Vikings Reportedly Won’t Use Franchise Tag on Bradford/Bridgewater/Keenum. What that Means for those 3, Cousins and 2018

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Feb 16, 2018

The largest story this off-season is and will continue to be what the Vikings will end up doing at the quarterback position. At the end of last season, the Vikings had three healthy, starting quality quarterbacks on their roster in Case Keenum, Teddy Bridgewater, and Sam Bradford. Many people, myself included, wanted the season to continue as long as possible for numerous reasons, it meant the team was winning, my sites were getting crazy amounts of hits and… We knew that this decision was looming and were worried about what was going to happen in a situation that most of us fans/writers aren’t really accustomed to. This really is an unprecedented situation for a team that has struggled to develop a good-to-great quarterback really since Fran Tarkenton retired (Dante Culpepper notwithstanding) in that not only do we have one relatively young/in their prime (non-late 30’s former star like Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb, etc.). Throw Kirk Cousins and his reported interest in the Vikings (speaking of unprecedented situations (Cousins being a free agent has been called, by people other than me, a “Once in a generation” opportunity for a team looking to acquire an elite quarterback who is in the prime of his career without spending multiple first round picks)) into the mix and you’ve got a full-fledged bonanza in terms of possibilities and Vikings fandom (and writers-sphere) essentially forming trench warfare from each side/option of/at the position.

That split in terms of opinion has created multiple theories that have been written about ad nauseum at this point, with those articles including the possibility that the Vikings may just franchise one of the QB’s and push their decision off by a year (in terms of a long-term contract for whomever they franchise). Apparently that theory is off the table, at least according to Arthur Arkash, the managing editor of PFWeekly and a writer for USA Today, who Tweeted this yesterday afternoon:

Now, that’s actually really big news assuming it’s true (It most likely is, considering the source). That means a couple things, first and most importantly that the Vikings are making their decision on the future of the position (and thus the team) this off-season and not kicking the can down the road and franchising one of the three (which most likely would’ve been either Teddy or Keenum, to see how they both play). That makes a lot of sense now that they’ve hired their offensive coordinator in John DeFilippo, who the team had said would, obviously, have a big say in what the team does in this regard and also because as you’ll see below, this may be the best free agent market for quarterbacks ever so it makes sense to either keep your guy or nab someone from free agency and lock them down. When it comes to the quarterbacks that were on the roster this year and what DeFilippo might do, Senior purplePTSD.com/VikingsTerritory.com writer Luke Braun had a good point on this week’s episode of The purpleJOURNAL Podcast in that DeFilippo has had experience coaching Sam Bradford, as the quarterback’s coach of the Eagles, and considering that they traded him to the Vikings, you’d have to think that he wouldn’t be the choice for the Vikings.

Beyond that, while a player doesn’t really have a say in franchising (and teams do it to keep a player that’s unhappy with their contract often), I also can’t imagine that they’d franchise Case Keenum. It was clear this season that the team, or at least coach Zimmer, wasn’t sold on Keenum and was basically waiting all year for the other shoe to drop. There were countless quotes from Zimmer basically subtly-knocking Keenum in one way or another, saying things like “He hasn’t lost us a game” instead of something positive or during the playoffs saying that he put Bradford on the roster over Teddy because Bradford’s the better pure passer should the Vikings get down by a lot (thus saying that he’d bench his starter who had gotten them that far). Who does that and then keeps that player (not to mention how Keenum feels about it)? Spoiler Alert: No one. The theory was that Zimmer was doing that because Keenum played better with the edge that comes from the uncertainty and general lack of respect and regardless of whether or not that’s true, it really seems to point that the team was just basically thinking that they’d ride Keenum as far as possible and then replace him after the season.

