It's the third quarter of August and the Minnesota Vikings have been adding players as if it were March. Most of the moves were forced by injuries as four players were added to the injured reserve list.
Ade Aruna, DE
Johnny Stanton, FB
Cedrick Lang, OT
Josaih Price, TE
The four boosted to six the number of players on injured reserve. That's too many for the third quarter of August. The loss of four players forced the signing of four players.
Kareem Are, G
Jacob Judd, C
Kobe McCrary, FB
Luke McNitt, FB
The Vikings now have three fullbacks on the roster. It's feeling a lot like 1970.
The Vikings also decided to end the Kai Forbath-Daniel Carlson kicking competition by releasing Forbath. That left an open spot on the roster and the Vikings went fairly big in filling that spot by signing former Cincinnati Bengals safety George Iloka. On Sunday, the Bengals surprised many in the football world when they decided that Iloka was an expensive luxury in their secondary. They did him a favor by releasing him now to give him a chance to get settled with a new team before the season. Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was the Bengals defensive coordinator when Iloka was a fifth-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. Zimmer coached Iloka for two seasons and the Bengals have run a Zimmer-like defense for three of the four years since. Coach and player are familiar with each other and Iloka is very familiar with the Vikings defense. Zimmer said on Wednesday that Iloka probably knows about 85% of the defense. Iloka put the estimate at 80%. Whatever the estimate, it's a nice place to start
The Vikings pursued Iloka when he was a free agent in 2016. The Bengals offer kept him in Cincinnati then but he's in Minnesota now. The Vikings will find a role for him. That could be as a starter opposite Harrison Smith in the back of the defense. Or it could be a specialized role in situational defenses. Andrew Sendejo has developed into a solid starter in the Vikings defense. He's smart and dependable and fans have been trying to replace him since he emerged as the starter in 2015. If the Vikings pursued Iloka in 2016, they've been trying to replace him as well. Sendejo's value as a starter is probably best seen when he's not in the lineup. There's a visible slip in the play of the defense. His dependability can't be ignored and Sendejo won't slink to the bench easily. In Iloka the Vikings are adding a very good football player. The defense got better. The team got better.
Since the turn of the century the Vikings secondary has often resembled something close to a clown show. Improving the group has been an emphasis for Zimmer and the front office. They've succeeded. In 2013, the year before Zimmer was hired, the defensive backfield looked like this:
Cornerbacks
Xavier Rhodes
A.J. Jefferson
Josh Robinson
Chris Cook
Marcus Sherels
Safeties
Harrison Smith
Robert Blanton
Jamarca Sanford
Andrew Sendejo
Mistral Raymond
At least they could boast talented potential in Rhodes and Smith. Here's a projected look at the Vikings 2018 backfield:
Cornerbacks
Xavier Rhodes
Trae Waynes
Mackensie Alexander
Mike Hughes
Terence Newman
Holton Hill
Marcus Sherels
Safeties
Harrison Smith
Andrew Sendejo
George Iloka
Anthony Harris
Jayron Kearse
The improvement over the last five years has been remarkable. If undrafted rookie Holton Hill can play in games more like he's played in practices the Vikings can go six-deep at cornerback. There have been years since 2000 in which the Vikings had zero starting caliber corners. Now, they have five, and perhaps six. With the addition of Iloka, safety has become a strength as well. The first thought that many had when he was signed was that Sendejo's job as a starter was in jeopardy. If anyone's job is in jeopardy it might be the player that was drafted to be George Iloka in the Vikings defense. Jayron Kearse. Both are ridiculously sized at 6'4". They look like basketball players at the back of the defense. It's unlikely that the Vikings keep five safeties. Especially if they keep seven cornerbacks. Although Hill's performance in both preseason games might've taken him off of the roster-lock list. All that will play itself out in just over a week. No matter how it does play out the Vikings got better as a team with the addition of Iloka.
No comments:
Post a Comment