In what is surely the first step towards some sort of disciplinary action, Viking Update, by way of Pro Football Talk, reports that the Vikings starting left tackle Bryant McKinnie met with Commish Roger Goodell Friday. As any good Vikings fan knows, McKinnie has had some legal problems this offseason for his part in a brawl outside a Miami nightclub.
It's unlikely McKinnie was meeting with the boss to discuss their alma mater''s respective fight songs.
And as a player who's been in court before for off-the-field misdeeds, it would be surprising if Goodell doesn't slap some sort of suspension on McKinnie. Goodell's made it his personal mission to preserve the league's United Way public image and he's come down hard on players who embarrass themselves and the league by showing up on The Smoking Gun website. Just as ask Pacman Jones. Or half of the Cincinnati Bengals roster.
Anyway, this situation is coming to a head and I think it can only turn out badly for McKinnie and the Vikings. Say what you want about McKinnie (and plenty of Vikings fans have) but he's much, much, much better than Artis Hicks – the guy who will likely replace him. A tackle combination of McKinnie and Ryan Cook protecting Tarvaris Jackson on the edges is more than adequate. A tackle combination of Hicks and Cook doing the same for any length of time is, well,... let's not go there. The Vikings rushing game also will be affected if McKinnie gets suspended. The Vikings run to the left side a lot and have gained most of their yardage the past two seasons on that side. Matt Birk and Steve Hutchinson had a lot to do with that. But so did McKinnie.
Best-case scenario for the Vikings here – McKinnie gets two games. Worst-case scenario – the commish drops the hammer on McKinnie and suspends him for eight or more games. You do not want to lose your starting left tackle (unless he's lousy, which McKinnie was not for most of '07) for any amount of time in the NFL. If Goodell does suspend McKinnie for a long time, it could potentially undo all the good work the Vikings front office accomplished this offseason.
Am I overstating things here? Please feel free to post a convincing argument that I am. I'm starting to develop large sweat stains around the armpits.
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7 comments:
I hope you're overstating the potential problem, but I don't have any convincing arguments for you. To be honest, I'm pretty nervous about this whole thing.
(sigh)
Peter:
Thanks for those re-assuring words.
Well, the whole thing makes me very nervous. Provided Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila recovers from the arthroscopic knee surgery he had last week, Artis Hicks could be facing some stiff competition from him and Dwight Freeney in the first two games of 2008.
I have to disagree about where we gained the most yards last year. The stats at football outsiders (http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol.php) have the Vikes at 9th in adjusted line yards (a proprietary stat over at FO) between the guards, 19th over left tackle, and 10th off the left-end. The discrepancy between off-tackle and wide left probably has to do with McKinnie's specialty, which is the reach-block (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_10_226/ai_83794036/pg_2), where he uses his enormous wingspan to beat a rush-end to the outside. Mount McKinnie sometimes has issues sinking his hips and driving off the ball—hence the lower ranking off-tackle.
That said, replacing McKinnie with Hicks for 2-4 games will have implications in pass-protection and running wide around the left-end. Both of these areas can be mitigated with a tight-end to the weak side, but that will likely impact the passing game.
Worse than losing McKinnie would be losing a part of the strongest section of the Minnesota line, which is the gut: Hutch, Matty B, and Mr. Herrera, who doesn't get the credit he deserves. Last year, we ran 52% of the time up the middle, according to the good folks over at FO.
Even so, I'd rather have McKinnie than Hicks at that crucial left-tackle spot.
VV:
Thanks for the comments. Some good points there. But the reach block? Sinking his hips? You must have me confused with someone who actually knows something about football.
I guess the main point of all this is that if Hicks and Cook make up two of our starting offensive lineman for more than a couple of games than we're in some trouble.
I've found a way to argue for a silver lining.
I had been racking my brain for reasons why the O-line would be as good (or almost as good) without McKinnie, but I was coming up empty. And then I had an epiphany: the mediocre LT would be a blessing in disguise.
Tavaris will either silence the critics firmly by thriving under pressure and making great throws more often to balance the offense (it could happen!), or the pass rush will force T-Jack into scrambling more often, which will awaken his inner Fran Tarkenton and lead to roll outs, buying time and passing when the receivers create chaos down the field and/or Jackson gaining significant yardage on the ground when the pass protection fails.
It'll be beautiful.
Peter:
A quarterback facing more pressure is never a good thing, I'd say. I do wish Jackson would've taken off and run more last season rather than waiting for receivers to get open when they rarely did. The offence might have been a bit more effective if he had. He's a good scrambler and one of the things I really like about him is that he refuses to slide when defenders get near him. Perhaps that's the Canadian hockey player mentality in me.
Unfortunately, that also increases the chances Jackson takes a Shawn Merriman knee in the head (like last year) and gets sidelined. So here's hoping when he does have to run next season that he learns how to slide.
Yeah, it's cool when he doesn't slide, but ultimately better for the team when he does.
Same kind of thing with Peterson. When he hits a defender on the sideline knowing he's going out of bounds either way, I'd like to see him start taking the safer move. Even if it costs half a yard. He can hit and drag defenders up the middle all he wants.
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