“it’s been ugly in Minnesota” is the understatement of the decade.
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Flores probably kept KOCs job for him. Without that defense the Vikings might have won 3 games this year.
2 against the Lions 
who’s the other one? 
I was hoping he’d be around forever
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Wait im not
But Joey wasn’t a Mooch problem…,he was a Mornhinweg problem. I remember Marty talking with Stoney and Wojo back in 2004 an he said the day Joey was drafted he knew his days were numbered. The look on Millens’s face was because he was THE ONLY ONE who wanted Joey, But you are correct that Mooch hated Joey!
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Giant ego in his first draft when espn was drooling all over his fancy background as a Wall Street commodity trader with data-driven, scientific concepts. “He views the NFL draft not just as a talent acquisition event, but as a market to exploit using probabilities, variance management, and, at times, unconventional trading strategies.” Yeah- unconventional like getting fleeced by the Lions and promptly blowing all the picks you made in your inaugural draft.
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You do realize this statement is made to fans who have been die hards for over 50 years? Sign me up MF’er,
Signed,
“Any Lion die hard from 1970 -2020”
Playoffs, ONLY 6 times in in 16 years??
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Yeah….like….the Lions went 67 years winning only ONE PLAYOFF GAME…. 
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I mean objectively Kwesi was a shit drafter. Brian Flores and whoever is the NFL player personnel guy saved them from being woof. Still can’t believe Flores doesn’t have a HC gig. If you ask me, he’s been blackballed for his lawsuits.
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I bet Flores stayed because he thinks he has a good shot at being the next coach. KOC has to be on the hot seat. Do you really think Kwesi went rogue and decided to draft JJ and let Sam walk after his best year as a starter? I have no doubt KOC 100% signed off on this plan if not was the mastermind behind it. He hand picked JJ. No coach is gonna be ok with letting a player walk to knowingly replace him with a lesser player. Especially when that player is a QB and that position can literally make or break a coaches job status and career. JJ was the starter over Sam before JJ got hurt. Do you think kwesi told KOC to start him?
This has to be about more than just the sam/jj decision.
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Well, plus he never drafted one pro bowl player in 4 years.
Well, good for the Lions. Vikings in turmoil without a QB!
I don’t think much has changed in recent history because before the NIL teams were still doing it but it just wasn’t legal. 30+ years ago there were prospects at small schools everywhere. In recent history I see the talent is being more spread out among the big 5 schools. Alabama, Georgia, and OSU are not hoarding all the talent. Instead of being the 5th or 6th DE at Alabama that player now transfers to Indiana or Misouri to be a featured starting player. The ones that remain at small schools are usually filled with baggage that is unacceptable or unable to hide at the big schools. You do get a few exceptions like the DBs from Toledo who just chose to stay for coaching.
Agreed. He did make some nice free agency additions. I’ll give him that much
Guys like Van Ginkel and Greenard for example
i think so too. But the Seahawks success with Darnold was probably the proverbial straw on the camel.
There is more talent at big school but not blue blood level, for sure, I’ll give you that. But you will see less and less non-P4 or smaller guys, as they will usually transfer up.
I mean, just look at this mock from back in August (damn, Sonny Styles at 29! Wish that had happened). It’s more or less an ode to big schools. A lot of that is that players from big schools are more well known early in the process unless they popped the year before (like Tyson), but that allows them to keep their stock up through the process. See Proctor, Kadyn. It’s like ranked schools… they don’t drop as far when they lose making it easier to rise back up.
Also before the era of the transfer portal, it just wasn’t as easy for guys to transfer. None of them wanted to sit out a year. It just makes sense that more guys will be transferring up now. You think Josh Allen would have stayed at Wyoming with all the millions thrown his way? Jordan Love at Utah State after his dad died? I don’t think so personally.
There goes all of our great trades.
Kwesi was consistently willing to get fleeced.
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Florio is fiction. His stuff has zero value as far as I’m concerned.
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I think its a few factors here. First, the Vikings are absolutely crushed on cap space. A lot of that is thanks to Kwesi’s total mismanagement of the draft, then having to overpay on free agents just to field a competitive team. They threw a truckload to Jefferson because he is the face of the franchise. When your team is in terrible cap space, the first solution is to draft a QB in the first round and have 5 years of lower salary at a premium position and pray you get a good one.
So going into 2024, they were going to draft a rookie QB. You had a draft class with a ton of QB talent available, so things looked really good on that front. I don’t doubt for a second that KOC signed off on McCarthy as a raw QB with good talent, great pedigree and KOC’s job would be to coach him up and knock off the rough edges.
Anytime you draft a rookie QB, you ideally want to pair him with a vet who can start some games until the rookie is ready, and also as someone who can teach the rookie how to be a professional. The Vikings signed Darnold to be that bridge vet QB. The plan was Darnold could start until JJ was ready, or be ready to take over if there was any injury. Here’s where things take a turn. The miniscus injury happened and knocked JJ out for the year. Then, the Vikings started winning with Darnold. They have the excellent year but it ends with 2 collapses. What people don’t think about is, both of those collapses happened not because Darnold choked and sucks, but because Minnesota’s OL collapsed. Without protection, no QB is good. Darnold took a huge brunt of the heat for the Minnesota collapse.
Now’s where things get wild. For next year, the Vikings make it clear the JJ is still going to be the guy. They offered Darnold an ok contract, and did the same with Daniel Jones, but both QB’s make it clear that they feel they are starters and take deals with other teams. Darnold specifically said he didn’t want to be in a situation where he would be waiting to be replaced. Darnold has another monster year with Seattle and takes them to the SB game, and Minnesota struggles with QB issues all year. You can’t blame Minnesota, if you draft a young QB you have to use him. Minnesota would get killed if they traded JJ to another team and roll with Darnold, if Darnold has a bad season and JJ develops. The Vikings tried to stand behind their young (and cheap) QB but they definitely painted themselves into a corner.
I will say this, I think JJ’s original miniscus injury is absolutely legit and was a terrible break for him. However, I think the vast majority of JJ’s injuries this year were absolute bullshit. I think they were excuses to soft bench him. The reason I say that is because in every game JJ struggled, he was pulled due to “injury”. In every game he played decent, he finishes the game. That is way to coincidental for me. Also, after JJ supposedly hurt his ankle despite no time for any medical testing and diagnosis, JJ also stated later that during his month off, he worked heavily with KOC to work on improving his footwork. Funny huh?
Fast forward to yesterday, and Kwesi finally pays the price for his terrible drafting. Minnesota now has what looks to be the worst of the 6 QB’s taken in the 2024 draft, and don’t forget, they also threw a lot of draft capital to draft Dallas Turner who has also been a big disappointment for them.
The hilarious thing is, the Vikings basically Pittsburgh Steelers’d themselves by somehow finishing the season on a 5 game winning streak to finish 9-8 and pass us. They will be drafting later than us, when what they desperately need more of us young cheaper draft picks to offset the overpriced veterans.
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