Then there’s Teddy. If you’ve followed the site at all, you’ll know that I’m not the biggest Teddy fan in the world and that I was always a Sam Bradford guy. Now, I will say that I did feel that Teddy did look like he had reached another level during the pre-season before he was injured and that I feel partially responsible for his injury because I literally wrote an article titled “I’ll Say It, Teddy is the Future” about a good half an hour before the news hit that Teddy’s leg had nearly fallen off and that players who witnessed it were vomiting and throwing their helmets on the field over at Winter Park. Teddy was obviously still developing and was working on things like his throwing motion, which to me is the largest issue that needs to be talked about when it comes to Bridgewater. We had Tommy Kramer on our previous Podcast and he mentioned, between his eighth and ninth 7 & 7 that Teddy’d never be a complete QB because his throwing motion was off and thus he couldn’t get any air under the ball. I was skewered back in 2015 for my article titled “In Defense of Mike Wallace”, which was based on the fact that there were at least eight perfect examples of Wallace burning his coverage and being wide open down the field and Teddy simply overthrowing him because he had a line drive ball. Considering how many deep passes the Vikings relied on and completed this season, that concerns me a bit as does the validation that I received when Wallace went to Baltimore (to play with a “good quarterback”) and ended up with over 1,000 yards and 70 catches. Before he was injured, I did witness Teddy working on his throwing motion at camp the year before his injury, and it appeared to be working with some great results in the pre-season games (which is what lead me to write that article in the first place) in terms of doing exactly what I was afraid he wasn’t capable of doing in hitting guys in stride down the field thanks to his newer throwing motion.

So, really, while it may look like the Vikings are putting all of their chips on a guy who is coming back from a nearly unprecedented injury, who was still developing at the time of his injury but never threw more than exactly 14 touchdowns in each of his first two seasons (against 12 and 9 interceptions in his first two seasons), as opposed to doing the same for two proven veterans, one of which had the best game of his career before his injury against the Saints (and broke the single season completion percentage record while playing behind one of the worst offensive lines in NFL history) and the other of which had 22 touchdowns against 7 interceptions in 14.5 games this past season and brought the Vikings to the NFC Championship. That seems risky and while it’s clear that Zimmer was a huge fan of Teddy’s and has said as much (while displaying palpable out of character emotion whenever talking about Teddy even before his injury) he also did select Bradford over him when it came to crunch time in the post-season. So, perhaps the fact that Mr. Arkash is right that the Vikings aren’t going to franchise any of the three, and perhaps they’re also not going to offer any of them contracts. Because, as prefaced above, the free agent market for quarterbacks this off-season could be the best ever and a lot of that has to do with the fact that Kirk Cousins is going to be available. The only question is whether or not the Vikings are as interested in Cousins as Cousins reportedly is in them. However, it looks like both Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs are interested, though, as Thielen mentioned Cousins as an option during an interview recently and Stefon Diggs did this:

The intro to this piece talked about the unprecedented opportunity that Cousins’ release from the Redskins created. In a league that is predicated on quarterback play, you never see a franchise quarterback of Cousins’ pedigree released from a team as that team gets nothing for him and typically ends up with a lesser player at the position. The fact that the Redskins didn’t just trade Cousins earlier in the season basically shows why he’s being released in the first place and that’s because the ‘Skins are one of the worst run organizations in all of professional sport. Think about it, they essentially ending up giving up a third-round pick and a player (to trade for 33-year old Brad Johnson clone, Alex Smith) instead of getting at least a first-round pick for Cousins by trading him. Not that I’m complaining, as this could mean that the Vikings could finally have an under-30 near-elite quarterback and also means that Cousins’ probably contract malaria or Lou Gehrig’s Disease as the Vikings just don’t get that lucky.

I’ve talked to multiple people who use the fact that Cousin’s is a free agent as some sort of knock against a guy who has thrown 81 TD’s against 36 interceptions his past three seasons, with an average QB rating of 97.6, 67% completions (with a season in which he was a hair under 70%) and another average of 4,400 yards over those three years. “If he’s so good why’d they let him go?” BECAUSE IT’S THE REDSKINS. I’m working on a piece that’ll address every knock against Cousins, but another common “point” is that Cousins’ huge year (2016), in which he was 83 yards from cracking the 5,000 yard mark, threw 25 touchdowns against 12 interceptions and had 67% completions and had a QB rating of 97.2, was all just the result of the fact that he was playing with great receivers (in DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon and Jamison Crowder) and not really because he’s like Drew Brees or the other 5k passers.

