Vikings Notes: Ndamukong Suh, David Blough, Kirk Cousins MVP Buzz
It's a busy time in Minnesota Vikings land with the massive season opener against the Packers coming up on Sunday.
Setting the Packers aside for a second — there's plenty of preview content for that game coming on this site — let's run through a few different noteworthy Vikings items from across the internet.
The latest on the Vikings and Ndamukong Suh
One of the NFL's most notable remaining free agents heading into Week 1 is 35-year-old defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, the five-time Pro Bowler who had six sacks last season. Back in June, reports surfaced that the Vikings had engaged in conversations with Suh. Since then, there hasn't been much news on that front.
Until now, via Vikings insider Darren Wolfson.
"There have been new talks," Wolfson said on SKOR North. "My sense is those talks have been initiated by Suh's camp, not by the Vikings. Here's where we stand: the Vikings would happily take Ndamukong Suh. This is something I've said for weeks. The Vikings are not budging off the veteran minimum. But Ndamukong Suh is looking for far more than the veteran minimum. The two sides are just staring each other down."
This clearly is still an interesting situation to monitor. Suh would be a nice pickup for the Vikings' defensive line, which is currently relying on Jonathan Bullard and Ross Blacklock for depth behind Harrison Phillips and Dalvin Tomlinson. Suh is a proven interior pass rusher who still has some gas left in the tank. However, the Vikings don't have much cap space to work with right now, which explains why they don't want to offer Suh more than the veteran minimum.
Things could change in the coming weeks. If the Vikings feel like they need a boost to their interior pass rush after watching it in regular season action, they might suddenly becoming willing to create some cap space — they could restructure Eric Kendricks' contract, for example — and up their offer to Suh. We'll see. For now, it's a waiting game.
Dan Campbell wasn't thrilled the Vikings landed David Blough
This year's season of Hard Knocks on HBO, featuring the Detroit Lions, was excellent. And the Vikings made a bit of a cameo appearance in the season finale, which aired on Tuesday.
Quarterback David Blough got plenty of Hard Knocks screen time as he competed for the Lions' backup quarterback job. Eventually, Detroit decided to waive both Blough and Tim Boyle and sign Nate Sudfeld to be their backup instead. They wanted to bring Blough back on their practice squad, but he signed with the Vikings' PS.
Head coach Dan Campbell wasn't thrilled with that development, even if he knew it was possible Blough would explore a different opportunity.
"You saw we lost Blough to Minnesota?" Campbell said in a phone conversation shown on the episode. "I know. It's like the worst — like that's the absolute worst that could've happened. I think he feels like this is a dead-end street here, where there he may still have a chance to compete as the No. 2 eventually. I just talked to him. It was hard, he was shook up. I told him 'Hey, I get it, I understand.'"
Campbell's reaction tells you a bit about how he views Blough. I'd assume that had as much to do with losing him as a depth quarterback as it did with a division rival adding someone who knows their offense very well. Blough should be an asset to the Vikings in meetings heading into their Week 3 matchup with the Lions.
Later in the episode, Blough is shown in his Vikings practice gear at TCO Performance Center.
"For me, it's about proving to myself that every single day, I can keep getting better," he said. "Being a part of an organization that's going to allow me to compete, being able to go to a new organization, see a new culture, be around a new group of guys, and be a part of building something special with Coach O'Connell is something that was enticing to me. I'm looking forward to getting this thing going, learning as best I can, and being a part of it."
MVP buzz for...Kirk Cousins?
It feels like every year, before the NFL season begins, some national analyst goes out on a limb and throws Kirk Cousins' name into the MVP conversation. And every year, he doesn't end up anywhere close. Cousins has always been capable of playing at an MVP level for a game or a few games in a row, but he's never done it for anywhere close to a full season.
Well, it's happening again. Courtesy of Michael Irvin:
And Kyle Brandt:
Well then.
It's pretty interesting to juxtapose two big names at NFL Media picking Cousins to win MVP with the reality of how most analysts view him. Here's where Cousins landed in several recent QB power rankings:
- 15th (Survey of NFL people by Mike Sando, The Athletic)
- 15th (Steven Ruiz, The Ringer)
- 13th (Cody Benjamin, CBS Sports)
- 12th (Kevin Cole, PFF)
- 14th (Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News)
Is there a conceivable world where Cousins takes a big step forward under Kevin O'Connell, the Vikings win 11 or 12 games, and he's in the MVP conversation? Sure.
But actually winning the MVP award? In a league with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Justin Herbert? It would take an unbelievable season from Cousins, which would go against everything we know about him. Cousins is 59-59-2 as a starter in his career and always has poor stretches of play to balance out the great stretches. Expecting that to change in his eighth year as a starter, at 34 years old, seems foolish.
Not even O'Connell is expecting a huge leap forward from Cousins.
"If you’re talking statistically, if you’re talking playing the position, I don’t necessarily think that my expectation is a ‘huge step forward’ for Kirk," O'Connell said. "But my expectation is that he plays the position really well. And he’s going to be our leader on offense and taking care of all the things that he can be as an extension of me and our coaching staff out on the field."
The reality is that Cousins is +5000 to win MVP, according to Vegas odds. It's extremely unlikely.
That makes you think Irvin and Brandt's picks are more about content and engagement than what they truly believe will happen, which is understandable.
Thanks for reading. Make sure to bookmark this site and check back daily for the latest Vikings news and analysis all offseason long. Also, follow me on Twitter and feel free to ask me any questions on there.
