Jared Allen, We Got'em
Thursday, April 24, 2008
I wrote this last night but for some reason didn't ever post it...
Edwards Williams Williams Allen
Leber Henderson Greenway
Winfield Sharper Williams Griffin
The Vikings should be very very good on defense next season. Here are the Vikings defensive line ratings (from FO of coarse) the last two seasons:
2007: 2nd best at stopping the run, 28th best pass rush
2006: best at stopping the run, 31st best pass rush
The thing is, before the addition of Allen the Vikings probably already had a better pair of (healthy) pass rushing ends going into 2008 than they've had the past few seasons. Adding an elite pass rusher who is also very strong against the run (something Edwards and Robison might struggle with) is huge, even more so because they were so lacking in depth at DE before this trade.
Allen is worth the draft picks. The one thing I am certain that the Vikings are excellent at is managing the cap, so I'm not really worried about the contract either. This is definitely a win-now gamble, but it looks like a good one. The Vikings key pieces on both sides of the ball (with the possible exceptions of TJack and Rice) are all at or past their prime. Taking a win now approach is exactly what the Vikings need to be doing. Before this trade I honestly thought the Vikings were favorites to win the division, now they may have separated themselves as one of the better teams in the NFC. Sure, that doesn't mean they are on the same level as the top AFC teams, but as we saw last year, you don't have to beat them to get to the Super Bowl and anything can happen in one game.
The Vikings biggest concern now should be whether or not McKinnie will be missing any playing time due to his little Florida "incident."
Also, congrats to the Cowboys for making a great low risk high reward trade this week. Jones' skills as a return man are certainly worth a 4th round pick... not to mention that he is probably a top5 CB. The BS ESPN spouts about locker room cancers etc. doesn't mean much when it comes to game time. The Cowboys know that. They won 3 Super Bowls in the 90's despite being a complete mess off the field.
Posted bySL__72 at 12:41 PM
Labels: Dallas Cowboys, Jared Allen, Minnesota Vikings, Pacman Jones