Are the Minnesota Vikings the dumbest franchise in the NFL?

DeBron Lames wrote:

I got to watch the end of their season on TV yesterday. Has there ever been a franchise that made more stupid decisions? I seem to remember them in the NFC championship game last year with a stellar defense and good quarterback play.

They apparently released all their quarterbacks and signed a career .500 quarterback to a mega-contract with $84 million guaranteed. Not surprisingly, the team then goes basically .500.

The Vikings are one of the top NFL team in terms of winning seasons. I believe the

graphic I saw on that listed them around 4th place among the 32 teams.

In addition to maybe not having the greatest Offensive Line talent this year, they

also lost Tony Sparano who was one of the better OL coaches in the league.

No, they are not the dumbest. The finished 7-6-1 against a first place schedule.

Ya know it's inerResting wrote:

No, they are not the dumbest. The finished 7-6-1 against a first place schedule.

How did they get away with playing only 14 games while everyone else in the NFL played 16?

The Tax Man wrote:

they also lost Tony Sparano who was one of the better OL coaches in the league.

This can be huge. It is more important than many fans realize. The Steelers were showing rough O line play by their standards a few years ago, added Mike Munchak as OL coach and became one of the better lines in the league with the same guys. They will most likely lose him as he is mentioned as a head coach possibility for several openings. They could be headed for a downgrade in OL play just as the Vikings did when they lost Sparano.

sbeefyk2 wrote:

How about them jaguars. They released their top two WRs last offseason. Then they wondered why any QB sucks. Their WR corps is basically Letsrun posters. Honestly, we dream of scenarios in which we scrawny no talent hacks could be better WRs then the undrafted clowns they found on the street this year.

I could take you through the history of the team, but in a span of 10 years they had 9 top 5 draft picks. All of those players were no longer with the team 3 years later. If I named them you’d say “who’s that” to every name. It’s truly hilarious. One year they took a 6’6 QB top 5 and made him a WR. He was terrible.

In terms of dumbness, overall futility, given that the idea of the NFL is to win a championship, the teams that are truly pathetic:

Detroit Lions/Kansas City Chiefs

These two teams are nearly identical, all things considered.

They were 8-7-1. Their 7 losses included 5 losses to division winners (Pats, Rams, Saints, Bears x2), and playoff team Seattle. The 3 quarterbacks they had last year did not perform well this year with their new teams (Bridgewater did not play much this year, to be fair). Moving on was not a bad plan. The problem is, it's about impossible to get a good QB in free agency. They got the best available QB in 2018 free agent market. Yes, he is not great. Sometimes he is not good. But I haven't heard any solution. Shore up the O line instead of paying Cousins? Ok, well they have to pay somebody to be QB, and even Keenum is getting $18 million/year. The Vikings are 22nd out of 32 in O Line spending. If they paid Keenum $18 million, instead of Cousins $28 million, and spent that entire $10 million on the O Line, they would be 10th out of 32. So, presumably, they would have a slightly above average O Line with Case Keenum as the QB. Sounds great.

Vikings management are as dumb as posts. They had the correct formula last year -- a strong defense and a QB that while not spectacular, also didn't hurt them (or at least not much).

Instead of signing a career .500 qb who can't beat winning teams, they should have doubled down on the defense. They could have re-signed Keenum, who got "only" $25 million guaranteed (as opposed to Cousins $84 million). With what is left over, they probably could have made a strong play for Khalil Mack, and maybe some help on the o-line. They'd be incredible.

Elba wrote:

Schedules make a difference. The Bears were really not that good this year. They gained a lot of injury free games

due to that easy schedule. They do have a good running team/defense but their passing should hurt them

in the playoffs.

14 out of 16 games of your schedule are determined by what division you are in. Every team in that division plays the following:

2 games against the other 3 teams for 6 games

1 game against each team in a division in the opposite conference for 4 games

1 game against each team in a division in the same conference for 4 games

So there are only 2 games that are left to be determined by last year's schedule.

The only difference in the Bears and Vikings schedule is the Vikings played the Eagles (won) and the Saints (lost), while the Bears played the the Buccaneers (won) and the Giants (lost). So differences in schedule made no difference in the final records of the Vikings and Bears.

The answer is the Cleveland Browns. In a league where the system is set up to push everyone towards .500, they habitually end up as one of the worst teams in the league.

