The Daily Norseman Mailbag, March 25th, 2021

Good Morning!

This is posting a day later than I said, I put a lame excuse in the original article but I actually forgot what day of the week it was. (lawn did need some work though).

No questions via Twitter this week.

For salary cap questions I’ll continue using overthecap.com so I’m consistent with the numbers I throw out there.

Any trades involving draft picks I’m using the updated NFL Trade Value Chart developed by Rich Hill available at https://www.drafttek.com/NFL-Trade-Value-Chart-Rich-Hill.asp

For evaluating or looking up draft prospects my go to is thedraftnetwork.com

If I can’t come up with what I think is a legitimate answer, I’ll ask someone who I think can provide one.

Enough from me, let’s see what was on everyone’s mind.

Viking Fan pondered via email:

What are the details concerning the conditional 5th round pick given up and received for Yannick Ngakoue? We gave up one to get him and received one to send him on to Baltimore. As you know, he is no longer with the Ravens.

I found conflicting information, so I asked an expert: Our own Christopher Gates provided the answer “the Vikings will receive a 2021 third-round pick and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2022.” For some reason I had it stuck in my head that it was a 5th round pick this year, it’s next year.

Xrapwhiz43 asked:

I must have missed something. What happened to the OBJ rumors?

The OBJ trade rumors were a hot topic here (and other teams SB Nation sites) that just vanished all of a sudden. I don’t know if the Ravens were asking for too much in return, supposedly Brown Jr. wants a new contract as part of a trade deal, so that’s a potential holdup, or he could be traded on draft day. When that news came out a couple of weeks ago I thought he’d get traded quickly, however not the case. I saw some proposals here about the Vikings and Ravens exchanging first round picks, the Vikings throwing in a 3rd for Brown Jr.

Byakee pondered:

I don’t really know if I have a question or not, perhaps it’s more of a statement. Since trading Reiff, it seems undeniable that our O-line is demonstrably worse right now than it was last year. Throwing out names like Udoh or Samia to take up that left guard spot makes no sense at all since neither was able to supplant the horribad Dozier last season; what makes anyone think that now, finally, one of those two guys will step up and get the job done? Compounding misery by adding Rashod Hill to the LT position, I fail to see how ANY of the moves thus far in FA directly affect the single weakest link on this team. I don’t dislike Hill, in fact, I kinda like him. But not as a starter. The guy is a backup swing tackle. The second he’s our designated starter, we’re asking for trouble.

Even moving players around solves nothing. Sure, try O’Neil at LT, then you got a hole at RT. It’s freaking Whack-a-Mole. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m complaining. And I’m doing so because most here know the OL is the weak link on this team and Rick is doing F-all to fix it.

So, I suppose my question is: What’s your whiskey/bourbon of choice?

Whiskey/bourbon aren’t really my thing, (I drink red wine and the occasional beer) so I asked an expert. GA Skol highly recommends Lagavulin 16.

skolifer asked:

I have a question about the image up top: Is that the “AT&T girl” on the right, sorting mail in Russia?

The caption that came with that picture said “Russian Post’s logistics center in Novosibirsk Region” that’s all I know about it.

28for20 pondered:

What is the over/under on how many female Puker fans would be a better Gourd than Dozier?

Yes.

tankCommanderRyck asked:

Can you make a prediction if the Vikings will draft a guord that actually can play guard?

Free agency has been a bust for the interior line so far. I liked the Tomlinson signing and was okay with Patrick Peterson (more on that later) but I was really hoping the Vikings would take a run at a couple of guys in free agency. At this point it’s either going to be the scrapheap veteran signing or a rookie. Blah.

tankCommanderRyck had a bonus question:

Optional bonus question... from years past I recall this Oracle gif dude or dudette. Question, do you know who the Oracle Gif is and can you or can you not reveal who the real OG is? Could Carl Gerbschmidt be the OG?

I vaguely remember the Gif Oracle from my lurking years of 2013 and 2014. I did a quick google search and sent an email to Jon Bois, (he’s an Editor at SB Nation) here’s his reply:

hey Rob! good to hear from you.

the GIF Oracle was from such a long time ago that i can’t remember exactly who coded it (i think it was multiple people), but it was a bot. i remember i had a spreadsheet the bot pulled from where i could load up a library of GIFs it could pull from based on a specific command, like “failure” or “disaster” or “astros,” that kind of thing. man that thing was fun. some readers really didn’t like it and thought it was annoying, which i definitely understand, but in some ways it was a few years ahead of its time.

tl;dr-the Gif Oracle was a bot.

OldTwinsFanPA pondered:

So, what do the Vikings do if one of the top 4 or 5 QBs (Lawrence, Fields, Wilson, Lance, Jones) fall through to #14?

If one of the top tier QB’s falls to the Vikings draft slot Rick’s phone is going to blow up. He’ll be able to trade the 14th pick of the draft to a QB needy team for a haul of picks. Meanwhile, I’ll be screaming at my TV for him to pick the QB.