Now, let’s say that that’s true. That Cousins doesn’t elevate the play of those around him but rather is a product of their talent (despite the above stats). Who cares?!? Who cares HOW he gets to 5,000 yards and a 2:1 touchdown to interception ratio when surrounded by talented players? The only reason you would care would be if you didn’t have similar or better players for him to throw to. The funny thing is… The Vikings do, and are objectively way more stacked on offense than the 2016 Redskins were. Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs, Jarius Wright/Michael Floyd/Laquon Treadwell, Kyle Rudolph, Dalvin Cook and Latavius Murray are > DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon, Jamison Crowder, Jordan Reed, Matt Jones and Chris Thompson. Now, adding Cousins would be expensive, but really would only be about $10 million more than franchising Keenum, Bridgewater or Bradford. That’s assuming that Cousins hit every incentive and get every penny of the theoretical contract everyong is using as another knock, as opposed to the guaranteed amount (as people think he’ll end up with a five-year, $150 million dollar ($100 million guaranteed) deal based on what Jimmy Garappolo got in San Francisco). That’d mean that the Vikings would end up losing one of the following; Anthony Barr, Danielle Hunter, Eric Kendricks or Diggs. Hunter is the obvious choice there and considering where they found him in the draft I’m confident Zimmer/Spielman will be able to find someone in the draft to fill that gap.

That means for you’re asking if you’d essentially rather have Danielle Hunter or Kirk Cousins on a team that’s done an amazing job finding defensive talent in the draft and is otherwise at the point where they’re just adding talent on top of talent in terms of the draft or free agency (the offensive line being the only area that needs improvement as opposed to refinement or depth) and are thus just a great quarterback away from being even better than they were last year. That sounds, rationally, like the right move to make and considering that the Eagles are young and deep and also getting back their probably MVP (had he not tore his ACL) in Carson Wentz, the Packers will have Aaron Rodgers, the Cowboys will have Ezekiel Elliot and the Super Bowl won’t be played at US Bank Stadium, the Vikings need to continue to improve and one way that they could immediately and drastically improve is by… You guessed it, bringing Kirk Cousins into the fold.

I feel like this team, that clearly understands that it’s in the midst of a window of opportunity as/and they went “all-in” once for Sam Bradford already after the Bridgewater injury, may go all-in again and bring in Cousins. Cousins has reportedly stated that if all offers were the same that he’d join the Vikings, presumably because he sees what I just mentioned, a team that is really, really close to winning it’s first Super Bowl in franchise history. There’s the matter of what other teams have the same need or point of view and that also have that sort of money to spend, and also the fact that this QB market is going to be perhaps the best ever in terms of talent (with Kirk Cousins, Sam Bradford, Teddy Bridgewater, Case Keenum, Tyrod Taylor and a lot more). So, I’m also going for the spicy take that perhaps Cousins won’t get as much as people think (and/or that he might take a bit less to come play with Diggs/Thielen) because teams definitely will have a handful of other really good options and won’t be that desperate considering they can still get good quarterback play from multiple different options.

So. I just wrote a novel based on a Tweet from someone from USA Today. I think I just defined where we’re at in terms of the off-season and the fervor that the Vikings QB situation has created. However, I feel relatively comfortable in my assessment(s) and feel that this is going to come down to Teddy vs. Cousins. That means that you’re looking at Teddy, who is coming back from an injury that few ever have had let alone returned from and who could be one hit away from losing his career and leg. Beyond that, he also wasn’t exactly lighting the league on fire (although he did show some late-game poise and heroics and also was playing in Norv Turner’s system, to be fair). Or you’re looking at Kirk Cousins, a guy who is like Sam Bradford sans the injuries and that is a bit younger (29) and is also more mobile, yeah, that sounds terrible! He apparently has issues with fumbling and throwing interceptions when pressured, so the Vikings can address that by going all offensive lineman in the first four or five rounds of April’s draft and by bringing in Dante Culpepper to look him the eye and say “I feel your pain” while struggling to pick up a can of pop with one hand. I strongly feel that while the defense is great, they were outclassed by the Eagles in terms of scheme and in terms of play (it was a mix of Doug Pederson just destroying Zimmer in terms of play calling and also the Vikings players looking lost out there, or really just choking) and so what better move to make than trying to put an offense on the field that is as dominant as the defense was before the last six quarters of the season? Not to mention the fact that Cousins is super familiar with the Eagles and put up 303 yards, 3 touchdowns (to 1 interception), an 110 QB rating and 75 percent completions on 40 attempts in his last game against Philadelphia.

That or I’m just reading WAAAAAY too much into this Tweet.

It’s a toss up and one that I’d prefer was tossed by Cousins.

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