They weren't as terrible as usual this year, the future looks bright for them, but they will screw it up, because they are Cleveland and that's what Cleveland do.

FFF wrote:

In terms of dumbness, overall futility, given that the idea of the NFL is to win a championship, the teams that are truly pathetic:

Detroit Lions/Kansas City Chiefs

These two teams are nearly identical, all things considered.

Lol, there are 12 teams without a Super Bowl win and you name a team that has won the thing.

The team that beat them in last year's NFC Championship game didn't do well either.

The Vikings with Cousins were better than the Eagles with Wentz.

And Keenum, Bradford and Bridgewater didn't do much this year.

Cousins had 4,300 yards, 30 TD passes and 70% completion percentage.

And was healthy for all 16 games.

Yes, he choked at the end and didn't step up in games at Chi, at NE and at Seattle.

But compare him to any QB that was available after last year and he was way better than anyone of them.

People seem more mad at the money Cousins made than anything else.

He has had four straight years of starting all 16 games for his team and passing for over 4,000 yards each year.

He is similar to Matthew Stafford in stats and team record who has his own $135 M contract.

The Vikings are far from the dumbest franchise in the NFL. They're somewhere in the middle. They should've reinforced their O-Line more than splurged on a QB, but Case Keenum clearly isn't that good — albeit he is a better value than Cousins. If they can fix the O-Line and run game a bit for next year, they should be a 10-12 win team, who Cousins will likely let down when it matters but so it goes.

Star wrote:

The team that beat them in last year's NFC Championship game didn't do well either.

The Vikings with Cousins were better than the Eagles with Wentz.

And Keenum, Bradford and Bridgewater didn't do much this year.

Cousins had 4,300 yards, 30 TD passes and 70% completion percentage.

And was healthy for all 16 games.

Yes, he choked at the end and didn't step up in games at Chi, at NE and at Seattle.

But compare him to any QB that was available after last year and he was way better than anyone of them.

People seem more mad at the money Cousins made than anything else.

He has had four straight years of starting all 16 games for his team and passing for over 4,000 yards each year.

He is similar to Matthew Stafford in stats and team record who has his own $135 M contract.

"Not a ton of great cars at this dealership, so I'm just gonna go ahead & pay $86,000 for this Honda Accord."

Ever since they fired Ragnar they have been pathetic excuse for a team. I loved that dude rolling out the tunnel on his badass Harley. He had a thing for getting the crowd totally fired up. That place just hasn't been the same since, so sad!

Reper wrote:

Most of you are not very bright. Therefore you are prone to make inane assertions predicated on the bias and narrow prism which is concomitant with your primitive minds. Mediocrity is the norm regarding NFL franchises and the Vikings and Browns were mediocre this year and any assertions to the contrary are inane. Exaggeratiion is another trait which tends to accompany the limited intellectual horsepower you possess.

Browns were far from being a mediocre team this year, and their fans shoul be quite excited right now for what's to come (unless management screws it again of course).

Of course be free to disagree mr dumb-o...

Saints Fan

Never go full retard.... wrote:

Reper wrote:

Most of you are not very bright. Therefore you are prone to make inane assertions predicated on the bias and narrow prism which is concomitant with your primitive minds. Mediocrity is the norm regarding NFL franchises and the Vikings and Browns were mediocre this year and any assertions to the contrary are inane. Exaggeratiion is another trait which tends to accompany the limited intellectual horsepower you possess.

Browns were far from being a mediocre team this year, and their fans shoul be quite excited right now for what's to come (unless management screws it again of course).

Of course be free to disagree mr dumb-o...

Saints Fan

Idiot. The Browns were 7-8-1. That is mediocre. How stupid are you? They might indeed have a bright future but they were mediocre this past season.

kaguare wrote:

Never go full retard.... wrote:

Browns were far from being a mediocre team this year, and their fans shoul be quite excited right now for what's to come (unless management screws it again of course).

Of course be free to disagree mr dumb-o...

Saints Fan

Idiot. The Browns were 7-8-1. That is mediocre. How stupid are you? They might indeed have a bright future but they were mediocre this past season.

Compared to what? Pretty good compared to last year.

Compared to what? wrote:

kaguare wrote:

Idiot. The Browns were 7-8-1. That is mediocre. How stupid are you? They might indeed have a bright future but they were mediocre this past season.

Compared to what? Pretty good compared to last year.

So what? Mediocre is mediocre. They were awful the season before and mediocre in the season that just ended.