VeerRightonTwoReadyBreak asked:

Does Rick have enough to move up and draft a qb?

Draft leverage or cojones? He’s got the draft leverage, although it will probably take next year’s first round pick, this year’s first and two thirds to get into the top five picks. I’d target the Eagles as a potential trade partner as they have their QBOTF. As much as I want him to move up for a rookie QB, I don’t see it happening.

Blake Donlon pondered:

My question: Peterson at safety? There’s been a lot of speculation over it and I’m curious on your take. If not, how do we address that need? Draft one? Or perhaps move an incumbent corner to Safety? I know what I’d go with but I’m also young and (apparently) naive.

I actually posed this question to Matthew Coller last week (or the week before) in his mailbag segment. He said everything he was hearing from Winter Park indicated the Vikings were going to play him at corner. Signing a quy to a one year contract for 9M doesn’t make sense unless he plays a premium position, which CB is....although if Peterson plays well the Vkings could sign him to a two to three year contract next offseason.

The Vikings have 9M (or so) cap space, a veteran like Tre Boston or Malik Hooker are still available, I’d anticipate one of the available free agents will get signed to a one year deal.

The guy I thought the Vikings should have signed was Keanu Neal, he played safety for the Falcons last year and signed a one year deal with the Cowboys for 5M.

SkollVikings69 asked:

Any mid round DL you like in the draft? Milton Williams from Louisiana tech had a great proday and I think he could be a good pass rush addition to our line. Are you on team trade back? Or should we just draft the best O-line available at 14. Guards do matter.

Here’s some IDL I like that should go late day two or early day three of the draft.
Jay Tufele USC
Marvin Wilson Florida State
Alim McNeill NC State

For the number 14 pick, I’d really like the Vikings to trade up for a QB, but wish in one hand, I forget the rest. There should be some very good players available in the middle of the first round when the Vikings are on the clock, they don’t have to trade back to try and recoup that squandered 2nd round pick, Rick has more than enough draft picks to move back up into the 2nd round. Guards matter, but I don’t think the Vikings should draft a guard in the first round this year.

HefnerGOAT pondered:

Hypothetically only, if Kurt Cousins were to have his best season in 2021, lead the Vikings to division title and make the NFC Championship game...would you be in favor of extending his contract to get his cap hit lowered and he plays here another 2-3 years?

No. Veteran QB’s are sucking up a disproportionate amount of the cap, I’d say “thank you” to Kirk and wish him well with his new team when his current contract expires. I want the Vikings to shoot their shot with a rookie QB.

Benjaman asked:

Hey Rob, the Vikings current starting Oline would include Rashod Hill at tackle and Dru Samia at guard, that’s good right? Seriously tho, according to Spotrac they’ve got a little over 3 mil in space left, will gain 7.9 mil in space June 2nd from the Rudolph release but they’ll only realize around .5 mil in savings as Spotrac estimates the Vikings rookie class will cost 7.3 mil against the cap. Does all of this mean the oline is going to get “fixed” through the draft or do you think Rick kicks more cans down the road to shake more cap space so he can sign a guard? Based on Rick’s performance drafting oline as GM I have zero confidence the line gets addressed competently, do you?

TL;DR - Vikes sign olinemen or draft them?

I saw on Twitter yesterday that the Vikings contacted Nick Easton, or more likely his agent, but the money the Vikings were offering was too low. Easton is visiting the Texans, unless Rick likes Lamp it’s probably going to be the draft a guy and hope he doesn’t suck route.

MidwinterViking pondered:

If the Vikings do nothing else in Free Agency, and add 1 O-Line Starter in the draft how would you rank these offensive line combinations from best to worse:

1) The “2020 Baseline” Option: Reiff-Dozier-Bradburry-Cleveland-O’Niell

2) The “Cleveland at LT” Option: Cleveland-Samia-Bradbury-[Rookie]-O’Niell

3) The “O’Niell to LT” Option: O’Niell-[Rookie]-Bradbury-Cleveland-Udoh/Hill

4) The “I guess Hill is starting” Option: Hill-[Rookie]-Bradbury-Cleveland-O’Niell

5) The “Rookie LT” Option: [Rookie]-Samia-Bradbury-Cleveland-O’Niell

Option 1 then 4..............after that any lineup with Samia as a starter makes me sad.

I’d like the line to look: Cleveland-vet/rookie-Bradburry-vet/rookie-O’Neill, but that won’t happen this year.

GASkol asked:

Does Rick hate winning?

Yes. What was the quote that was attributed to Norv Turner about Rick? “He does enough right to keep his job.” Rick’s biggest failure was the constant wiff at QB, the league is built around franchise QB’s, the Vikings don’t have one on the roster.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to pose questions either via email or in the mailbag post. I’ll solicit for questions for the next mailbag on Monday the 5th of April and post the mailbag on Wednesday the 7th of April Tuesday for your excellent questions and my mediocre answers.

Skol!