings to invest as heavily as financially possible at cornerback in free agency and in the draft. As of right now, Dantzler is about as close to a lock as you will find at cornerback. He has the talent to be a good player, but attitude and mental lapses have held him back in his first two seasons.
As scary as it may be to not have many players on the roster going into 2022, the future of the secondary should be intriguing in Minnesota. Donatell and head coach Kevin O’Connell can get the guys they want that fit their vision. That may mean that we see some bumps in the road in 2022 as we are bound to see plenty of fresh faces. But as we’ve seen the past two years in Minnesota, things have been rough in the secondary, anyway.
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